I've been working on a system to mount 960W (6 - 160W Grape Solar panels) for way too long.
The design / implementation is similar to concepts discussed in this thread
Key points:
- The van is a 2016 170 Cargo with only a rear maxair fan to worry with
- All 6 panels are mount length-wise with the van
- The 4 top most panels are statically mounted
- The 2 lower panels are in pull out "drawers" deployed from the driver side
- A drawer wire management system is designed in
- The solar panel are configured with 3 parallel strings with 2 panels in series in each string. The panels feed a Victron Energy BlueSolar MPPT 150/70-Tr charger. All downstream components are all Victron Energy
Here is breakdown:
15 series rails are mounted on custom 316 stainless brackets. The rails slightly overhang on the driver side due to the Fiamma F65 S400 Awning on the passenger side. Rails are 52" long to accommodate the 26" wide panels
Drawer frames are built out of aluminum angle (2" x 1.5" x 1/4") mounted up to 80/20 linear bearing pads referenced in this thread. All framing is TIG welded. Here is the end profile mounted up to the 15 series rails
Drawer cable management is via cable drag chain:
There are a number of custom machined mounting plates. 9 for mounting the statically mounted solar panels. 3 load plate for the drawers. 4 linear bearing pads are equally spaced out on each drawer rail mounted up with 2 #10 screws on each pad.
The drawers are held in position with spring latch pins on each back corner:
A simple rope system is used to release the latch pins. The rope pull is on the outside edge of each drawer.
Here is the front drawer mounted up without the solar panels:
Here are the panel / MPPT calcs for those interested:
Current Status:
- Everything has been built and test fitted together
- Still need to mount the combiner box / poke a hole through the roof / complete the parallel-series wiring
- Currently building out the interior so there is no rush on finishing up the solar
I sure hope the 2 extra panels are worth it. The drawers definitely make the build much more involved than statically mounted panels.
Eddie