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4 way tilting panels fully working

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well I did have images of my 4-way tilting panel system but it been so effective that i have told to remove the images and at the moment taking it forward as a business opportunity.

These i'm told the worlds first 4 way tilting bracket.

Would be a fool not to look into it as a business and being a business owner 3 times in the past I should know.
 
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Lookin good! Maybe use wing nuts on those bolts to make it easier? I'm not clear on exactly what the finished product will be but looking forward to the pics.
 
I love the simplicity of this. The concern I'd have is on the stress of the panel frame in high winds. So far, the only thing I've seen anyone do to address this well is weld steel to the frame, then bolt to that. Otherwise, if you're not concerned about that, then this works well. Perhaps you just need to flatten the panels when winds get high. You'd obviously do that if you put these on a moving vehicle before driving, but wanted to angle them while parked, which I presume is your plan.

Thank you for the picts.
 
Well i get back to you later guys i,m done for at the mo, omg, building the tilt was simple but trying to remove the old plastic brackets from the roof was a nightmare, that selkafex is like some superhero glue, 4 hours and plenty of blue words.
 
An update.

Took my design to the alumni fabricators, He said what a great idea, after a few seconds of brainstorming we came up with a fast lock and unlock system for easy tilt angle. sadly something has gotten in the way and that's the 25th December, he is taking a few weeks off but will try and make one corner bracket, he then wants to see me so we can then get things right.

Maybe if this works that well I should patent this design? i can't be posting photos until its fully working which should be in January next year, so a few weeks.

For the stress on the panels in wind, that will be addressed when i see him soon. he has an idea which I thought was interesting.

The whole system will be built and nut-free as I said before.
 
like minds. have had similar in mind. cant decide yet. example... with solar you HAVE to park in the sun. I like trees, cooler habitat in the shade. Wondering if I can (for non traditional campsites... aka boondocking) have my system with 4 legs. drive camper out from under it... move camper too camp spot.... run cables.... tadaaaa..

or make majority of it an awning that slides out or tilts up orrr??
 
Why i designed the tilting panels system

Parking is a nightmare in the UK when off-grid or boondocking you as guys call it, it may take hours to find one place and it may be small, so parking at the right angles for a one-way tilt just won't work and with the sun being extremely low that also is a major problem as i live almost full time in the RV. also i can't have the panels near to the ground as they would walk off in someone's car or van and my rv is often on its own without m,e in it, so rooftop panels are the best options for me.

you can get side fitting brackets or make them. they could be three-way types.
 
From what I've heard, people quickly loathe the idea of going onto the roof to raise and lower the panels. And, even if you're in one place for several days, one really needs to reposition them for morning and evening sun too. This ends up being a lot of trips up and down a ladder; at least twice a day.
But, if you really need/want to catch some late afternoon sun, tilting panels are definitely very useful for that - i often wish i had them.

Also hearsay, the solution has often been more panels and/or more batteries (not always an option of course).

You can see for yourself whether you're up for it. Go up on your roof and putz around for 5 minutes, twice everyday for a week. Once between sundown and sun up, and once midday.
 
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MisterSandals said:
From what I've heard, people quickly loathe the idea of going onto the roof to raise and lower the panels. And, even if you're in one place for several days, one really needs to reposition them for morning and evening sun too. This ends up being a lot of trips up and down a ladder; at least twice a day.
But, if you really need/want to catch some late afternoon sun, tilting panels are definitely very useful for that - i often wish i had them.

Also hearsay, the solution has often been more panels and/or more batteries (not always an option of course).
Click to expand...
Thats was the problem i went over in my head loads of times, but given the low sun in the uk and only 6 hours of possible sun the tilts was the only way. the spring loads locking system was designed today so i hope to have something just after Xmas.

the roof of my motorhome is maxed out with panels, just three of them but they are 150 watts each, two are to be joined together and one on its own.

Climbing the roof in't too bad and i,m a total daredevil so its very normal and its a nice view sometimes. the roof is fastly becoming one of the key items in my motorhome lifestyle. the whole roof is slowly being turned into a water feed system that feeds into the main water tank vie filtration. getting water in the uk is harder than anything I know with bans in gas station giving water, our churches have stopped free taps. I soon found myself jumping out the normal thinking box into one that is full of brainstorming. its never-ending my friend at the moment.

It all great fun tho.

I found that a single tilt panel could be made to move to vie electric or put ram air hydraulics, but this would need different skills to come together. would need different companies to come together too i guess.
 
Bolt for a hinge pin, no further than it's moving an no more stress than it's under, use a lock nut and you are fine.

The brace with bolts is cumbersome,
How about a 'Self Locking' or 'Ball Lock' pins?
In the military and racing we call them 'Pit Pins'.

s-l300.jpg


They come in all sizes and lengths,
If you do the surplus thing and your pin is too long, slip a piece of tubing over it to tighten up the 'Slop' tolerance.

Avibank-Ball-Lok-Pins-small.png


I would put them through from the aluminum/panel side and let the ball lock onto the steel...
 
I have seen a few but have gone for something else, spring-loaded bolts, these are able to be locked opened and cost just £2 and luckily the people whos making the bracket using them often.

the pins you show are similar to the ones that will be used for the angle adjustments the one with the black and safety tie, next to the blue is almost the same.

I hope the chap has the first test bracket done around xmas time, he wasn't me to go over the rest of the design and liking his idea for the bracing of the two panels.

the plan is, have the first panel up around mid jan, weather depending ☔use plenty of swear words and hope to get back with something soon after, so like most things in the UK it means it will be done in 5 years time lol.
 
Just an idea, if you can't use it maybe someone else can...

I find swear words make all the difference on difficult jobs! :)
 
JeepHammer said:
Just an idea, if you can't use it maybe someone else can...

