POPUPs with Solar Panels added to roof

This being the second round looking for some comments I'm guessing no one has done this yet with a OFF-ROAD POPUP....

Thanks anyway....


Roy Ken

I guess I would run coiled wire. It might not look the best but would be suitable for me. If you can get 10 gauge should work.

Hey RoyB, Sorry I don't have any experience in this area (yet). I would like to one day.

Attaching support arms to the roof's sideboards is easy enough. But then, as you say, keeping the awning intact is a challenge. And from your picture, it looks like the awning bag pretty much goes almost completely from the front end to the rear end.

I still think it possible to do roof cargo carrier bars attached to the sideboards. And you'll have to be the eyes on the ground for your specific setup but when considering similar for mine, I have come to the conclusion that I can cut two slits in the awning's bag where I need to position the support arms. These slits would be right below the plastic bead used to slide into the track. I would technically be cutting the awning too but it doesn't look like water would be a problem when the awning was deployed. Water while sitting outside or going down the road might be a problem, though as it can get inside the bag and stay there until you open the bag up sometime later.

More likely is that I will cut a slit in the shoulder of the rubber that slides into the track mounted to the roof. I'm thinking a razor utility knife for the cutting. This will cut through stitches on mine but due to recent experiences, I now know how to use the Speedy Stitch Awl. I have used Super Glue with great success to "lock" any stitching that gets cut to keep it from unraveling. I would then use the Speedy Stitch to reinforce the stitching running right up to the slits.

Either option requires cutting into the awning. If you don't use the awning so much and/or switch over to using an EZup or other fast deploying canopy, you can just pull the awning off altogether.

OR...

You put holes in the roof. Properly sealed, this should not cause a problem. It won't be as strong of a hold going into the thin metal skin of the roof unless you can hit one of the possible integral wood roof supports.

You're stuck with making a choice.

Upon further review, it looks like your awning does not attach above the black screw trim strip. It looks like it is attached to the sideboard slightly below the screw trip strip. If that's the case, I would look at utilizing that area. Generally, that strip goes into a wood substrate. You could look at doing an upside down T bracket where the horizontal piece of the T runs along the line of that trim strip. Something like
or


As for cabling it up while allowing it to charge when travelling, a couple of thoughts. One is to just run them along the screw trim strip on the road side of the roof line up to the front deck area, drop them down the front roadside corner of the box onto the deck area and have enough coiled up so that you can just uncoil them as you raise the roof. This leaves them with solid connections and the least electronic resistance when attaching to the solar controller and further connections to the batteries. Just secure the coil for transit.
The other thought is to use the quick connect connectors common to solar installations. Run the cables the same way along the roof line, drop them down the front but somewhere around the seam between the roof gasket and the hard bottom, put a quick connector connection point there. The rest of that connection is a short cable section that runs straight to the charge controller/batteries.
Then, when you get to the camp site, you disconnect that, insert the "extension" section that is long enough for raising the roof and then raise the roof.
While this might have a cleaner look when the PUP is down, it has risks such as forgetting to disconnect the short version and insert the extension before you crank it up. Possible cord or other damage may result. It also introduces extra junctions for the electrical flow, probably increasing resistance.

You also have to decide where it makes sense to install the solar charger controller. You could put it in a weatherproof box and mount it to the rails up on the roof and just run one cable pair (+/-) down to the batteries and save some cable cost. I don't think I would go that route as you can't inspect and check the condition of the controller unless you pop the roof down. I would probably go with a weatherproof box somewhere on or under but within easy access of your deck.

Of course, you can route the cabling through the interior of the PUP and have the controller inside but you'll still have to deal with cabling coming in and out of the PUP. I have ideas on that but they are complicated by your desire to charge while closed up.

Of course, this is all an arm chair exercise for me. I have walked around the PUP with this problem in mind but I've not put anything to paper or picked up a tool yet. Let us know what you end up doing.

I would much rather attach something to the side of my roof than just in the top. Less chance of leakeage and it offers a little more strength. But, if that's not available, just seal it up good! TTs have a lot of stuff on their roofs and stay dry if maintained well.

I think I have a just come up with a good plan... I have two rain gutters on both ends that are level and goes from the front to the back. This is a VEE ALUMINUM DRAIN.

I can sit a 3/4-inch round aluminum tube into the VEE just perfect. Then can drop maybe 4each 1/4-20 bolts thru each side and use wing nuts. This would allow me to build up an light weight aluminum frame about 176" x 84" and could run more 84-inch cross sections for more support. Could just lay my solar panels on top of this frame real easy maybe...

My roof is level across the roof but has about a one-inch slope from the center to both ends. Using this method I would not touch the roof at all...

