Hitch mount for Pole to mount solar panel

Not knocking your idea, but my only thought is how will you keep the panel stable in the wind? I've never seen one mounting on a pole, maybe for that reason.

Ron3rd wrote:
Not knocking your idea, but my only thought is how will you keep the panel stable in the wind? I've never seen one mounting on a pole, maybe for that reason.

You're right about that, it's a sail and could damage the MH if not strong, secure and not too high. Oh, and not too close to the MH.

One of the posters here uses the hitch to hold his panels, just not raised. I'd love to do a pole mount on the tongue of my trailer but it would have to be as sturdy as regular ground mounts. I don't see a flag pole cutting it.

Here's how I'd build it, if I can describe it.

Assumption is that you have a 2" hitch receiver.

Get two pieces of 1-1/2" galvanized pipe about 2' long and a 90 deg ell. The 1-1/2" pipe will have an OD of 1.9". One of them fill fit nicely into the hitch receiver. Put it in and mark where the hitch pin holes hit it so you can drill a hole through the pipe.

When you get the two pieces of pipe, one will be cut from the threaded end of a 10' piece of pipe so it will already be threaded. On the second piece, you'll need them to thread one end. See below, you may want to have both ends threaded.

Screw the two pieces of pipe into the 90 deg ell. Use some anti-seeze compound if you have it so that you can take them apart later if you want to.

Now, since the pipe is round vs using square tubing in the receiver, when you put it in the receiver, you can rotate your mast. Take whatever you're going to use for the mast put it in the 1-1/2 inch of pipe. If you're using 1" pipe, you can either just set it in the upright section of 1-1/2" pipe or you can get both ends of that piece of pipe threaded and use some fittings (bellreducer) to reduce it down to 1" for your mast.

If you wanted to use 1-1/2" pipe for your mast also, then all you need is the 2' pc, the 90 deg ell and the 10' pc for the mast.

Put the pipe assembly (two pcs of pipe and ell) into the receiver, but don't put the bolt in yet. Screw your mast to assy, and then assemble your solar panels on the mast and tip it up-right. Tipping the assy up gives you more control and less weight to lift than trying to lift everything up onto your receiver mount.

Tip it upright, hold it, and have someone insert the bolt through the receiver to hold it upright.

Bill

Poles and Holders make a variety of mounts that can be adapted to your needs
They make these for Sat Dishes maybe they can be adapted for your use.

Corky the owner might have an Idea too,he is a very inovative guy. You might give him a call.

Trackrig wrote:
Here's how I'd build it, if I can describe it.

Assumption is that you have a 2" hitch receiver.

Get two pieces of 1-1/2" galvanized pipe about 2' long and a 90 deg ell. The 1-1/2" pipe will have an OD of 1.9". One of them fill fit nicely into the hitch receiver. Put it in and mark where the hitch pin holes hit it so you can drill a hole through the pipe.

When you get the two pieces of pipe, one will be cut from the threaded end of a 10' piece of pipe so it will already be threaded. On the second piece, you'll need them to thread one end. See below, you may want to have both ends threaded.

Screw the two pieces of pipe into the 90 deg ell. Use some anti-seeze compound if you have it so that you can take them apart later if you want to.



Now, since the pipe is round vs using square tubing in the receiver, when you put it in the receiver, you can rotate your mast. Take whatever you're going to use for the mast put it in the 1-1/2 inch of pipe. If you're using 1" pipe, you can either just set it in the upright section of 1-1/2" pipe or you can get both ends of that piece of pipe threaded and use some fittings (bellreducer) to reduce it down to 1" for your mast.

If you wanted to use 1-1/2" pipe for your mast also, then all you need is the 2' pc, the 90 deg ell and the 10' pc for the mast.

Put the pipe assembly (two pcs of pipe and ell) into the receiver, but don't put the bolt in yet. Screw your mast to assy, and then assemble your solar panels on the mast and tip it up-right. Tipping the assy up gives you more control and less weight to lift than trying to lift everything up onto your receiver mount.

Tip it upright, hold it, and have someone insert the bolt through the receiver to hold it upright.

That's a great idea too. My neighbor says when I'm ready, he will help make something that will handle the load. So I will update this in the near future.

Why?

You really do not need to 'fiddle' with the solar system anymore to draw out every last peak watt of power. You can buy a 140 watt panel for $229. Save your money for solar panels, and spend $35 or less for a 20 amp PWM controller, not $100 for the MPPT type. Mount the panels to the roof flat. Keep it really simple, mount them with about 1" of air under the panels to allow air to keep them cool as possible.

Do not worry about the extra 10% more power you might collect by pointing the panels toward the sun, and angle them to the correct angle all the time. Have fun sightseeing! Leave them flat, do not go up on the roof more than required.

Here is my post from a few days ago. It shows the mounts, made from 6" long piece of 2" angle aluminum. Less than $10 for the 4 mounts!

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Here is a picture of my roof coating on my Bounder. it has close ups of the solar mounts, and shows one of the larger and much longer tilt arms on the small pair of panels. (so it is tilted about 90 degrees while I was working under it).

It also shows the tamper resistant 1/4-20 stainless steel bolts and 'nutserts' that are riveted into the panel frames. You can google Nutsert on Youtube and see how they are installed. You can buy nutserts at Grainger.com

I had to rivet a bracket onto the front solar panel near the sidewall, so that it makes up for the extreme roof taper to the sidewall, due to them being so close to the side of the RV. 120 watt panels are 'huge' in the front. I can not imagine how large a 200 would be up there.

The air under the panels helps keep them much cooler, and you get more amperage from them when they are cooler. Best amperage I ever got was at Thanksgiving at 4,500' elevation, with light snow on the roof reflecting additional light onto the panels, that where tilted south at about 45 degrees.

Golden_HVAC wrote:

rickthescot wrote:
Sounds like a great idea. I guess asking for pictures again is not going to persuade you though. We are visual creatures and I don't think 1000 words will accomplish what one image will. You can do it, just one pic.

More pictures that I took a few days ago to post pictures of my solar panels, and their mounts. Some pictures are really close up pictures of the solar panel mounts, and give a clear picture of howrough the surface is.

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Hi,

This is my front pair of panels. 120 watt mounted on a curved roof, 102" wide.



This is the mount it is held on with three rivets into the frame, and then the bottom half is 6" long aluminum, with nutsert in the upper piece, bolt you can not see from the outside edge pointing inward.









This picture shows the bigfoot panel mount sold by RvSolarElectric for $35 a set back in 1994. I wonder what they cost today?


This picture shows the panels tilted while I was working on the roof.

Fred.

Golden HVAC, my DW doesn't want me to touch the roof of the new MH when we get it, at least until the warranty runs out. I have a Renogy 100watt suitcase and don't like leaving it unattended during the day while we are out. With the hitch pole mount I can at least lock it up somewhat and maybe even alarm it.

Any good welding shop can weld up what ya want out of thin wall 2 inch tubing . Even hinge the upright at the middle so it is not so hard to handle .

Hitch mounted solar:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26892553.cfm