200 Watt Solar Install on 2016 Flying Cloud 19'

[Snowy]

I thought I would share some pictures of the 200 Watt solar setup I just installed. As we have a 19' flying cloud I thought space would be limited but with the way I've mounted the panels I think we made great use of the available roof area. It just so happened I had an older 100W solar panel in my garage and I was able to do a test fit before committing to purchase new panels



As you can see above the space is tight but with the right mounts I would be able to install two panels, one on each side of front of the trailer. The question was, what mounts? I didn't find anything online which seems to suit my plan so I just made some. The idea was to make a mount that sat flat on the trailer curves with the panel flat across, slightly raised at the bottom to have the panels sit more horizontal.

This is what I came up with, this is the bottom bracket. It mounts to the curve of the trailer using VHB 4950 and has a pivot to match up with the panels.






The top ones were similar but lower profile



Note that the bracket is threaded as I didn’t think I would be able to get my fingers under the panel to put on a nut.

Below you can see them mounted to the panel and ready to install on the trailer.



It was easy to mount these to the roof. I left them attached to the panel and sat them on the roof, aligned them, marked where the brackets sat and then took them off. As noted above, they are mounted to the roof with VHB 4950 tape. That stuff works very, very well.



Once they were stuck down I covered the edges with Sikaflex to seal them, stopping water getting to the VHB tape




I think the panel mounts turned out very well.






Now onto the wiring. I am going to be controversial and tell you that I am using the factory installed 10 gauge wiring. Before someone jumps in and tells me that I should have used larger gauge wire, stop right there. This is a 200 watt install, I'm a BEng, the wire can take the amps and I can tolerate the loss. Is it perfect, NO, is it good enough for me, YES. Move along

Ok, so now that is out of the way. The Flying Cloud, 2016, has the solar pre-wire hidden in the bottom of the fantastic fan. I removed it and ran it into the air duct and down the trailer a little. This way I was able to meet up with the solar wires under the TV aerial. Below you can see the hold I drilled and grommet installed.



I covered this with a solar junction box, again stuck down with VHB tape and sealed with sikaflex.



The solar panels are setup in parallel as they are on opposite sides of the trailer, you never know where the sun will be on them. The Y is on the roof and single wires lead into the trailer where I have an inline fuse.

Under the front couch is where the solar pre-wires come out so this is where I installed the MPPT 20 amp charger. Here you can see it mounted, no wires setup yet.




I wired the charger directly to the battery so even if the isolator is on "store" it will still charge the batteries.

Finally, I installed a small remote meter to see what the charger is doing. This I installed under the couch/table, next to my AH meter. I didn't want to install it using the factory Ethernet cable position which is next to the sink. I wanted my electrical monitors in the same place and sort of hidden.





I'm sure I've missed some parts of the install out but it was actually a really easy project. (for me) Seems to all work ok, of course I live in Oregon and it's winter, we don't get alot of sun.

[alano]

Nice install. I particularly like the brackets! Your comments regarding wire size are spot on. The losses due to the pre-wiring are probably less than 2%!

[SCOTTinNJ]

Smart install.

[RxGuy]

Nicely done! Well designed installation.

[Chucke]

That is a nice install, does anybody know if a 2007 would have solar pre-wire?

[Johnco]

Yes they are pre-wired for solar, but you'll have to deal with the old style TV antenna taking up the space where the curb side panel would go if you want to do a similar installation.

[nadinez]

We are looking to possibly purchase a 28. Thank you!