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Old 06-06-2007, 04:21 PM   #1
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wcoleman
How do Isecure solar panels on my rubber roofed T30?

I'm going solar, 2-120W panels. Any good ideas on how to secure I hate to bolt them through the roof!

Thanks in advance,

Wayne
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Old 06-06-2007, 05:27 PM   #2
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eman has solar. I'm sure he'll eventually answer you...just hang in there I was wondering the same thing.
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Old 06-06-2007, 06:31 PM   #3
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Old 06-06-2007, 06:40 PM   #4
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An idea....

I thought maybe to glue the metal brackets for mounting the panel to the rubber roof, then screw the panel to the metal brackets. A substance like adhesive caulk might work, or Loctite glue, etc.....any thoughts?

I really don't want to drill my roof!
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Old 06-06-2007, 07:13 PM   #5
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Wayne,

I would send a PM or email to emam. I think he would be the best person to give you advice, since he has 3 solar panels installed on his roof.

Hutch
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Old 06-07-2007, 12:28 PM   #6
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Wayne,

I was thinking, if I were in your position, I would contact a professional installer to see what their installation cost would be and/or to get advice.

I would definetly want to attach the panels to the roof joists. Plus I think I would rather have a company that does it regularly do it than if there is any problems, they sould be covered by their warrenty.

Here's a couple of links that I found that might provide you some insight.

AM Solar, Inc
Palmer Energy Systems - Jolyn Enterprises

Check out AM Solar's page on mounts, they provide some insight to the different type of mounting brackets, good/bad based on type of roof, flat / rounded, etc. If you have a newer Sunline (Model year 2000+) with the arched roof, you may want to look at the type of mounting brackets you use.

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Old 06-08-2007, 11:47 PM   #7
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Sorry it took so long for me to find this post, Cindy and I are in Nashville for the CMA Music Festival and have been so busy the past few days.

Wayne, we have a fully supported roof, so it wasnt a problem having them mounted into a stud. The panels we ordered came with specific brackets from www.amsolar.com and we had General RV install them. Here is a link to the mounts www.amsolar.com/mounts%26tiltbars.html

I'll crawl up onto the roof tomorrow when it's light out and take a few close-up's of the work. It's not all that pretty, cause they gooped the sealant all around the mounts to make sure it wouldnt leak.

After they installed the panels, the wiring runs down the refer vent and no more holes were needed in the roof.


Here's a picture I have of them while they were working on it, but I'll post a few more tommorow.

Pat
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Old 06-09-2007, 03:54 AM   #8
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Pat, What are thes specs on your solar system? Does it work well? Do you think it was worth the cost?
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Old 06-09-2007, 05:22 AM   #9
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Pat, I'm curious about the weight of your 2499. Has adding the extra weight in order to be more self sufficient caused any overloading problems. As you can see from one of my posts, I'm concerned about excessive tire wear.
Where do you sacrifice to make up for the things you've added in order to stay at or under the weight limit for that particular TT?

BTW, we envy your ability to get out and go without being tied to the grid.

Good luck .... continue to have fun. ........ Jim
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Old 06-09-2007, 08:44 AM   #10
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Here's the problem with our system, we never didnt have it. As we had the solar panels and extra batteries installed 2 weeks after we got the coach. So we never really experienced camping without them.

I know we can run our A/C for a few hours during the hottest part of the day if we need to, off our batteries and inverter. It is a huge help for those nights that we dont really want to waste money and just dry camp in some parking lot.

I dont know if I could justify the added expence and weight if you were just going to be using the coach for weekends a few times a year. For full timing, or those that go for month long trips, I think you'll recoup the money in a few years. We did the calculation that if we dry camp for 200 nights in our 3 - 5 years on the road, then we'll have payed for the system. That's if campgrounds charge $25 a night which is our limit for staying in one. With many areas we've stayed in having campgrounds in the $50 to $80 range, I think we've come much closer to paying it off already.

As the weight issue, I'm almost afraid to weigh our entire system, because if it's over weight, I cant really do anything about it. We're on the road and cant say, "Oh, let's take this item off or drop the weight here" So the old saying Ignorance is Bliss comes into play. We've never weighed ourselves yet, although we both said the next truck stop we pass that has scales, we were going to stop.

Now for excessive tire wear. I think we might already be experiencing that. We have put roughly 9000 miles on the coach in 6 months. We were just at Camping World having items installed and the guy mentioned my tires were worn out. I've heard some bad reviews on the life of the Mission Tires in other forums so I dont know if it has to do with that, or its my weight problems. But we plan on replacing the tires with Goodyears which I've heard some great reviews on within the next few thousand miles.

When Hutch mentioned Palmer Energy Systems in Florida, I've heard rave reviews about the guy. If you are going to be putting in a solar set-up, talk with him first. That is all he does and has a few hundred acres where people live year round self-sufficiently in the florida sun. Sort of like that spot in Arizona. Talk with the people at AMSolar as they are very nice and knowledgeable.

If there is one thing I would recommed, it would be to stay away from any Xantrex products. When I called the guy at Palmer while we were in Florida asking some questions about my Xantrex unit we were having trouble with, he laughed and said "I have 9 of those pieces of crap on a shelf here I'll give you if you want them." While we were just at Camping World, another couple was in front of us screaming at the service people as their unit had Caught on Fire!?! I think we might replace ours with a Sunnyboy as that's what the guy from Plamer recommended. He said it's the only model he'd recommend and that's all he does is Solar.

