Club Motorhome Magazine
DIY Solar Panel Fitting
Member Techno100's guide to DIY solar panel fitting on a motorhome.
PART ONE make your own brackets etc
For this task you'll need:
- Some aluminium angle 60mm x 40mm x 3mm x 1 metre or equivalent
- Set square
- Hacksaw
- File
- Drill
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Rivet gun
- 4mm rivets
- 4mm hss drill bit
- 5mm tap
- 5mm set screws
This is the third set of brackets I've made so far. I've used 60mmx40mmx3mm angle as I came by it handy like 
A metre length of this stuff or similar can usually be bought for under a tenner, Ebay is good for this but plus P&P.
Closest I've found is 2.5"x1.5"x1/8" x1M for about £14 delivered.
Previously I've fitted 60 watt and 80 watt panels which require 4 brackets each and so only 1 set screw needed for each one. In this instance I've made brackets for 2 x 30 watt panels that will only require 1 bracket at each end and so I've fitted 2 set screws to keep them level. These are 5mm and I used a 4mm hss drill bit followed by a 5mm tap both driven through using a battery drill. You can use anything similar to achieve this or just a spacer.
Sikaflex 512 adhesive requires a MINIMUM thickness of 2mm and the set screws guarantee this will be acheived. I use the thickness of the brackets 3mm as in picture 3 to gauge this.
These particular brackets are 200mm long and the panel ends (to be illustrated next) are 445 mm wide.
Dunlop Air Suspension - Fitting Made Easy
Dunlop Air Suspension, fitting made easy guide
Member Techno100 has produced the following information about self fitting Dunlop Air Suspension:
For this job you will need:
- Some additional ground clearance (Milenco Quattros ideal)
- A long handled torque wrench
- Hammerite Waxoyl to coat all metal parts during assembly
- A tape measure for LSV (load sensing valve)
- 1/2" drive sockets 13,17,22mm
- Hammer, cold chisel, sidecutters, stanley knife, battery drill, 8mm HSS bit
Begin with the rod measurement at the LSV as this may alter with the suspension upgrade and need to be adjusted later, BEFORE driving.
Club Motorhome supports Asthma UK
Club Motorhome is supporting Asthma UK in 2012
You may have noticed that we have a Donate button on some of our main pages.
We have chosen Asthma UK for personal reasons as our nephew who suffered with severe asthma was killed tragically at the age of 32 in a car accident in October 2011. His parents have set up a Lasting Memories Fund in his name with all the proceeds going to Asthma UK.
If you would like to donate to Asthma UK you can do so by using this button and completing the instructions on our donation page, it only takes a minute or two.
The donations collected via Club Motorhome will be passed on to this fund in their entirety (Paypal do deduct approximately 3.5% to process the donations)
Some key facts from Asthma UK:
The Jubilee Jam 2012
Â
...........celebrates
Â
The Queens Diamond Jubilee
1st – 5th June 2012
Camping & Caravanning Weekend
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The Club Motorhome nominated charity for 2012 is Asthma UK. We are accepting donations for them through the Simon Aspland Lasting Memories Fund. Please consider donating to Asthma UK.
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