All of my wiring would follow the aluminum frame and penetrate the side walls of the roof to go where they need to go.

I'm almost thinking since I have this aluminum frame idea to work with maybe portable type solar panels might be a good choice. Could easily sit them on the aluminum frame or do the angle thing on the ground sitting out in the sun... Being that all of my setup work will be before I raise the roof then both feet are on the ground. Makes it real easy to work without hanging around on a ladder of some sort...

My two VEE rain gutters is supported with screws about every two inches all the way across the end of the roof so it will support

I use these two gutter already when I hang up my poor man GIZMO's as shown here. I just lay the tarps over the VEE and use a stretch rope over the top of the tarp to hold things in place in the VEE channel.


The only thing that need some thinking about going this method is how to support the 176-Inch aluminum frame going in-line to the end to end roof line. Just using a pad of some some sort probably would tear the fiberglass on the roof eventually. I can use L shape support from the side wall in the back but would have to deal with awning from the front side. Make can notch out the awning bag for the couple of supports I will need. My awning bag is bad at them moment any way. Right now I am just strapping the whole contents of the bag rolled up on top of the roof and then I can carefully extend it out to setup the awning. My bag is almost totally unraveled now. This was delivered in 2008. I was wanting to re-tread like you have Bondebond haha... Might be a good trip to ARKANSAS for that huh...

AFter getting the mounting of the solar panels covered then I have to think about how to route the cables. It just might be best to just plug long cables into a socket already mounted on the bottom half after it is set up. Having the long cables with plugs would also allow me to charge batteries when I am in the travel mode as well.

Roy Ken

Bondebond - My awning follows the roof line just under the side edge. There is also a rubber boot in the grove that follows the same line on both sides of the trailer. I do however have a little over one-inch of space before the awning track start and end following the roof line. I could use this area for a one-inch wide metal side support to hold up a roof frame on the four corners of the roof.

The rubber boot slot starting at the top of the roof and down to the slot that holds the awning bag is about 1/2-inch wide. One could mount a metal strap in the area I suppose. and clear the awning bag.

Adding roof frame supports in the middle of the line will be a problem on the awning side. My Air conditioner is almost centered on the roof so a side to side support on either side of the air conditioner should probably be all I would need. I would also need to to support the weight on the aluminum frame is these two areas as well. Then the aluminum frame would be supported in four places on each side of the frame. Probably three support on side to side at the ends should be enough. These side to side supports are 7 feet long going across the the roof. I bet I will need one support to the roof itself in the middle of this run. bummer...

May have to experiment with a roof pad glued to the roof so it won't do movement and cause damage to the roof material. I think the total weight on a 120WATT solar panel is around 20lbs...

Roy Ken

I am also just now thinking of adding another probably 100lbs weight to the roof of my POPUP by adding three 120WATT panels. I tried out my POPUP roof raising before they added the air conditioner at the dealer and it came up real fast no strain or pain. Then after the dealer added the 13,500 air conditioner it now pops and cracks abit when going up. This may be a game killer haha...

May have to go with portable solar panels after all...

Roy Ken

haha

RoyB wrote:
I am also just now thinking of adding another probably 100lbs weight to the roof of my POPUP by adding three 120WATT panels. I tried out my POPUP roof raising before they added the air conditioner at the dealer and it came up real fast no strain or pain. Then after the dealer added the 13,500 air conditioner it now pops and cracks abit when going up. This may be a game killer haha...

May have to go with portable solar panels after all...

Roy Ken

Another option might be to make the mounts on the roof so that it's easy to remove or add the modules (mine is pinned). A guy could raise the roof and then attach the modules. Lowering shouldn't be an issue. PITA, moving them around but it would allow for your almost maxed out roof raisers to get the job done.

hmmm was typing along and it all went away. May have two posts here when I am done haha...

Great idea WESTEND... I really haven't looked at the portable solar panels but I do see they come in big sizes like 100WATT or bigger. That might be a good plan as well... Go ahead with my aluminum frame mounts and designed for the solar panels mounting... I'm sure I can come up with a quick install idea.

I was looking at a Australia site that was showing thin solar panel stripe you can mount or sew -in to tent fabric. Seems like down-under has solar panels on everything they make there... When you got lots of sun why not hehe..

I always like to park my OFF-ROAD POPUP under tree cover anyway so having the portable mounting idea may have some good points for these times as well...

This will definitely make me plan for outside DC POWER connections just for SOLAR PANELS like Bondebond is suggesting...

I already have a couple of these for my next battery upgrade from ETRAILER. Not sure I will need 4AWG however...


Additionally my OFF-ROAD trailer tongue is already equipped with a 4AWG 2-cond plug like shown here that is planned to be connected to my truck bed additional battery bank install.

Roy Ken