Nice set up! Does your door panel/frame not crush the wiring that is sandwiched in-between them when closed?
The foam strip on the inside of the panel conforms to the wiring. Keeps everything waterproof and housing around the wires keeps things from rubbing raw. I also put some helicopter tape on the space frame to keep paint from rubbing off. A proper way to do it would have been some waterproof bulkhead fittings through the panel facing the cab, but I didn’t want to drill any holes in the camper.
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This weekend I managed to do some commissioning and testing of my system prior to installing on my GFC (when it’s ready) I will try to use a Solaria 400w residential panel . This shape should work well between beef bars to avoid shading. The cost per watt was way below any “overland” or thin panel and my truck can handle the 40lbs. The other reason Is the panel will block some of the translucent roof to keep it slightly darker up top.
My only concern is the durability as the frame may require some additional bracing. But I can get that sorted when it’s installed on the truck.
It was charging the 270ah battery at nearly 30 amps even being partly cloudy.
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Installed a couple Renogy 100W panels along with a custom rack I built out of 3060 extrusion. The rack is fairly low profile (~3/4" above honeycomb) & very strong. Can handle me walking up there without deflection and I’m sure at least as strong as the beef bars. Both panels in parallel are giving fairly consistent power (averaging 90-120W) in the CA sun, which keeps my goal zero topped off while running the dometic fridge behind my drivers seat.
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hey @slopes925 what are you using to attach the solar panel to your DIY rack?
Also for the holes going from the brackets to the gfc, did you need to drill them out more?
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Hey folks! We make custom carbon fibre solar panels that are 1/4 the weight and profile of standard glass panels and 30% more efficient than thin-film (we use 23% efficiency cells from Sun Power, which are near the top of the market). Our mounting hardware is designed to allow the panels to be removable, so you can get ideal charging throughout the day, regardless of where/how you are parked. We are predominately operating the teardrop market , as we can mold them to a custom radius, but see an ideal application for folks like yourselves due to the weight, durability, efficiency and multi-use case. To be clear, you could suspend this panel on either end and stand on it with no issues. It is completely structural. If you have any questions, let me know!
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I used some flat plate brackets by 8020 that are meant to transition their 10 to 15 series extrusions. There’s a step in the bracket, which keeps the face of panel slightly lower than my crossbars. Picture of the underside.
Edit: the bracket part number for anyone that wants it is 4524.
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2 Rich Solar 80W cigs panels mounted using factory adhesive and sealed with butyl sealant. Left room for a third panel if I need to upgrade (I won’t)
100amh Battle Born
Bluetooth shunt
Lots of wiring
2 fuse blocks (one for cab and one for camper)
Still need to add wire loom for the panels, but I’m happy with how it came out.
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Finally got around to mounting my Sunflare Xplor Adventure Panel. more details can be found here.
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I am running a similar setup with 100w of solar and got the smaller 55Ah Battle Born Battery. The battery is extremely impressive and is ten fold better than anything I have used to date. I have found the 55ah and 100w of solar to be sufficient and have had the fridge run for weeks on end without coming close to shutting down. The battery seems to take a charge faster than anything I’ve used, could be the LIFEPO4 chemistry.
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Are you using that in all temperature ranges or is that just in moderate temps?
So I get a chance to setup up my solar again on a new unit. I can’t seem to find the build on here where the user used a solar cable gland. I have one now on my camper, but it came with screws. This new one doesn’t. What would be the best way to fasten the gland to the roof without screws?
First thought is to use 1/4” 3M VHB, as I’m using 1” 3M VHB to mount the renogy 100W panel. Both of which I thought I would RTV around the edges for additional seal and hold. Thoughts?
Cheers,
WG
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I cut 4 strips of vhb tape and made a perfect square perimeter of the foot of my gland. Then I covered over the edges once it was mounted with externabond tape. So far so good. Survived the bomb cyclone here on the west coast earlier this week without a drop inside
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Trying to figure this out myself.
So far, I did as suggested. Used 1/4” VHB tape and RTV for the gland and 1” VHB with RTV around the seams for the panel. It seems to be holding up, but I definitely have my concerns.
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Mine has held up so far pretty good. I went thru all my cables and put the sheaths on them that protect them from uv.
I’m finding my fridge ( iceco jl42 ) with half capacity inside of primarily soda water cans will stay at 34*F constant and draw from my goal zero 1000x overnight ( roughly 12 hours without sunlight) 25% -30% of my battery. My truck is in the sun in the am around 8, and the battery will be at full capacity by lunchtime(noon or so) . The 2 x 100w renogy flexible panels are a nice addition to my camper, stoked to have it. When i dont need the fridge, i just unplug the fridge from the goal zero and that’s it, super simple.
Temps in socal have been in the low 90s mid day, when parked into the sun i dont really feel like its any hotter inside than without the panels on the roof.it actually gives me a nicer shaded area since light doesn’t penetrate the panels, so depending non how far back you mount them, i have mine on the back 2/3s. I get darker shade in the most used area of the camper.
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I plan on running my panels to a bluetti ac200max with a built in MPPT. This should be sufficient for what I need. I’m also running dual batteries so eventually I may have a switch upstream from the bluetti to switch between the 2. By the way. Renogy and BougeRv are both having Black Friday pricing today still.
You bet, it’s totally separate from the truck. Not too interested in going down the rabbit hole of dual batteries, isolators, etc.
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Has anyone found a roof gasket that is just barely big enough for cables? I have limited garage clearance and had hoped to do a gasket but the renology one is ~1.5 inch tall which isn’t going to work. I only need the truck in the garage when I work on it (only level surface) and already have to air down or have it loaded to fit 
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