Show me how you mounted your solar panels

I followed what Mello Mike did with his wolf creek, got some 3m double sided tape and put under the Z bracket then used 1 inch stainless steel wood screws. Then put a lot of Dicor around each bracket. You can go to his web site and read about the install.

Stainless L Bracket held on by VHB and sealed with Dicor

hedge wrote:
I've purchased a couple panels and now need to figure out how to mount them. They came with some cheesy brackets that I may use or i may make my own.

I'm mostly concerned with the attachment to the roof. I have a rubber roof and I think the roof is covered in 3/8 plywood. It is a walk on roof so it may be a bit thicker.

Just not sure if screws are good enough or if I should be using well nuts or some sort of expanding anchor.

No matter how you mount them, if you winter camp (even in the warm southwest) seriously consider including the ability to tilt them. The low angle winter sun will severely limit the output of your panels - tilting them can triple the output.

Cut angle brackets shown in above photo, are aluminum. And using the 1/4-20 plastic knob fasteners, the panels are easily tilted using "tilt rods" made from 1/4" x 3/4" aluminum flat bar cut to length needed for max tilt. Mine have 3 sets of holes on the one end for 3 different tilt angles.
A total of 6 knob fasteners are needed for each tiltable panel.
I tilt only in the south/winter on longer term stays.

Do you mean the Z brackets? My panels came with the Z brackets and I used them to mount the panels, put down a bed of Dicor, screwed the mount into the roof plywood with a 2 or 3" deck screw then covered the mount and screw head with more Dicor. Panels are still tight after a couple years and 5000 miles of towing.

One thing to remember when screwing the mounts to the roof is the screws will get tight but not tight enough to stop turning until you have compressed the rubber roofing. I didn't think it was a good idea to smash the roofing creating a divot where the mount is and putting stress on the rubber around the mount so I tightened the screw until I could start to see the mount compress the rubber and stopped.

No, didn't mean Z brackets.
There was talk of tilting.
Z brackets are fine, but cannot be tilted.

I atached my panel by driling holes right thru the roof and used long bolts with big washers on the inside,,sealed the hole with silicone caulking while inserting the bolts..
Used hinges on one side to make it tiltable..
Roof is 1/4 inch plywood coated with epoxy paint..never moves.

2oldman wrote:
Members Solar Installations With Pics

Exactly.

TT with rubber roof is one thing, TC is another, fiberglass roof is a different creature again.

There are 2 main categories: Z brackets attached to the frame bottom, and L-brackets attached to the sides.

And then there are all kinds of unorthodox designs and deviations :) like piano hinges, cross-bars under the frame and so on. I actually like some of those, but for lack of imagination mine are L-brackets with rivetnuts in the sides. Can be tilted to the sides but I only do this for roof cleaning.