Solar panel on roof?

Mine is flat. I have no idea which way I'll be parked from one site to the next. I normally only camp from late spring to early fall anyway when the sun is fairly high in the sky. If i did a lot of winter camping I might have mounted it differently.
To me it's not worth the expense, complication, and effort to make the panel tiltable.

Ours are portable....yes, a PITA, too, but we can camp anywhere....under trees or facing north, south, east or west.

I'll be mounting my solar here soon I hope. I'll squeezed three big panels on the roof trying to avoid the need for tilting.

There is nothing hard about making them tiltable. The only difference is making some tilt rods, on not making tilt rods.

Yeah, tilting is a pit of a pain. but worth it if not moving for a week or more.

Always thought they needed to be flat while underway but could be tilted when parked, right?

My OFF-ROAD POPUP CAMPER roof doesn't support any drilling into the roof area except on the edges.

I will want to do something like these google photos mounting two 100 or 120WATT PANELS on the front of the roof area on either side of the fantastic fan and then a larger 240WATT panel on the rear roof area.

Also my roof use an electric motor to raise the roof when setting up and it already has a 13,500 Roof Mounted Air Conditioner so I will most likely have a weight problem when raising the roof. I am hoping the two smaller front mounted solar panels will be ok and perhaps the larger rear mounted solar panel will have to added after the roof is raise at the camp site. This panel could serve as my portable solar panel to setup on the ground as needed...

I want to mount the ALUMINUM mounted UNISTRUT sections across the roof where needed and bolt these in place on the roof edges or maybe even using a mounting support down the sides of the roof. I have already mounted several things on the side of the roof up near the top with no problems with screws doing damage. I can actually go all the thru the side panel and use bolts with washers and nut on the inside if necessary.

These photos from google search pretty much show what I may have to deal with getting my two solar frames mounted across the roof of my POPUP. Working with the POPUP roof in the down position will make it a piece of cake getting it all mounted.







NOTE The spring loaded sliding nuts inside the UNISTRUT will allow for easy mounting of the panels with their right angle supports.

Roy Ken

Correct, for the most part. But on long stays, I leave them in the tilted position while going to get propane and dump & water, They are perfectly solid & safe traveling in the tilted position, but the cables may not like the hi speed travel, and the height may be a problem too.

sch911 wrote:
Always thought they needed to be flat while underway but could be tilted when parked, right?

Keep in mind, the panels are mounted lengthwise the RV, tiltable to either side, requiring the RV to be parked facing either N or S. If you are forced to park E or W, leave them flat, no biggee, it still works, just not as good.

I face east.

Some tilt is good to shed water and dirt.