400W solar install on a 2021 Casita Heritage Deluxe

J.P. Joel P. Smith well, the rivets have a roof over them. I imagine that helps prevent leaking.

What type batteries have you got, and how many watts in solar?

Your lucky, you don't have an AC on top to have to work around.

Steve Paynter I’ve got 990 watts and 208 ah lithium running at 24v. So it’s similar to 4 x 100 ah batts.

Thats alot of solar. Thats why I mentioned the AC. I have a 2018 FD and with the AC, I, like Steve Lineberry could only fit 400 watts.I have (2) 170 Ah batteries running 12v. I rarely have a problem keeping the batteries charges. As with you too, I'm sure.

J.P. Joel P. Smith do you have an AC on top? I'll bet not.

Steve Paynter no, mines got the window unit in the front.

J.P. Joel P. Smith what size are the rivets and how did you attach them? Just drill straight in?

Tom Griebe thanks for this. what type of small brackets? What did you attach them to? Any pictures?

Steve Lineberry In my case, I had an old antenna post at the front that I attached to as well as the roof vent cover. I also added three small panels behind the awning. The base of each is attached to the awning. I’m out of town, so no pix as they live on my desktop.

Tom Griebe just going back through this post to figure out how I’m going to attach my solar panels. When you say you added brackets in addition to VHB tape, are you saying that you drilled through the roof? If so, would you mind telling me how you did it? I’m going with some larger heavier, solar panels, and want to be extra sure it’s on there safely. 

Jason Arredondo No, I did not drill any additional holes. My 2005 had a TV antenna so I attached to that in the front and in back I ran two straps to the vent cover.

To vent cover

Tom Griebe oh, that’s smart. Thank you. I think I’m going to go the VHB, dicor sealant, and eternabond tape route, but I’m thinking of adding a few rivets for extra insurance. I’m doing research but any suggestions as to what type and size I should go with?  I was going to include rivet caps so they look as good as possible on the inside 

Jason Arredondo I think I'd use a couple of 1/4" stainless steel bolts and use an acorn nut on top to give it a finished look. Obviously, you want to seal the pass through well. I think I'd use butyl tape to seal it.

Tom Griebe OK, great. I really appreciate it. All of my gear for my electric and solar overhaul starts coming in over the next few days and I’m excited to get working on it. I’ve stolen information and ideas from everybody. These groups are so helpful 

Tom Griebe do you know what the thickness of the fiberglass is? Not sure how long the bolts need to be. 

Tom Griebe i’m sure I will probably get my answer to how long of bolts I will need once I drill through the roof lol. I know that will depend on my mount as well. 

Jason Arredondo The fiberglass thickness varies but it is never more than 3/8", usually a lot less. I'd slice the carpet so the head of the bolt can be sealed directly against the fiberglass, then use contact cement to carefully re-glue the carpet over the head of the bolt. Be careful drilling through carpet as it can snag on a strand and cause a runner.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WKX43QZe5s

Steve, not a flutter or a flinch. Looks great!

Frank Higgins thanks!!

Jorge O'Leary I am going to use this style plus VHB tape.

Linus Li Yes, I put VHB tape under the perforated steel angle pieces, and bolts only on corners. You might consider solid aluminum angles. Might look better and easy enough to drill, and, you can put the hole exactly where you want it. Also, alum angle would have more surface area for VHB to grip.

Jorge O'Leary very good ideas

Steve Lineberry after you've been using it for awhile I'd like to hear whether you think you needed the extra juice from the dc to dc system. I had thought about it on my system but decided to try it first without it.

Steve Paynter for sure, my current main thing i like about it is being able to detect when connected to the tow vehicle and turn on devices. I know before getting the solar i was able to get some charge back over it on the drive. Maybe 10Ah in a two hour drive. It’s a rainy travel day option to still get some charge back.

Steve Lineberry i understand the rainy day approsch. That's kind of why I made the 200 w solar suitcase (but i doubt it'll help much on a rainy day). In case i needed it.With your family camping, and your energy use, how difficult is it to keep your state of charge in the 90% range or better?

