Van of enormous power Mk 4

[resybaby]

Can you not make a quick clamp out of a piece of flat ali JB, similar to mine. Pop a piece of thin gasket/rubber around the 'circle' end and clamp it down onto your rails.
Mines been up there a few years and many miles now, although i keep the speed down to reduce upwards lift and have kept panels as close to the roof as is possible.

[Joeboy]

Can you not make a quick clamp out of a piece of flat ali JB, similar to mine. Pop a piece of thin gasket/rubber around the 'circle' end and clamp it down onto your rails.
Mines been up there a few years and many miles now, although i keep the speed down to reduce upwards lift and have kept panels as close to the roof as is possible.

That's is a neat solution . I'm still playing with ideas and have to have a deep rummage this weekend. Speed and lift will not be an issue as 60mph would be the very top end!

Although the paracord JC lanyards are there on the off chance of a panel trying for freedom.

This morning we are upcycling the £50 LB from dormant in a garage to active in our van and dropping off a repaired and waxed oak chest of drawers at the same time. All in the EV.

Those two 2nd hand trades put us £220 up and a nice couple get an antique to become a heirloom piece for very little .
(rrp on oak chest of drawers is £400 - £600).

I REALLY like the secondhand market. It's where I'm most comfortable

[Joeboy]

Thank you Fintray & resybaby. Both of you directly influenced the outcome for the second panel install.. The clamps are new old stock at a market and were thrown in along with a couple of pieces of furniture we bought.



2nd hand Battery is sitting at 12.75V

[resybaby]

No worries JB, im happy to be able to add a morsel back for a change.
Looked at the exact same clips myself (ss ones looked better on my ss rails) but struggled with the sizes due to my rails being non standard.
Clip was either too small and wouldnt form the 90' angle to run to the opposite rail, or were too big and wouldnt tighten down.
Was also a little concerned with the single thinkness bolt hole area/leg maybe being just too short a single bolting up point. But all relative to style of driving and speed vs strength durability i decided.
My motor is, shall we say, rather souped up and goes round the Cornish corners at same speed as on the long straights, surprise lots of bmw/audi drivers so i needed to eleminate all flex to match the motors modifications.
So in the end i went with ali ones, to overspec.

[Joeboy]

No worries JB, im happy to be able to add a morsel back for a change.
Looked at the exact same clips myself (ss ones looked better on my ss rails) but struggled with the sizes due to my rails being non standard.
Clip was either too small and wouldnt form the 90' angle to run to the opposite rail, or were too big and wouldnt tighten down.
Was also a little concerned with the single thinkness bolt hole area/leg maybe being just too short a single bolting up point. But all relative to style of driving and speed vs strength durability i decided.
My motor is, shall we say, rather souped up and goes round the Cornish corners at same speed as on the long straights, surprise lots of bmw/audi drivers so i needed to eleminate all flex to match the motors modifications.
So in the end i went with ali ones, to overspec.

Horses for courses, yours is a much faster one than mine! I'm on a hippo!
It may be a while before I fit the second panel. If at all from Ecoworthy. A long boring story that I'll hold back the noo.

The single panel up there did well today even with maxing out the 80Ah LB early.



The 100Ah 2nd hand battery is in and ran up a 500W resistive heater with no alarms and recovered well. So I know I'm at least 1/2 kW good off grid.

It's all going very well. If the ecoworthy bull continues much longer I'll cut my losses and search the 2nd hand market for a used PV unit. It's part age I think but I just can't be arsed with bad actors anymore and Ecoworthy are looking like that now...

Colin Deng has been excellent to us in all dealings. This Ecoworthy mob make Colin look like a god amongst men.

To end on a further high note, it looks as if this single bifacial can generate about 1/3kWh in February if the battery isn't full. That's pretty good, if I can get a pair like that I think that will be offgrid tv, lights and water pumping covered. Gas can do the heavy lifting at the fridge and water heater. I've been so focused on the merde panel I'd lost sight that we're fully functional remote location if need be. I'll play about tomorrow and see what the tv and an hdmi pocket player pull from the off grid set up. The off grid set up...

[Joeboy]

SWMBO has commenced circling to sort the van properly. An uncanny knack of knowing when a stage is finishing!

I may have to tidy soon and hand it over.

The beauty of van life. Mechanical fun, electrical shenanigans, a bit of a marine vibe and up & move whenever.