Full solar system install with pictures, tears and all :)

[Dano]

F1 Ground effects in keeping with our "Sports Car of Motorhomes" title!

[HoosierB]

FWIW… a couple of solar panel layouts on Chinooks. I believe one is Chinookers rig.
What I really like are the AM Solar “Rocker Foot” mounts. Appear to be height adjustable and well made. They even come with the 3M VHB tape applied.
I’m leaning towards the configuration of two 100W panels, one on each side for my install.

[Blue~Go]

I have to say, AM Solar are great folks, and the rocker feet have advantages on curved roofs or for daily tilting, but I'm not a fan of them for my Chinook application. I'll say my reasons.

Overall, they are quite expensive ($80 per set IIRC). Now, I'm not one to hold back on the expense if a product does just what I want, but these don't, necessarily.

I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the square inch area of VHB per foot. They must have had other comments as they now say that if you want more VHB area you can use two feet back to back, but that adds quite a bit to the already high cost. I made my brackets with about triple the area per foot. There is no real downside that I can see to more area (it doesn't make them any "longer" because that part of the foot tucks under the panel).

Another thing is that they are height adjustable via holes, but on my Chinook, those "cake tiers" slope slightly downward as they go outward. If I let the panels follow the roofline, I didn't like the slightly "crooked" look. Yes, they would shed rain, but I'm rarely THAT level. I found that putting the outboard leg of the panel about 1/4" higher than the inboard leg (IIRC) made it just right. But the AM solar holes are farther apart than that. So that advantage was gone for me.

Additionally, they supply stainless "thumb knobs" to go in the stainless threads of the brackets. Stainless into stainless is prone to galling (basically that means they seize together and it harms the threads). No big deal if you are only going to install and leave them (you can use Tef Gel) but they are designed to be regularly tilted, hence regularly done and undone. A buddy had them and about a third of them galled (over time) and had to be cut off. What we did for his was buy bronze screws and plastic thumb knobs and put them together. Bronze and stainless don't gall (and are close enough on the galvanic scale to not be dissimilar metal problem). He had no more problems.

(He did go with AM Solar brackets again for his new installation. He paid the extra for "double feet" for more VHB surface area and put them together "once" with stainless machine screws and Tef Gel (no thumb knobs as not planning to ever tilt). He has a curved roof, so that advantage was appreciated.)

As I mentioned above, if you aren't tilting regularly the galling is not an issue (use Tef Gel once and forget it); but one of the features of these brackets is they are made for tilting. I don't plan to tilt on my Chinook unless I'm cleaning underneath them or something, so that was not a priority (the brackets I'm going to use will allow a bit of tilting, but are not designed for daily tilting).

If it matters, the AM Solar brackets make the panels an inch or so longer on each end (may not).

I'm not dissing the brackets necessarily. But for the cost I felt there were a number of disadvantages for the Chinook-specific installation, plus I wouldn't really be taking advantage of the special features.

PS: That puddle of caulk makes me cringe. I know they recommend it to "protect" the VHB but in reading through 3M's literature they did experiments where they basically tortured it underwater, soaked it in salt water, threw them into the sun (okay, slight exaggeration, but only slight) and nothing happened to the tape. So I don't think it needs protecting, and I'd rather see what's going on there.

[Dano]

You could walk on those second image panels and never touch the roof, now that's maximizing yield! Thanks for posting these Hoose, they certainly illustrate possible layouts and configurations. The only thing I see, as has been mentioned by Chinooker himself is the loss of your antenna to get the second panel down the driver's side. That's a lot of power

[Blue~Go]

I really like to maintain my quick roof access via the ladder, so all my schemes left a clear area there for a "landing pad." Same for the overcab, as that's where I go to reach the front of the overcab to clean it.

I'm not a TV watcher, so I removed the antenna base and closed the holes with thickened epoxy. Now it's just solid roof there. I did keep the two entry holes (with a long-term temporary patch) to potentially use for solar wires coming in.

Not being a TV person I'm no expert, but couldn't one get a smaller TV antenna nowadays? A friend's newer Airstream has a TV antenna that is like a large paper plate on a stalk that's about 10" tall. It's in the center so he was able to plaster the sides of his roof with solar panels.

But anyway, without the antenna there, I easily arranged 470 watts down both sides of the roof, clearing the bathroom skylight and leaving a couple of feet for landing pad at the ladder. The entire middle (top) tier was clear (my Air-con is off but I wanted to leave it clear for future putting it back).

These were the nearly 21" panels, so a bit of overhang of that tier but not of the whole side of the Chinook. It was a 100 and a 135 on each side.

Since doing perfectly well on 200 watts of ground panels (which I equate to around 350 roof when it's not June-July-Aug with sun right overhead), I decided to cut back to 400 watts of roof panels, and am going to use the 19.5" wide panels instead of the nearly 21" ones. So it'll be just a titch tidier on the sides, with less overhang. I'll put them in series/parallel but if there is any problem with shading I can change to parallel (I don't think so by my experiments and with a roof that doesn't have much to shade things).

There *could* still be a 100 watt on the cross section at the rear and probably one on the center hump, but I don't have anywhere near the need for that much and I like to maintain my walkways. (But if one did, I could imagine using one of those collapsing ladders to access the roof and just putting it against the Chinook in each place you need to get to the roof; but you'd have to store it.)

I'll still carry my ground panels I think - I enjoy a shady campsite when I can find one.