Steve Paynter We only went boondocking once before installing solar. We used 30Ah in 24 hours. This is what i used to speculate how much solar/battery I’ll need. I rounded up to 50Ah per day and wanted it to last 3 days without any solar.Last weekend we boondocked but under a lot of tree cover and barely got 100Wh for the whole day. We didn’t use as much battery up because the temperatures have been better. We are currently boondocking in Linville Gorge but I’ll know more about our usage over the next few months.

Steve Lineberry that's very cool. I never did any calculations as to my energy requirements because I was totally new and had no idea what I would consume. I'm assuming you'll be inputting and graphing it in Excel (just kidding)?

Steve Paynter i didn’t graph it, but i did use excel. . You know me too well.

Steve Paynter this weekend it was so hazy and where i had our casita parked, it had so much tree cover i only got 80wh for the day. Upon leaving the BMV said we were down 16 Ah. After the two hour drive home, all at night so no solar, the battery was fully charged from the dc-dc charger. It looks like it was charging at about 10A which causes these results to make sense.

Steve Lineberry that's good, 10 Ah an hour for a few hours is great. Now, when it's a sunny day I'd expect your solar so get about the same or more.Its a great sport "feed the batteries"!

I appreciate the video, but it's hard to follow what wires you're referring to in it. Is there any way you could provide a schematic? Thanks.

Mike Hardeman working on it, maybe soon.

Steve Lineberry Thanks. That would be great.

Mike Hardeman Let's try this

Steve Lineberry Thanks very much!

Mike Hardeman For reference, this what the wiring looked like from the factory of the components that I touched.

Steve Paynter just solar portion took me most of the day yesterday. I spent another few hours this morning installing the solar controller and remounting the panels after the dicor had dried

Steve Lineberry where did you put the batteries?

Under the bunks.

Steve Paynter here’s one mounted and the tray for the second.

Steve Paynter building and installing the battery mounts took quite a while. Probably 10-15 hours to get it right.

Steve Lineberry they look great. That's a good place for them. You have a Liberty, I believe, with the bench with space under it, close to the electrical systems. My Freedom didn't permit me to place mine there. "They aren't going anywhere". Good job.

Steve Paynter thanks, i actually have the heritage with the side bunks.

Richard Baumgarten you have solar don't you?

Steve Paynter reading up on it definitely interested just weighing options now, and doing research

Good luck. I know you've been planning. I thought you have moved on it.

Steve Lineberry good news for the people driving behind you.

Kathy Miller Corso check out Will Prowse on YouTube. Very informative and a cutie.

Larry Gross two 100 Ah Battleborn batteries

Steve Lineberry where did you put the second battery?

Sue Puffer both batteries are under the side bunk.

Sue Puffer double battery mount under bunks

Steve Lineberry so you started with 2 batteries. Sounds perfect.

Sue Puffer

Gerard Weatherby in the link, epoxying is offered as a solution to "stronger" than tape, but, I think that depends how it is done. Epoxy will bond to the roughed up gel coat, but not form a solid bond to metal rails for instance. I suppose you could epoxy something made of wood or fiberglass and then mechanically attach that to the rails or panel.

Jorge O'Leary Personally, if I end up using roof solar I will be using mechanical fasteners in addition to a bonding agent. I'm typically conservative when it comes to engineering decisions.

Gerard Weatherby That’s what I am going to do.

Gerard Weatherby Proper preparation is important as well as adequate mounting surface. VHB tape is used to hold truck bodies together.

Roy Levi Teeler III Did you happen to check the description in my video? Let me know if you need more info. Thanks.

Steve Lineberry it’s been a while. I will watch it again. I’ve never messed with solar stuff much except installing the little solar plug in on casita . I’m just not familiar with all the little parts like the connectors? The little straps that keepThe solar wire clean and in place on the roof . I’m going to keep it super simple. Nothing big time . Just going to install a 100 amp panel come down the vent stack , figure out a place for a controller. I don’t want mine in the closet like a lot of people because it’s easier , I’m wanting it else where .

