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Thread: Solar panel rack

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    Williams West Aust
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    Solar panel rack

    Anybody had experience building their own solar panel rack for their camper trailer.
    Ive designed mine,bought the panels and aluminium sections for the frame.
    The 2 panels are 1.7m x.9m,I intend building 1 panel that slides back on the trailer(over camper tent) for transport.When camped it slides forward to clear the tent top.It can be adjusted to point to the sun to the left,right or front of the trailer.
    My thoughts were to fix the panels to a 40x40x4mm angle with a combination on pop-rivets,stainless nuts/bolts and stainless nutserts.I have stainless marine Bimini fittings to allow for the adjustments whilst camped.I spent lots of time drawing it up,and pretty sure it will all work as designed.Not seen the plans for some time,they are"somewhere" hopefully safe in the shed.
    Something I need advice on,will the panels need some sort of allowance for expansion/contraction??? If so how do I go about it??? Thoughts were a 5mm rubber infill strip between the panels and frame.
    I see house solar panels have a considerable expansion gap between all sides of the panels,I realise there is plenty more heat and expansion in a roof assembly.
    In preference for the rigidity of my build I would prefer no expansion gap.
    Thoughts please.
    Andrew
    DISCOVERY IS TO BE DISOWNED
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  2. #2
    Join Date
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    I suspect the aluminium rack will expand as much as it needs to compensate. There are no gaps in my house system and the panels are fine after 7 full summers. I didn't use commercial edge clamps which require gaps.

  3. #3
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    Feb 2004
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    Quote Originally Posted by bee utey View Post
    I suspect the aluminium rack will expand as much as it needs to compensate. There are no gaps in my house system and the panels are fine after 7 full summers. I didn't use commercial edge clamps which require gaps.
    Cheers,exactly what I was hoping to hear.
    Thanks
    Andrew
    DISCOVERY IS TO BE DISOWNED
    Midlife Crisis.Im going to get stuck into mine early and ENJOY it.
    Snow White MY14 TDV6 D4
    Alotta Fagina MY14 CAT 12M Motor Grader
    2003 Stacer 525 Sea Master Sport
    I made the 1 millionth AULRO post

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
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    Lesmurdie - Perth WA
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    solar panel rack

    Andrew

    the solar panels on the Track Shak I once owned did not have any appreciable gap between them.
    Graham

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
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    I'm sure you've looked at plenty of options. Our trip last year we had a 60w pannel on the trailer which was just sufficent power.

    This year we added a 120w flexible flat solar panel to the roof of the Disco. It's only 3mm thick. You might not want to do it to the D4 but I wasn't too worried about the old D2. I used the vinel cover that they use to completely cover cars to protect them. It's made by 3M. So I put that over the roof first then stuck the panel down with sikaflex. All the paint on the rest of my Disco is fine but the roof has had the possum and it's going white so I wasn't worried about covering it.

    Happy Days.

  6. #6
    DiscoMick Guest
    I was just planning to attach a solar panel to the roof rack and avoid damaging the roof.

    Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

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