I find swear words make all the difference on difficult jobs! :)
Click to expand...
its a really easy job, just the bonding sealant on the old brackets were being a pain. it is like this, it has to work or the motorhome is finished as a home. i need to make the most of every bit of sun in the winter months., here we may not see it for days on end. about 4 hours of blue skies since Saturday. it plays a bigger roll because it was bought to be lived in full-time off-grid. its worked well in testing using what i put in the images. the panels don't weight that much.

I be interested to find out if there's any change in power when the panels are tilted on a cloudy day.

the swear jar was almost empty until that sealant lol.

what really sucks, i was meant to start a solar diary on the shortest day of the year, which is on the 22 this month. wanted to see how the days and months change throughout the year and three set times per day. will have to start out of sync instead grrr. where that's swear jar!!!
 
Cloudy-Day said:
.... the roof is fastly becoming one of the key items in my motorhome lifestyle. the whole roof is slowly being turned into a water feed system that feeds into the main water tank vie filtration....
Click to expand...
Do you have a write up somewhere about your rain water collection system?
 
coachgeo said:
Do you have a write up somewhere about your rain water collection system?
Click to expand...
Sorry just deleted what I wrote be a mistake so round two.

I came up wi the idea after seeing someone doing the same on youtube but the only difference for me my van moves where the van was a static caravan.

My vans roof will floor mum garden when it rains, so what a waste of water. The water can be made to run off down the back into a small-large item filter, then down to a pre tank 3 stage filter, cost £27 the filter will remove 98% of crap. also, its easier for me because I do not drink the van's water.

to help the water a bit more, can add inline filters, these are small and cheap at about £20 for a set of 3 and will last about 2 years. for full drinking water.

using something like this would work well and have good water on tap for cooking. amazon the overall cost would be around £95 if i went for the inline too.

if you was to go for a top pro thing i think the cost is around £800.

thing is, there's loads of way you can go about making a filter system, taking a fish pond water filter and adding the active charcoal and carbon filters yourself, there's loads on youtube about it and oddly the £800 system works in dead the same way.

Funny, the fish pond filter system are also the same as human water filters just with a different medium.
 
Cloudy-Day said:
Sorry just deleted what I wrote be a mistake so round two.

I came up wi the idea after seeing someone doing the same on youtube but the only difference for me my van moves where the van was a static caravan.

My vans roof will floor mum garden when it rains, so what a waste of water. The water can be made to run off down the back into a small-large item filter, then down to a pre tank 3 stage filter, cost £27 the filter will remove 98% of crap. also, its easier for me because I do not drink the van's water.

to help the water a bit more, can add inline filters, these are small and cheap at about £20 for a set of 3 and will last about 2 years. for full drinking water.

using something like this would work well and have good water on tap for cooking. amazon the overall cost would be around £95 if i went for the inline too.

if you was to go for a top pro thing i think the cost is around £800.

thing is, there's loads of way you can go about making a filter system, taking a fish pond water filter and adding the active charcoal and carbon filters yourself, there's loads on youtube about it and oddly the £800 system works in dead the same way.

Funny, the fish pond filter system are also the same as human water filters just with a different medium.
Click to expand...
thanks...... don't want to cloud up solar board (pardon the pun) with rainwater collection info. was hoping you might have posted something elsewhere.... for myself I have filter setup and UV (you need to find a way to kill the bacterial in bird poop from your roof etc... seriously NOT KIDDING) so am good there

my curiosity is mostly in how you move the rain along into tubing to plump it into a tank.
 
Cool, it is a little more elegant than the one I described, by extending the pivot points a little though you can use quick pins.
A suggestion, if you put the bolt heads under the panel, and a nylock nut to hold in place, move the brackets out a little, to accomodate the nuts, you could use wingnuts. Just realized that I made a schoolboy mistake, the permanent bolts would only work if you used hinges instead of brackets, & ovalled out the hole for the bolts.
Thanks for the pictures. Too bad it is not patentable which probably explains why no one is marketing one.
 
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nibs said:
Cool, it is a little more elegant than the one I described, by extending the pivot points a little though you can use quick pins.
A suggestion, if you put the bolt heads under the panel, and a nylock nut to hold in place, move the brackets out a little, to accomodate the nuts, you could use wingnuts. Just realized that I made a schoolboy mistake, the permanent bolts would only work if you used hinges instead of brackets, & ovalled out the hole for the bolts.
Thanks for the pictures. Too bad it is not patentable which probably explains why no one is marketing one.
Click to expand...
Noy using any bolts or wing nuts, a spring-loaded locking bolt will be in place. which is made next door to the guy who is making the brackets, so all good.

not sure why its not a patent idea ss solar power in the uk is hopeless when the panels are flat on the roof.

remember the design had to be thrown together in a few hours, a hinge idea would need multistable bolts and still need a bracket to hold it to the roof of the van. the whole system will use no bolts around the panels, with 8 screws for the plate being attached to the roof plus selkaflex 512. the angles that controls the tilt will have a push pin with a safety hook.

having two type of brackets made too due to one panel will need to sit over the top of a skylight window.

will be placing some for sale on my website when its fully tested.
 
As for the water.

water flow to the drain should be fine, te van tilts slightly due the twin batteries, the guides will be high enough to get a flow going. its a large roof.

as the dirty water, the system should remove most items but as i show its not for drinking so no need to go overboard with the filters. theres a few high-quality water filters on the market that works inline just before the tap that can help remove even worse items and of coarse the water filters system that sist on a work service.

getting water in the uk is as hard as finding LPG, to get LPG its a drive of 40 - 60 miles. thsi country is dead against people doing what i,m trying to do. even parking is a nightmare, to many rules and private laws. i often break laws just to get some sleep.
 
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