Roy Levi Teeler III you don’t need to watch the video, just open the description as i think i have a lot of things linked there.

Frank Higgins thanks!!

You’re very welcome

Linda Turek i went with grey tank instead of black so the bathroom would have less holes in it that i need to waterproof. Also, i figured i could put some devices in the closet later if i wanted. Which is what i ended up doing later. Yes, i fished the wire around the bathroom.

Linda Turek here’s a picture of where i have my solar controller mounted now

Linda Turek and here is where i now have my dc-dc charger mounted

Linda Turek the door closes up

Armen Stein thanks!

Shawn Knight True. Thru-bolting and tape is the way I am doing mine. So, the bolts and nut shows on the inside, no big deal.

Shawn Knight exactly. He is only accounting for the weight of the panels, not the force the wind will apply.

I'm thinking 1 @ 3/16th bolt and vhb per mounting plate will be plenty strong.

Raven McDavid both batteries are under the side bunk beds

Raven McDavid double battery mount under bunks

Raven McDavid

Liam Logue the wildkat has a jumper that switches between lithium and wet cell. It’s also cheaper than the one you mentioned. So more compatibility for less money.

Susan Pence

Susan Pence

Steve Lineberry thanks, where did you the mounts?

Susan Pence https://rvsolarstore.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=112

Susan Pence

Susan Pence

Susan Pence i sealed them with dicor

Meg Colby not yet, going to happen this week. When i shake one of the panels the whole trailer moves back and forth. From my research vhb tape can hold close to 50 lbs on a 1” x1” square. The feet are 3” x 1” and the panel weighs 14 lbs. A lot of people use vhb tape to mount solar on their casita and other trailers and they have had great success.

Steve Lineberry Sounds good. Keep us posted.

Meg Colby will do. It takes 72 hours for vhb tape to get to 100% strength. I’ll probably take it for a test on Wednesday around town. We are hoping to go for the weekend this coming one as well.

Steve Lineberry Have you calculated the wind load based on highway speeds? I fear you are going to hurt someone.

Stacey Martin yep, done the calculations. I also have them tethered to one another. I may also tether them to the a/c unit for extra caution.

Steve Lineberry ok, good luck!

Steve Lineberry I have seen some people add ether bond tape to the mounts to beef up. VHB is pretty sticky stuff. Wish the mounts had more surface area. I want to believe it works but I'm from the school of over building.

Greg Pohlman added some tape per your suggestion

Valerie Welch thanks!

Britt Long i haven’t added an inverter yet, but i have a friend with a similar setup and running his a/c over his inverter for an hour takes his batteries down to 75%.

So, if everything else is equal and this test was run at night (ie no solar), the AC could run for almost 4 hours. LiOn batteries can run to low percentage of charge without damage.

Yep, sounds about right

This should increase the tensile strength of the feet from 270 lbs of tensile strength to 336 lbs of tensile strength per foot. So my total tensile strength is over 1400 lbs per panel. With a weight of 14 lbs, that’s a 100x safety factor to handle any wind factors.

From my research and calculations, 130 mph wind hitting the panel laterally would generate 275 lbs. That gives me a 5x safety factor for what i consider a worst case scenario.

Steve Lineberry damn Steve! How do you do that!

Now that the tape has reached 100% adhesion, we plan on going for a test drive tomorrow. My wife will be pulling the Casita and I will be following to see how the panels are holding up. We’ll increase the speeds of the test until 65 or so mph.

I'm excited for you. Please keep us posted.

Steve Lineberry you've really done a great job all round. I need to catch up with you. I still have several of the last steps to do.

Steve Paynter thanks! For sure, let’s get together sometime soon.

Steve Lineberry absolutely. I'm heading out tomorrow for about a week. After that I'll give you a ring.Are you going to the October gathering of Carolina Casitas at Davidson campground?

KC Honie thanks!