Do you use your Solar Panel Tilt Bars?

[Burnside Bob]

If you have tilt bars for your solar panels, do you use them?

If you do use them, do you use them daily, or only if camped at one spot for an extended time?

And how do you access them? Carry a ladder? And if so, how tall a ladder? And where do you stow it?

I'm not a snowbird, so I seldom stay more than three nights at any one spot.
While the tilt bars seem handy for cleaning the roof now and again, at $35.00 per set (AM Solar's price) I could get a fourth panel (Renogy, $129.99 on Amazon) for less than the price of four sets of tilt bars.

So talk me into these bad boys!! What am I missing??

TIA

[pteck]

I don't have tilt bars, but I just can't see this being something that is practically useful.

Adjusting them multiple times a day, to track east to west, would be a pain.

Only real directional advantage would be to tilt them south, to maximize solar alignment in that specific parking orientation, if one was parked long term.

I kept my solar panels as flat as possible, to minimize really bad alignments (i.e. a north facing tilt)

[rmkrum]

We have tilt bars, but they are adjusted to tilt the panel up toward the rear of the AS roof. The reason is to drain water off the panel and put the leading (short dimension) edge down a bit to streamline it a bit while on the road. Since it is mounted between the front vent and the air conditioner shroud it just seemed to make sense.

It also helps some where we park for storage, nose toward the south. The bars came with the kit from AMSolar years ago. We installed it ourselves and it still works really well.

[Pete B55]

Originally Posted by Burnside Bob

If you have tilt bars for your solar panels, do you use them?



If you do use them, do you use them daily, or only if camped at one spot for an extended time?



And how do you access them? Carry a ladder? And if so, how tall a ladder? And where do you stow it?



I'm not a snowbird, so I seldom stay more than three nights at any one spot.

While the tilt bars seem handy for cleaning the roof now and again, at $35.00 per set (AM Solar's price) I could get a fourth panel (Renogy, $129.99 on Amazon) for less than the price of four sets of tilt bars.



So talk me into these bad boys!! What am I missing??



TIA

I have 7 AM Solar panels on my roof and seven sets of tilt bars. There are better uses for your money. I have used them when on the beach for a week but practically I only need a maximum of four sets at a time - whichever side is facing north. They do improve the watt-hours somewhat in the summer but it’s marginal @ 33 degrees latitude May-August. I winter camp a fair amount but usually have power so never used. I also have a telescoping ladder which is needed to use them. If I had to do it over I would not buy them

[AirMiles]

I made two tilt bars out of some 2” flat bar aluminum I had in my garage. I used these when installing the panels to make wiring easier. I have not needed them to improve charging. I do carry a 14’ multi-position ladder to clean my solar panels a couple of times each week. The ladder is stored flat against the front of my truckbed, so it shortens my 6.5’ bed by a few inches. I then use my generator to hold it upright. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gorilla-...X-13/304111172

[Ray Eklund]

Solar Powered Milk Crates...

Work at all Elevations in the Rocky Mountains.
Easily adjusted for maximum and minimum sun exposure.
Best of all... it works.

[Burnside Bob]

Thanks, all, for the feed back!!

I have previously spoken with two Air Forums members that had elaborate solar systems and neither of them used their tilt bars--mostly because their systems produced enough that optimizing the sun angle didn't matter--but they carried ladders anyway.

So my consensus take away is that the tilt bars are seldom used.

Ray, the most elaborate 'milk crate' set up I've seen is an aluminum frame holding two 100w panels mounted on a hand truck. But the owner still had to manually move his set up. But if you could get a big telescope clock drive, you could rig it up to follow the sun!!

And speaking of travelling and following the sun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTrNsAsjEmY

Happy roads!

[adobehome]

Although I installed my single 100 w solar panel on the roof to be able to tilt. I've never done so while camping. It is a pain to do so and the flat panel alkng with a 100 watt portable I take as well and use during inclement weather or heavy tree canopy and which is angled and can moved around, provides plenty of power.

[charlesk]

We have six solar panels on our 30’ Airstream. We also have six sets of the titling bars (AM Solar). During the winter, if we stay somewhere for a week, I’ll usually tilt one side of the trailers solar panels. Due to the low angle of the sun, during the winter, tilting can make a difference. We usually only tilt one side of the trailers solar panels.

We carry a telescoping ladder. Takes me all of 10-15 minutes to tilt.

[Airhead59]

I have two 170W panels on the roof. I have one set of tilt bars. I found them handy during installation to access beneath panels for wiring. I have not yet used them while travelling; I havent needed to. The 340W panel capacity has my batteries charged to 100%/12.8v, by 10 or 11 am each morning. Even on overcast days or parked in partial shade.

[Mattirs]

Originally Posted by Ray Eklund

Solar Powered Milk Crates...

Work at all Elevations in the Rocky Mountains.
Easily adjusted for maximum and minimum sun exposure.
Best of all... it works.

Or camper chairs at 7am in the morning. I set them up before going to bed guessing the direction for sunrise. In the summer I can be charging at 7 amps by 7am.
Can't find the pic in which I was using sticks to support the panels. That is one nice thing about having potable solar panels.

[thiel]

I can see them being useful in the winter when the sun is low... or if you plan to boondocks for weeks at a time...

[Shermy1987]

Thought I would update this thread.

I made some solar tilt bars yesterday after having to run my generator due to several days of cloud. Due to one set of panels being angled the wrong way, output in winter is far from optimum. The difference is quite a lot. About 10 more Amps going in at mid day. It takes about 5 minutes to install them. The bars only tilt the ones facing away from the sun. For the time it takes to fit them, they're a fantastic addition.

[SilverHouseDreams]

Just don’t forget to lower those sails before departing.

[Shermy1987]

I'm going to try leaving them up and see if it increases aerodynamics!!!

[Mattirs]

Originally Posted by Shermy1987

I'm going to try leaving them up and see if it increases aerodynamics!!!

Less wear on the tires.

[Wconley]

I just made my own from 1/8”x1” aluminum bar with parts from Lowe’s. Cost was about $15 per panel. I don’t expect to use them very often but this winter plan on some Boondocking and every bit helps in the winter.

[TouringDan]

I use tilt bars for my two 100 watt portable panels. I no longer use shore power to keep my batteries charged. The panels are set facing south to get as much direct sun as possible in the winter. Performance varies from about 10 watts with full cloud cover to 60 watts when the sun is out.

Dan

[Wconley]

We are in Utah and I used my home made bars for the first time. Tilting three of our four 100-watt panels increased our output from about 200 watts to 320 watts! The fourth panel is shadowed by the AC housing so it didn’t make any difference. My bars are home made at about half the cost and are adjustable to two different angles so I’m very happy with the 30 minutes making them. I’m finding that the shallower angle (not shown in the picture) is about the max I will need so I may cut the bars down when I get home.

It’s currently very sunny so the battery was fully charged within an hour or so of the sun coming into the canyon. However, it’s going to get rainy in a couple of days so we will need all the power we can get.