Quote:
Originally Posted by Hdlaut
Thanks rickst29. Good input and confirmation regarding thru-bolting and mount spacing.
I bought the brand new Panasonic panel locally for $100 from a guy who gets them from a friend who is a large distributor with leftovers. I helped my son purchase 4.8KW - 12 panels - from the same guy last year for $2k.
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I would highly recommend NOT drilling through the TM roof. If you decide to do that, be sure to insert 1" long crush spacers in the roof for the bolts to go through and take all of the force of the compression when tightening the bolts. If you do not use crush spacers (sleeves), The vibration of driving down the road will cause the styrofoam in the roof to crush which will result in having to tighten the nuts farther to keep the panel secure against the roof. Over time, the roof may become severely crushed.
The square tube spacers are an excellent idea for raising the panel off the roof. However, instead of bolting the double tubes together, I would (again) recommend the VHB tape. If you double up those spacers and make them 6" long, you'd end up with 12 sq inches of surface contact with the roof (per leg). that would result in 48sq inches of VHB tape which would result in 3,360# of shear strength and 4,080# of tensile strength. That means that you could lift the entire TrailManor off the ground by the solar panel before that tape would separate.