Solar for Northern Lite 811 ???? Pictures?

The ease and options for mounting the panels depends upon the type of roof installed on your model and year camper. It may be aluminum over wood or TPO over 1/4" luan as with mine or fiberglass over foam or oriented strand board. If it is aluminum or fiberglass the VHB type of tape is the easiest approach and with no fastener penetrations the safest as well.

Need to determine where to bring the wiring from the panel or panels into the camper and where to install a charge controller and the wiring to and from the charge controller and the battery bank as where you will install a monitor display if you want this.

After a very involved installation on my Lance 845 of two 100 Watt panels, a C-box, Blue Sky controller, and a second battery in a rack welded under the camper, and running large gauge wiring all through the camper, I would recommend starting by installing a TriMetric charge monitoring device so you can determine your exact needs. After I installed a similar device I found that the factory provided LED display showed the batteries at 100% when they were actually at 90%. That amount of error is very misleading.

If you need 200 AH of battery capacity to make it through your day and night time peak usage then you need to be able to add 200 AH of charging capacity from the solar panels. If you only need to replace 100 AH of charge then the panel output requirements are cut in half.

Panels are made for residential and commercial installations and most are too large for a camper roof. Two exceptions are the 100 Watt panels from Amsolar.com and the 140 Watt Kyocera panel. Both are 17.7v Voc output so can mix and match in an installation.

AMsolar is a good place for advice and for equipment and installation kits. There kits seem expensive but when you only need to buy what you need of items that otherwise sell in large rolls or large pack quantities and factor in your time the AMsolar kits are a good value. If a kit has 10' of cable and you need 16' they will cut a 16' length and you pay only for the extra feet you actually need.

I contacted two camper and one RV dealer in my area and spoke with their tech service people and after that I decided to do it myself as they were completely clueless in terms of the electrical aspects and how to best fasten the panels on the roof.

Appreciate in your planning that if you have a panel that provides enough to charge your battery bank in 4-8 hours that is good enough. Having more output and the ability to recharge in 2-4 hours buys you nothing.

FYI - re 3M VHB tape - I have tested (beyond) the limits and it failed spectacularly.

I used VHB tape to attach amsolar's "Rocker Feet" with my 120w & 80w panels about 4 years ago - mounted on fiberglass roof (Bigfoot TC). No screws were used, only VHB tape (2"x1" on each mounting "foot").

All was well with absolutely no problems until May 20, 2013. That was the day my TC and truck were struck by a tornado with peak velocity reported to be at least 210mph. VHB tape failed - panels were ripped from the roof never to be seen again. Needless to say, there was other damage to TC & truck as well - but most damage has been repaired.

Botton line - VHB tape can fail - it's not bullet (or wind) proof!

I've used VHB tape for both of my RV solar installations, an Airstream and my Wolf Creek 850 TC. I bought my VHB tape from AM Solar. It's surprising how strong the tape is. All of my solar panel mounting brackets were fastened using both VHB tape, a large screw, and covered with dicor. Cleanliness of the surface before using the tape is essential. The dicor ensures a watertight seal to prevent the tape from working loose from moisture.

VHB tape is also recommended for both aluminum and fiberglass surfaces.




This picture shows how much tape I used and size screw before covering the bracket footing with dicor.

When I bought my TC in November of 2002 the Factory PVSolar panel was glued to the Aluminum roof... it worked great. rigid... no screws, just that nuclear glue strips.

In 2005 Lance replaced my roof with heavy TPO. IT is better than te aluminum it replaced... nothing damages it.

PROBLEM:

The Tape won't stick to my TPO... but will stick to the panels of course.

And if I was able to attach it to the TPO the panels would move up and down in the wind...

(The TPO is like the bead spread on your bed, it is only attached at the edges)

I attached my panels to the luggage rack... Click here for the complete installation


Some of the thinner TPO roofs have a fuzzy nap to glue the TPO to the roof( I watched Bob Merher's crews glue one down on a 2007 Snow River truck camper roof as they were building it)

I realize that TCNTN won't have this problem but many other reading this thread will.

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My PVSolar LUGGAGE MOUNT and wind deflector to avoid TPO and more important raise the panels to allow heat to dissapate.. Panel temperatures above 77 degrres F or 25 degrres C will degrade the output to the batteries,



The wind foil is all from scrap PVC...I hope it doesn't look junkie. I prevents the front of the panels from lifting... it is attached to the luggage rack too.

My bucket and hose are on the roof... needed to wash it before we headed for Canada and New England... I'd like to keep Tennessee's clean and nice image among their first empressions of our truck camper

Sleepy

Here is what a rack mount of solar looks like, complements of Dave1131:



Here's the link to his roof rack install for all you naysayers:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/23873134.cfm


Jim

VHB tape is great as long as the surface is flat.
When I was in the process of deciding how to mount my panels on the BigFoot I found that my 3x3 aluminum angle stock would not sit flat on my arched top of the camper. Thus I could not use the VHB tape.

So when you get your mounting brackets and have decided to use the VHB tape make sure that the brackets sit flat on the roof.

Also you should use the thin VHB tape. The thin is stronger than the thicker, foam filled tape.



Here is a link to a thread that has pictures of my installation.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24783458/gotomsg/24786385.cfm#24786385



Jim

....wow.I just saw a 3M demo (in Europe) where VHB 3M tape was used to bond a string of train cars to a locomotive, and pull them....this is the ultimate tensile strength test.

I'd never heard of VHB industrial tape. Thanks for the reference to it!

3M makes rolls of this material up to 24-inches wide: here-->

This tape would be interesting adhesive not only for mounting solar panels, but to mount metal roof-top roof vent flanges (the thicker VHB). There s also a VHB surface cleaner to use to prep the 2 surfaces to be bonded.

In fact, after some quick research, 3M VHB 4910 is used exclusively to assemble several manufacturer's aluminum-framed contractor trailer shells to the fiberglass or metal sheathing (!!!). Have a look at the assembly of a trailer shell with VHB tape alone (read: absolutely no screws, rivets or liquid adhesive) here-->

So, Flyfisher's use of this super bonding tape for his roof-top solar panel mount adhesive looks like an EXCELLENT application.

Silver-

sleepy wrote:
I would never suggest that PVSolar panels be mounted on the verticle sides of your camper or other RV's... when your camper is parked at a museum, or at a boat ramp... or even a State Fair... or Capital Building... or you are just traveling down the road... you want to have that expensive solar working for you...get every minute of available sun on the solar cells and into the battery cells

This is a fact: There will be many times that you won't use your PVSolar panels or your generator if you have to set them up... you'll get by without them. Sun ready PVSolar panels and built in generators are a welcome luxury.

This is a valid point. Most people probably don't want to mess around moving their panels. I spend winters in Florida and dry camp 100%. When I get to a campsite I remove my panels from the side of my coach and set them out in the sun. This allows me to park in the shade and still get full charge from my panels.

I have 2x125w panels installed by the factory on a 2012 10-2. One is just aft and parallel to the heike vent. The 2nd is mounted on the curb side running lengthwise towards the rear. The camper does not have a luggage rack.