Mounting solar

[waynefi]

For those of you with rooftop solar, how do you mount the panel to avoid leaks?

How do you route the cable?

Where do you put the controller?

Where does it actually wire in (which side off the cutoff switch)?

I have a suitcase solar panel, which avoids all these questions.

[time2roll]

Dicor seals the holes.
Cable routed down the fridge vent.
My controller is in the front storage compartment.
Wired direct on the battery terminals.

Suitcase solar would be too small and a pitn the entire time I camp.

[2oldman]

Screws and lots of dicor.

[RollandB]

Mounted ours like noted above using Dicor Self Leveling below the bracket, then above it to seal all including the screws.

Using the wall between the bathroom and living room in our fifth wheel where the 1 1/2” abs vent line runs, drilled a hole in the roof to run the wire down the wall and into the basement pass through area. Located a combiner box on the roof to connect three roof panels, then sealed it with Dicor. Three years and no leaks

[RJsfishin]

Don't adhesive to rubber roof !
If you scared to drill holes in your roof, its hard to help you
And you don't need fuses or CBs between panels and controller.
You can come down thru Fridge vent.
Mount controller close to batteries, or use larger wires
Make panels tiltable if needed

[HadEnough]

TomG2 wrote:
Might not be for everyone, but I have had great results using Extreme Velcro to hold panels on a fiberglas truck topper and an aluminum topped travel trailer. Love the "No hole" system and they could be removed and used as portables, although I have not done that. I like to try different things than most.

This is what I was thinking of doing. The previous owner screwed things into the roof. I wanted to just use VHB tape or 5200.

But... My roof is a vinyl type material (Artic Fox truck camper) so I am worried I'll delaminate/peel the vinyl stuff if I mount using adhesive methods.

Anyone have experience with that?

[TomG2]

Might not be for everyone, but I have had great results using Extreme Velcro to hold panels on a fiberglas truck topper and an aluminum topped travel trailer. Love the "No hole" system and they could be removed and used as portables, although I have not done that. I like to try different things than most.

[Itinerant1]

As mentioned above


Been almost 3 years and traveled near 30k miles. Still tight and no leaks. 😉

[agesilaus]

agesilaus wrote:

HadEnough wrote:
How do you mount the panels to the roof?

I had some Aluminum Channel stock and I just cut sections from that for the mounts and used some flat galvanized steel strips to connect the channel to the panels.

I used Dicor under the channel and screwed them to the roof with #10 SS sheet metal screws.

[agesilaus]

HadEnough wrote:
How do you mount the panels to the roof?

I had some Aluminum Channel stock and I just cut sections from that for the mounts and used some flat galvanized steel strips to connect the channel to the panels.

[HadEnough]

How do you mount the panels to the roof?

[Lwiddis]

“I have a suitcase solar panel, which avoids all these questions. ”

It sure does! Love those suitcase panels! Put it out in the morning an hour after my roof mounted panels are charging me up. Move it around for the sun until lunch, then bring it inside for a town lunch provided it hasn’t been stolen. Return to camp after a great lunch and put it out. Move around for sun. Put it away at dusk. Do this EVERY camping day. What fun!

[agesilaus]

How do you route the cable?

Across the rooftop using solar cable. A couple of blobs of Dicor roof sealant hold it down. Into a junction box on the roof to 10 gauge wire inside some PEX 3/4 in tubing which was just handy, then down thru a bulkhead seal

Where do you put the controller?

In the Basement, wires go to circuit breakers then controller