Sorry this is so long. I guess what I'm saying is if you do a bit of camping, solar will give you the luxury of not having to worry about finding a campground with hook-ups, but it has an out of pocket expense at the start.

Good Luck, I'm going up on the roof to take some pictures for you

Pat
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Old 06-09-2007, 08:51 AM   #11
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One other thing I forgot to say.

Like Hutch said and my wife was very concerned with, we had it professionally installed as that way it came with a warranty. Sometimes I think having a reputable service area install it will free up any headaches that might come later if anything messes up.

For us, we knew nothing about electrical, so I wouldnt have even thought about attempting it myself, but if that's something you know about, then all you have to worry about is where to screw through the roof.

I wouldnt glue it either! Those panels are pretty expensive and I wouldnt want one flying off as a logging truck passes by me at 80 mph and that gust of wind almost blows us off the road.
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Old 06-09-2007, 09:33 AM   #12
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Ok, here are some detailed shots of the panels and the way they're mounted. After closer inspection, I was mistaken when I said they gooped the sealant around the mounts. That was anything that came stock from Sunline? The boys at General RV were pretty clean with their installation and only put a small pad of the sealant around the mount and then on top of each bolt that passed through the roof.


This is one of the single mounts and shows how it's a pretty simple installation.


This is the mount if you're bolting two units together, end to end.


This shows how the three are situated around the edges of the roof and tucked close to the vent. That is also our New Maxx-Air vent cover with the Turbo Fan in the vent itself. You can also see that we have room enough for one more panel if and when we decide to up the inverter.


Then this is where the three cables are mounted to the Refer Vent Cover. You want to make sure that you dont daisy chain the panels together, or you'll lose voltage through the wiring. Each panel has it's own wire and then is connected to this panel. From this panel, one wire, the size of your thumb runs down the refer vent and to the battery panels which are mounted under the bed.


The Xnatrex 2000watt inverter is mounted in the pass-through cubby in the front of the coach. This is the unit we are going to upgrade to a 3000watt Sunnyboy when the time comes.

Hope this gives you a better idea of how to install the panels if you decide to yourself.

Good Luck
Pat
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Old 06-10-2007, 12:08 PM   #13
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Man, this is why I love this site and forums.

With people like Jon, Pat, John, PT, Kitty, and others, how could we go wrong?

Thanks to everyone for the great, valuable advice.
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Old 06-11-2007, 08:37 PM   #14
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Very nice outfit Pat! Appears to be well thought out. Will try to keep up with your travels as I'm able. Hope DW is interested and we can afford to roam the country like that someday! Right now it's just a dream... Hope your travels continue to be safe!
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Old 06-13-2007, 07:29 PM   #15
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Pat

Thanks for taking the time to post the pic's. They tell a lot.

The mounts on the roof to the rubber look like the standard way they do most all roof mountings.

It looks like they applied Dicor 502-LSW Self Leveling Sealant, stuck the bracket in the puddle and then screwed thru it and most of the time they come back and seal over the screw heads to keep them from rusting out. They have to screw to the studs or the walk on roof plywood. There is no structure up there on the non walk on roofs.

If you have a vent cover or shower dome or other hole in the roof, they apply putty tape to the roof first, stick the vent cover on, screw down, the putty tape seals the flange to the roof and then Dicor over it.

On the solar bracket, the only penetration was the screw so I do not see signs of the putty tape, only the Dicor.

See this pic of my roof vent I had to replace. Sunline told me how to do this and sent me the parts under warranty. They had a bad batch of vents that rusted out in less than 1 year. The steel was not treated right.



OH and how do you mange to keep such an empty front cargo hole??? Stuff must all be in the truck....

John
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Old 06-25-2007, 08:36 PM   #16
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Thanks fo all the input.

I installed the 2-120w panels thru the roof into the studs, and used sealant liberally in the holes and on the screws, worked well. The keep the twin T-105 6v batteries charged perfectly. I installed a 1500w xantrex inverter to run the TV, with excess watts to run other items as necessary.
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Old 06-25-2007, 08:37 PM   #17
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Pat - thanks for the superior pics and explanations!!!
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Old 06-25-2007, 10:32 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnB
OH and how do you mange to keep such an empty front cargo hole??? Stuff must all be in the truck....
That picture was taken before we left for our trip.....LOL If you were to see it now, you'd laugh at how much crap is in there.

We're making our way back to Michigan to re-stock before we head out West, and I plan on taking everything out of every compartment and cataloging what we've used compared to what was just brought along and became dead weight.

There's a big difference between the weekend warrior and the Full-Timer and what they bring along.

Sounds like everything went well. Post some pictures so we can see what the finished product looks like.

Pat
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Old 06-26-2007, 05:50 AM   #19
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Pat,
After you catalog what you used and what you didn't can you post it for us fulltime wannabes?
Thanks!
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Old 06-26-2007, 08:25 AM   #20
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Yeah, We were going to do a post of Full Timers vs. The Weekend Warriors. We just were sitting in a campground talking with the neighbors about this a few days ago.

We commented on how we both like to sit in our camp chairs and watch the people that are just coming in for the weekend set up. Usually us full timers can be set up in ten miutes, where some people that are just coming in for a weekend, will take an hour to set up all the stuff they brought?

As soon as we're done, I'll post for all to see!!
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