after a few minutes, the gel goo gone should have loosened enough so you lift the end of the vhb tape a little. Just enough so you can now start spraying the goo gone right where the vhb bonds to the roof when you pry it up a little. A thin piece of wood may help too, like a square tongue depressor. Once you get a tiny bit of the vhb up, you can start spraying more aggressively, right where the VHB meets the roof. Keep paper towels on hand to wipe up the excess as you spray
Keep the go gone liquid away from the tape GFC put on around the perimeter to keep rain/snow out. Thoroughly rinse the roof off with water from a garden hose when done. Good luck! Do it in a shady spot too, be patient, let the goo gone do the loosening work. if you get too physical, youāll damage the roof. Youāre only lifting a half inch to an inch per spray, and you have to wait 10-20 seconds per spray once it starts coming free. Takes time
Well, Iāve had the unfortunate experience of finding the same fate as @Jake_Bull_08 when removing my panels.
The outer layer had ripped in multiple places but my main concern was the āburningā or ācharringā that the damaged panel had caused to the roof.
Not sure if this was because of a cheap Lensun panel I used or if damaged panels do this.
I have reached out to GFC about roof replacement and they also quoted me $300 but I will opt out of driving to Montana HQ and hope Basilās Garage will do the work.
I am going to install my replacement Sunflare Xplor 180w panel anyways because of the several camping trips I have planned this month.
Iāll just have to remove it and reinstall it after the roof is replaced.
Yeah I donāt think flexible panels are the full blame. Maybe donāt step on them so you donāt damage the cells and create an arc of electricity. The heat was a non-issue for the 4+ years Iāve had the panels. I would opine that ācheapā panels are just that, cheap for a reason. My replacement Sunflare has advertised several times over the amount of damage a panel can take. I feel confident in my decision even though I am taking a 120w loss compared to my old setup. Time will tell though and Iām eager to see how well these ābypass diodesā work.
For what itās worth, I had the āexpensiveā Sunpower panels and they burned. Thereās some combo issue here where water gets trapped underneath, a section of the panel shorts (maybe shading related), and then the heat from the short is really efficiently conducted into the roof, damaging it as the panel blows.
After two panel failures and a roof overheat, I built a rack to float my remaining flexible panels off the roof. No issues after that, but now they weigh and cost more than hard panels. ĀÆ|_(ć)_/ĀÆ
Curious how well the Xplor holds up.
You are probably already considering this, but Iād suggest for your temporary mounting of the panel, mount with as little tape as you think will hold it, just to make it easier to remove.
The xplor panel came with tape, 2ā wide might I add. And after confirming roof replacement with Basilās Garage, they wonāt touch the panel for that reason. They donāt want the liability of damaging during removal. Fml.
GFC did send me an invoice for the roof panel. $406.08 shipped. Basilās Garage charges $185/hr for labor and quoted 2-3 hours.
Thinking I may upgrade to the V2 Pro tent and call it a day, albeit an expensive one.
They pulled my roof panel when my tent was replaced under warranty. If you replace the tent maybe they can install the new panel with no extra labor cost? This was also at Basilās.
This was talked about when I called and spoke to the Basil of Basilās Garage. Essentially, one job (roof) takes x-amount of hours, and the other (tent) takes y-amount of hours. They will just bill me from when the timer starts to when they finish the job. Mind you it was a ball parked estimate on number of hours each job would be separately but yet the conversation did end with the thought of doing the tent upgrade at the same time due to its cost effectiveness for me/the customer.
