ChristopherW
Advanced Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2015
- Posts
- 60
Where I store my RV I do not have power for battery trickle chargers. I was told by the people at Battery Tender that my two batteries would each need a 15W panel, but I wanted a rack to hold the panels in place and against the weather.
I borrowed designs from the internet and built the pictured rack.
-The average angle of the panels for Northern CA. (37⁰ Latitude) is 45⁰ in winter and 78⁰ in summer.
-Therefore, only the rear legs are used for winter and the front legs drop down, raising the front edge of the rack for summer.
-It is all aluminum with stainless hardware.
-The three vertical channels close to the panels are extruded aluminum with slots for bolts, making it easy to adjust the setup to get the angles correct. You could use solid tube as I did for the legs if you were careful with the dimensions and drilled the holes in the proper place.
-Cross braces, leg braces and horizontal pieces are 1” x ½” channel
-I used 1.5” square tube x .188 wall thickness for the legs to add weight and avoid the wind blowing it over.
-I enclose the rough plans I made for this, but advise you double check things if you use these. Sometimes “design changes” were needed and were not always properly documented.
-Cost of the panels was about $210 total from Amazon
-Aluminum was about $240
-Stainless Hardware about $60
Like most projects this grew in complexity and cost but, I hope this helps anyone else with similar needs.
I need some time to determine if the 15W panels will keep things charged, but I am hopeful and trust the Battery Tender products since I have two for other needs.
Chris
I borrowed designs from the internet and built the pictured rack.
-The average angle of the panels for Northern CA. (37⁰ Latitude) is 45⁰ in winter and 78⁰ in summer.
-Therefore, only the rear legs are used for winter and the front legs drop down, raising the front edge of the rack for summer.
-It is all aluminum with stainless hardware.
-The three vertical channels close to the panels are extruded aluminum with slots for bolts, making it easy to adjust the setup to get the angles correct. You could use solid tube as I did for the legs if you were careful with the dimensions and drilled the holes in the proper place.
-Cross braces, leg braces and horizontal pieces are 1” x ½” channel
-I used 1.5” square tube x .188 wall thickness for the legs to add weight and avoid the wind blowing it over.
-I enclose the rough plans I made for this, but advise you double check things if you use these. Sometimes “design changes” were needed and were not always properly documented.
-Cost of the panels was about $210 total from Amazon
-Aluminum was about $240
-Stainless Hardware about $60
Like most projects this grew in complexity and cost but, I hope this helps anyone else with similar needs.
I need some time to determine if the 15W panels will keep things charged, but I am hopeful and trust the Battery Tender products since I have two for other needs.
Chris
