Ok, as a family of five, soon to be six, and our love for camping, we needed a solution for "streamlining" our camping trips. With so much stuff, it is a PITA to load everything up and hit the road for a weekend. Especially since the vehicle would be very cramped with all of us, our dogs, and our camping gear. With having four females, there are certain "comforts" that is required for our camping trips. Such as a shower, toilet, etc. etc. With the need of running water, I knew I was going to have to either have electricity, or a gravity fed system. My experience with the solar water bags automatically took that option off the table. So an electric pump it was. I also like the option of being able to run a small inverter for an air mattress pump. With having no experience with solar, I started to do some research on the trusty ole Google. Needless to say, I became very confused in a short amount of time. Now, by no means am I a solar expert or an electrical engineer. Just an ole Paramedic with a broad sense of knowledge and the ability to just figure stuff out. After hours of reading some very useful posts and resources and probably four times as much as useless posts, I decided to get started.
So, I purchased a 4x6 enclosed cargo trailer. That way all I would have to do is hook it up and go; keeping everything loaded in it would cut the process down exponentially. It also gave me a great place to mount a couple solar panels. The "remote" places we go camping, I needed something small, maneuverable, and light especially since we don't use camp grounds. This thing only weighs 600lbs empty.
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Next came the solar panels. I originally wanted just one large 280w panel to cut down on connections and have the max amount of wattage possible, but the problem I ran into was it was going to have to be freighted from the ones that I found, and the sheer size of them on a small trailer immediately excluded them. Even though I had 4x6 of trailer space, (a little wider on the outside, 4x6 is internal) I knew I wouldn't have that much space mounting them, considering the v-nose trailer, you lose about 2 foot of parallel sidewalls. So, I decided to use 2x 100w panels. The typical "Z" bracket mount option for 100w panels I wasn't a fan of. So I decided to use a ladder rack type mount. That way, I could limit the amount holes in the roof of the trailer. These rack systems (aluminum) are meant to be used with 2x4's but that just wasn't going to cut it. I initially was going to use aluminum tubing, but the cost alone was going to be crazy expensive (I know, kinda amusing I mention cost, considering I bought a new trailer just for this. I couldn't justify the cost when there had to be another option.) So, I decided to use SuperStrut. I think I actually remember seeing someone use this on another solar project, maybe that's where I got the idea.... Who knows? Anyway, 30 foot of 1-5/8x13/16 was purchased.
20170826_195653.jpg20170826_195644.jpg
So, I purchased a 4x6 enclosed cargo trailer. That way all I would have to do is hook it up and go; keeping everything loaded in it would cut the process down exponentially. It also gave me a great place to mount a couple solar panels. The "remote" places we go camping, I needed something small, maneuverable, and light especially since we don't use camp grounds. This thing only weighs 600lbs empty.
IMG_20150801_1225192092.jpg
Next came the solar panels. I originally wanted just one large 280w panel to cut down on connections and have the max amount of wattage possible, but the problem I ran into was it was going to have to be freighted from the ones that I found, and the sheer size of them on a small trailer immediately excluded them. Even though I had 4x6 of trailer space, (a little wider on the outside, 4x6 is internal) I knew I wouldn't have that much space mounting them, considering the v-nose trailer, you lose about 2 foot of parallel sidewalls. So, I decided to use 2x 100w panels. The typical "Z" bracket mount option for 100w panels I wasn't a fan of. So I decided to use a ladder rack type mount. That way, I could limit the amount holes in the roof of the trailer. These rack systems (aluminum) are meant to be used with 2x4's but that just wasn't going to cut it. I initially was going to use aluminum tubing, but the cost alone was going to be crazy expensive (I know, kinda amusing I mention cost, considering I bought a new trailer just for this. I couldn't justify the cost when there had to be another option.) So, I decided to use SuperStrut. I think I actually remember seeing someone use this on another solar project, maybe that's where I got the idea.... Who knows? Anyway, 30 foot of 1-5/8x13/16 was purchased.
20170826_195653.jpg20170826_195644.jpg
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