All ActivityMost RecentMost LikesSolutionsRe: Trailer Springs in Mexicali, Mexico??I ended up leaving the trailer in San Felipe and driving to San Diego where I was able to purchase all new springs. Left in the morning and was back at about 10pm. I got a kick out of the “spring and forge shop” as well.Trailer Springs in Mexicali, Mexico??I’m making my way down the Baja and within 100 miles of crossing the border I’ve broken a trailer axle spring. I’m in San Felipe and will be heading back to Mexicali to find new springs (I’m going to replace all of them). Does anyone know where I’d begin looking? They don’t have parts places like in the US listed online nor is Google really a thing. Any help is appreciated.Re: Solar Panel Wiring on Rubber RoofThanks for all the advice and photos from everyone. This definitely gives me some great ideas.Re: Solar Panel Wiring on Rubber Roof bobsallyh wrote: I put the wires in the gray flexible plastic conduit (Lowes/HD) and used Dicor Self Leveling for the "glue" to hold it down seven years ago and still in place. That is kind of what I was thinking and I'm glad to hear you've had success. I don't want to leave the cables exposed to the elements and have been wondering what to enclose them in. I take it your roof is rubber as well? Do you have any photos? Thanks for all the replies from everyone.Solar Panel Wiring on Rubber RoofI have a rubber roof and I need to run solar wiring from the panels to the combiner box. The length will be about 15' and I have small square plastic feet that you can stick on the roof and attach a zip tie through and then zip tie the cables to the roof. I also have the option of putting two screws through these plastic feet. I would like to avoid drilling additional holes in the roof for all the feet and I'm wondering if I can use the tape that's provided on the feet as well as dicor to secure them to the roof. My fear is it will only be secured o the rubber membrane and will this try to pick the membrane off the roof while traveling down the interstate at high speeds? I've seen one person do it like I'm describing on a Jayco forum and no one advised against it and they never wrote back after the install saying the rubber membrane ripped.... Thoughts?Re: Basic Questions on Solar InstallWell there are a lot more considerations and opinions on solar than I imagined. What I ultimately decided was to go with 4 175W panels. There will be 2 at the very back on each side of the vent. Then one in front of the vent situated perpendicular to the trailer. And then one more between the A/C and the vent in the middle of the trailer. These will be installed in parallel and running 8awg wire from the panels to the combiner box that is at the front. From the combiner box I'm going to go through the roof and straight down to the charge controller with 4awg. We use the trailer quite a bit in the winter so hopefully this will be enough to let us dry camp without the generator for 4 or 5 days. Right now we can go about 2 days in the winter without the generator.Re: Basic Questions on Solar InstallI've been trying to think about this and I could use some additional input. I've attached a rough layout of my trailer roof and how I would like to mount the panels. I prefer to mount them at the rear for two reasons. 1. I am trying to keep as much weight to the rear as possible 2. The least amount of obstructions are at the rear to shade the panels. The A/C is the big one I'm trying to stay away from. I'm thinking I will run #8 wire from the panels up to the front of the trailer. They will enter a combiner box at this point and #4 wire will go from the combiner box to the charge controller. This distance will be about 12'. I'd like to run the panels in parallel because I think I will always be dealing with shade issues from the vent covers. What are some things I should be thinking about with this setup...? Re: Basic Questions on Solar InstallWhat does everyone think about wiring the panels in series? I had talked to Renogy about it awhile back and they recommended series because I needed to run about 25'-30' from the solar panels to the charge controller. These will be mounted on top of a travel trailer and between two vents that have large covers on them so they can stay open in the rain. Should I be concerned about a shadow cast onto the panels from the covers if the panels are in series?Re: Basic Questions on Solar InstallThanks again for the input. Is 8 gauge good for running from the controller to the batteries? This will be about 6'.Re: Basic Questions on Solar InstallI could use a little more clarification on the #8 wire size. I am using the Renogy wire size calculator https://www.renogy.com/calculators#tab_solar-cable and when I use it the recommended size is a #12 wire. This is for three 175W panels that have a optimum operating voltage of 20.3V each and optimum operating current of 8.62a each. It's my understanding if wiring in series the volts will be 61v for the three panels and current will be 8.62a. If I use 30' of length with a 2% drop it tells me #12 wire.
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