Installing a solar panel

[smunter1]

Hi all, my solar panel and kit came today, went for a flexi panel, and was thinking (dreading) drilling a hole in the roof to bring the wiring down through, is there anyone out there who's put a panel on the roof and taken the wiring in without putting a huge great hole in the roof? If so, how have you done it?

Cheers, Sam

[PaulC61]

Do the bolt holes for the roof rails go all the way through? All you would then need is some sort of waterproof gland to pass the wiring through.

[Ghost-rider]

Do the bolt holes for the roof rails go all the way through? All you would then need is some sort of waterproof gland to pass the wiring through.

I like your thinking

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[smunter1]

That’s a good idea! I’ll have a look tonight. Thanks


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[PaulC61]

That’s a good idea! I’ll have a look tonight. Thanks


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Pretty certain that I've seen a photo on here of a ex BG van with the 4 tracker ariels. 1 of the ariels was in the roof rail hole and the person was removing it to fit the roof rail.

Off to London for a few days but if I get time to trawl through the forum I will post the link.

[Maxi4life]

They do indeed go all the way through, but not to where it's easy to feed through you could try and hook a wire as you pass it through.

[smunter1]

Yeah I checked the roof bar mounts earlier, they do go through, but like you say, it’s not really possible to get a pair of 4mm cables through the hole.
The aerial holes might be bigger though so that’s a good should, might try removing one and see if that’s big enough.
Thanks


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[Drawoc]

Yeah I checked the roof bar mounts earlier, they do go through, but like you say, it’s not really possible to get a pair of 4mm cables through the hole.
The aerial holes might be bigger though so that’s a good should, might try removing one and see if that’s big enough.
Thanks


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I had to remove one of the aerials to fit my roof rails on my ex bg maxi. The hole is around 10mm wide so plenty big enough for a cable. Interested to see pictures once you have installed it.


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[smunter1]

Ok so I put the panel on during the week, and then pulled the cables through today..ended up drilling a hole in the roof as the cables supplied with the panel wouldn’t reach the aerial holes.

Picked up a little hub from amazon to seal over the hole again, connected it to a charge controller, which is humming so I assume it’s taking on charge...not got a battery yet though so it’s not going anywhere.


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[Celticrsmith]

What's the purpose of this?

[Golfchick]

What’s keeping the solar panel in place then? Magnets or stuck on?

[smunter1]

What's the purpose of this?

Going to run lights and any other small appliances, charging etc from it..need the van for work as well as converting it for use as a camper..just don’t want to risk running the starter battery down if the lights are on all night


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[smunter1]

What’s keeping the solar panel in place then? Magnets or stuck on?

It’s stuck down with “weathermate”


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[Golfchick]

Is this instead of a leisure battery running from your normal battery or does it just recharge the leisure battery using solar power?

[smunter1]

Is this instead of a leisure battery running from your normal battery or does it just recharge the leisure battery using solar power?

Because I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to electrics, I have no clue how to install a split charger from the main battery to a leisure battery, so this seemed like the easiest way. The panel charges the leisure battery, and insures that if I have to much running for too long I don’t flatten my starter battery


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