Roof mounted Solar panels

Two 100w Renogy panels and the hood panel is from Lensun. I think it was 85w.

I sold the truck though so I no longer have this setup, but it worked great when I had it

 

Thanks. Wish I saw this post before I ordered mine. Btw How was the hood solar panel. I guess I can add this to max solar charging on my eco flow

 

My setup:

The KickAss power station has an AGM battery in it. I went with the AGM because that's what I will be running soon for my main battery. With my tune adjusted for proper charging of the AGM and the power station now wired to the main battery, I will have more than enough power to do what I want to do. Initial test weekend, without the power station wired to the truck, I ran my refrigerator, lights and was able to charge my phone, etc and had more than enough reserve. With the power station wired in, I'm charging whether I'm running or parked.

 

What gauge wire ya'll running from the panel to the charge controller? and controller to the battery?

I'm wanting to add a 100w panel and I think 12 gauge is more then sufficient for both runs.

 

I'm considering going from a 200W portable panel to a flexible Renogy solar panel (size/wattage TBD) mounted directly to the roof of my cab. The paint on my roof is pretty beat up, with much of the clear coat gone. I'm presuming that the heat from the solar panel would screw up the paint on the roof, also that removal of the panel would damage or destroy the paint under the mounting tape. Should I repaint the roof before installing the panel (to protect the metal of the roof) or does the tape provide enough of a seal that I don't need to worry about damage underneath?

 

I've thrown away many flexible solar panels. This one has been on for almost 4 years.

 

How’s the efficiency when it’s under that rack

 

Just curious with this, but why mount the panels to the roof rack rather than to surface mount on the bed cap? Seems like there's more area back on the cap, and it leaves the rack available for carrying gear that's got weight to it and could need to be secured down.

One option if you can handle the height on your rig (trucks that get used in town sometimes need to fit under a 6'8" or lower garage), and the cost is manageable, there's some flexible panels which could be mounted onto gear cases (lots of guys mount rifle cases up there to get protected space with a manageable profile)

 

No idea, but I'm not going to ruin the use of my roof rack so it doesn't matter.

My fridge runs 24/7 and my 100ah LiFePo4 battery stays above 80% as long as I'm parked outside.

 

What was the issue with them? From what I've seen (a friend has them taped to his shell for a few years now), the Renogy ones seem pretty good.

 

Vibration, or heat, or ??? Broke traces in them which turned them into bricks.

 

Some trade-off in durability is probably inevitable with a flexible panel. Especially if it's allowed to flutter at all when the vehicle is moving or if it's not completely shielded from road debris. High cycles of flexing could definitely cause cracks to form in the printed "wires" connecting the cells to the output, or possibly damage the cells themselves.

Also PV cells have some finite service life and the flexible ones might be less robust overall than the rigid/enclosed models in any number of ways, and since most of the world's supply is going to be made in China (and domestic manufacturers might cut some corners to try to be more competitive on cost) a wide range of workmanship is going to be shipping and it's not always going to be easy to determine which factory a particular unit actually came from.

 

I just mounted a solar panel to my roof rack today. I was wondering in anyone has had any issues with them flying off even when bolted down? Worried about wind getting underneath the panel at high speeds. My rack does have a wind deflector tho. It’s bolted down with z brackets into t nuts that fit into the chanel.

 

Mine has been on my roof rack for several years an never had any issues, it too is bolted down with 1/4" hardware to the extrusion

 

That’s exactly how my set up is except mine has only 2 z brackets on each side as a pose to 3 like your set up. My panel is smaller though. It should be fine then. I get paranoid about causing an accident if that thing flies off my roof lol.

 

For a rigid panel, putting spacers under the rear bolt-down points, or making custom brackets to slightly increase the height of the rear end of the panel (1/4-1/2" higher in the rear would be enough to make a difference).

You'll have a little more drag at highway speed, but the panel will also produce a small amount of down-force due to the negative angle of attack. It's not going to be enough to affect your handling or road-feel, but it should be enough to eliminate most of the risk of the panel blowing off the roof. If you get hit by an extreme sidewind or tailwind, there might be some issues, but in the level of wind that would require if you're moving 60-80 mph forward that panel would likely be the least of your issues.

 

Mines been mounted like this for 2+ years now.



I made a small fairing for mine last year.



I had a smaller panel up there mounted the same way for 2 years prior to the larger panel.

 

When I bought mine, BougeRV were rated the best. I'm not sure why some people are so down on flexible panels. I have mine mounted on my fiberglass cap. The nice thing is it flexes to the contour of the fiberglass to mount flat. And the way it mounts, it isn't going anywhere. I don't know if or how much the roof of the fiberglass cap flexes, but I don't think it's much at all.

As for vibration, I'd venture a guess that the solid panels mounted to a roof rack flex and vibrate at least as much due to the air moving over the panel while at speed.

 

I came here exactly for this information. I just ordered my snugtop and power station with a solar panel. As I'm driving though, I want to charge the battery with the truck outlet and add solar. Thanks for the guidance.

 

Looking good. What flexible solar panel did you use and how did you secure it on you shell? Has it stayed secure all this time?
Thanks.