Home solar panel on RV...anyone attempted?

westend wrote:
An alternative to using a panel rail system:


The three "rails" that are attached to the trailer roof are 1 1/2" aluminum architectural channel. The panel in it's horizontal position attach with pins into these three channels. When tilted, the panel attaches to the channels on one end and the tilt struts are attached to the hole on the other end of the channel.

In this four-way tilt mechanism the panel is actually mounted to 1 1/2" aluminum angle and the angles are attached to hinges, as is the panel. That provides the opposed tilt angle. As I said, a simple two way or one way tilt is probably all that is needed.

Hinges:


If you wish to achieve a very engineered solution to storing the tilt struts, design the tilting mechanism so that the struts are stored within the mechanism. I did a good bit of head scratching to make that possible.

A large part of the solar installation should deal with 12V distribution and wiring. You may wish to use bus bars, disconnect switches, and circuit protection, to name a few.

I like it! Thanks for sharing. I was thinking of something along those lines (minus the 3rd and 4th tilt angles) but, it's going to depend on exactly where my trusses lie. Once it stops raining maybe I'll get a chance to go measure. Obviously, depending on how many hours of sun your system gets will determine how many AH you're putting back into you batteries. But, on average what is the total amp hours your system is able to put back into your batteries?