[HoosierB]

Yikes! $80 (a set of 4)... $320 to mount four panels???... no way. You could DIY using aluminum "L" angle, some nuts/bolts/washers and get the same results for a whole lot less. Granted, mine wouldn't be as nice as Blue's machined brackets.
Like you Blue, I'm removing the old antenna, do some patch work but keeping the hole. Will I be able to use the old passenger side and antenna access holes for routing to an interior cable connection/junction box (in the overhead cab)... then on to the controller in the storage compartment next to the batteries?

New layout for my 300W array.

[Dano]

A couple of photos showing the side panel removed! I could not for the LIFE of me get this thing to come off until I looked up and saw the piece of oak trim above my head that runs from side to side and decided to take it off. The panel came right off with no trouble at all. The thickness of the oak was preventing it from being pulled off towards the doghouse, preventing it from budging! Anyways, lots of room to see inside now but much to my chagrin, there is no easy access hole down through the floor to run new wires. In order to keep this as simple as possible, I might be drilling a new hole, adding a rubber grommet to avoid wire chaffing and then caulking it shut. It would literally take 10 minutes rather than trying to stuff them into something existing and having it super tight or fighting with it...

So really, the removal was, unscrew the nuts and Torx bolts on the drivers seat. Dis-connect the wiring harnesses, pop off the screw head covers, take out the studs, remove the seat belt bolt and remove the oak trim above your head attached to the headliner. Now, getting it back on might be tougher but this was pretty easy. Nice to have everything out of the way...

[Blue~Go]

Good looking layout. Symmetry points It looks like you are connecting them in series? But can you do that with a 100 + 50? Seems like for that you would want the two 100's as a pair, and the two 50's as another pair, and then those two pairs in parallel (which would require a cross-country wire to the other side) vs. one of each in a pair like you show.

Here is why I'm thinking that:

Let's take parallel, which is more common on RV's. When you put two panels in parallel, you try your best to exactly match the voltage of the two panels to each other (identical panels best), and then the amps add up.

With series connection, the voltages add up and the amps stay the same. So you want the amperages to match. But the 50 watt panels only have half the amperage, so it's the series equivalent of mismatching voltages on parallel panels, which is said to drag things down. At least that is how I understand it.

Yikes! $80 (a set of 4)... $320 to mount four panels???... no way.

Well in fairness, it made more sense back when panels cost a mint, and still has some advantages if you have a curved roof, which we don't. But yeah, it adds a lot. If you "double foot" for good VHB bonding area, add more $.

mine wouldn't be as nice as Blue's machined brackets.

Mine are actually just made of aluminum angle from McMaster Carr. I had a shop cut them because my cuts were just crappy looking. Then admittedly I went nuts and had them anodized, but that's unnecessary. It was just a whim.

Like you Blue, I'm removing the old antenna, do some patch work but keeping the hole.

If you have any questions on filling the holes, ask away and I'll answer if I can.

Will I be able to use the old passenger side and antenna access holes for routing to an interior cable connection/junction box (in the overhead cab)... then on to the controller in the storage compartment next to the batteries?

Can you say this a different way? I'm not sure I understand what you are asking.

[Blue~Go]

I think Dano wants to avoid cutting the roof, and use the existing connector there. ...
I understand Dano's view, since cutting the roof is a pretty significant thing to do with the rig, and we have to worry about leak and figure out how to seal each hole off. I would prefer not to add more hole to the rig whenever possible, if we can get away with it with a reasonable solution.

I know I'm belaboring the point here, but I can't stop thinking about this. Here is why:

1) That connector is fairly cheesy, and from what I could see when I removed mine, not really meant to be mounted facing upwards and be a roof gland.

2) This is the biggie for me, which I think about on every hole: What happens if it leaks? Let's say you cut a new hole, seal the edges of the core, and then bed a nice Scanstrut gland. Then let's say five years from now it leaks (or a month from now if you accidentally messed up the bedding, it happens). Well, you get a drip into the cabinet (off the bottom of your wiring drip loops), say "whoops!" and fix it. Now let's say that factory solar connector that leads to a four foot long tunnel between the roof layers leaks. When would you find out? Once the tunnel fills up and water comes out in the overcab? When the upper cabinet screw holes start dripping water? I know, that sounds dramatic, but it can happen. If something is going to leak I want to know about it pronto, and I don't want water sneaking around in inaccessible tunnels.

That's why I would say that making a new hole and using a good gland IS what gives you a better chance to not have a problem, even though it may sound counterintuitive. Okay, got that out. Carry on!

[Blue~Go]

Isn't it nice with the pillars out? Ahh, access. Now if you REALLY want access, remove the front of the entertainment center (that did involve me practically crawling into it, although it was not as frustrating as the pillars).

My biggest problem with the pillars was getting those #*)!*^# triangular Ford top-of-seatbelt-bolt cover off. I couldn't figure out how to release them, and the fact that the pillars made them so tight just added to the fun. I finally checked one on a non-pillared Ford van and figured it out. Geesh. Then I made very careful notes about which screws went where on those pillars (mine were varying lengths). I also moved the coax cable that was binding mine up on the driver's side at the wall flange. Maybe you didn't have that.

I'm surprised you don't now have the hole where the main wires go down to the batteries exposed. On mine that was in the pillar base area. I didn't use it as my batteries went under the couch at the same time as I was re-doing the DC distribution wiring.