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Fatal accident caused by loose panel on road

ianganderton

ianganderton

Auckland, NZ
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
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Location
Auckland, New Zealand
Just seen a post on another forum about a fatal road accident in Tasmania, Australia police believe was caused by a solar panel on the toad that had fallen from a caravan roof

Here is a news article about the accident:
www.abc.net.au

Child among three dead in multi-vehicle crash in Tasmania's Midlands

Three people have died and four more have been taken to hospital after a multi-vehicle crash near Ross in Tasmania's Midlands. WARNING: This story contains an image that may cause distress.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Here is a comment piece that was shared in the post discussing roof attachment problems with glued panels

www.thegreynomads.com.au

solar panels, caravans, grey nomads, outback, motorhomes

The recent death of three people in a multi-vehicle collision which occurred after a solar panel flew off a caravan sent shockwaves through the grey...
www.thegreynomads.com.au www.thegreynomads.com.au

The guy says his glued down panels were not secure

What are your thoughts?

Is glueing an appropriate form of solar panel attachment?

Is it a case of the devil being in the detail? I.e the right adhesive, solid clean surfaces

How often do you check your panels?

What even your attachment thoughts it does highlight the problems with insecure loads on vehicles and how the consequences can be completely catastrophic with horrendous consequences.
 
The devil is certainly in the detail. Right adhesive, clean surfaces, correct application. Do all that and the sheet metal of the caravan will fail first but at least in my experience none of those 3 are followed. Sealastic? That'll do. :(

I'd prefer that people properly bolt things down when attaching them to caravans but I'm a dreamer too. That means putting proper mounting blocks on the inside so that the bolts have something to spread the load. This is what a local installer does here. When ever something is to be attached they open up the van so they can see the inside of the sheeting / frame work and use blocks with studs to go through to the outside then close everything up and from there on everything is done from the outside, bolted down to the studs. It's not going anywhere unless the van disintegrates.
 
Last edited:
ianganderton said:
Just seen a post on another forum about a fatal road accident in Tasmania, Australia police believe was caused by a solar panel on the toad that had fallen from a caravan roof

Here is a news article about the accident:
www.abc.net.au

Child among three dead in multi-vehicle crash in Tasmania's Midlands

Three people have died and four more have been taken to hospital after a multi-vehicle crash near Ross in Tasmania's Midlands. WARNING: This story contains an image that may cause distress.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Here is a comment piece that was shared in the post discussing roof attachment problems with glued panels

www.thegreynomads.com.au

solar panels, caravans, grey nomads, outback, motorhomes

The recent death of three people in a multi-vehicle collision which occurred after a solar panel flew off a caravan sent shockwaves through the grey...
www.thegreynomads.com.au www.thegreynomads.com.au

The guy says his glued down panels were not secure

What are your thoughts?

Is glueing an appropriate form of solar panel attachment?

Is it a case of the devil being in the detail? I.e the right adhesive, solid clean surfaces

How often do you check your panels?

What even your attachment thoughts it does highlight the problems with insecure loads on vehicles and how the consequences can be completely catastrophic with horrendous consequences.
Click to expand...
I have had two family members lose "glued on panels," They thought I was over-engineering my mounting set up" They no longer feel that way.
 
I installed 3 100W Renogy panels on my Sprinter in 2016. I used 3M VHB tape on aluminum pads that were in turn attached to standard Z brackets.

I caulked the pads to keep water out but I don't know if that was necessary. To be clear the front two panels were secured to the roof rail on one side, but the 3rd panel behind the AC unit is secured only by VHB. I have checked them periodically and they are not going anywhere. VHB is used all the time in automotive and aviation applications where having things fall off would be very bad. Surface prep is critical to a good bond.

Note that 100w panels are relatively small and light. I don't know that I would have taken the same approach with full size residential panels.

VHB1.jpgVHB2.jpg
 
I don't trust the tape. In my How-To post for using mounting brackets on EPDM I point out that adhesive tape is a really bad idea on that type of roof.

When it comes to securing down solar panels, especially on a vehicle, there is no such thing as overkill. I used six brackets instead of the usual four and I made absolutely sure that each bracket had at least one screw in the truss, not just in the roof underlayment.

My trailer solar panels have made it through strong Wyoming winds.

Indolent58, you should use lap sealant on the bolts to keep water from seeping down to the tape.
 
HRTKD said:
I don't trust the tape. In my How-To post for using mounting brackets on EPDM I point out that adhesive tape is a really bad idea on that type of roof.

When it comes to securing down solar panels, especially on a vehicle, there is no such thing as overkill. I used six brackets instead of the usual four and I made absolutely sure that each bracket had at least one screw in the truss, not just in the roof underlayment.

My trailer solar panels have made it through strong Wyoming winds.

Indolent58, you should use lap sealant on the bolts to keep water from seeping down to the tape.
Click to expand...
This was mounted on a smooth steel roof. I would never use VHB on EPDM.
 
Indolent58 said:
This was mounted on a smooth steel roof. I would never use VHB on EPDM.
Click to expand...

It's hard to tell from the close up picture. It doesn't matter. You should still seal the bolts. Water has a way of finding all the paths you didn't seal.

I do not use any silicone on the outside of my RV trailer. For the roof, it's only Dicor Lap Sealant.
 
The thing that's wrong with 2 sided tape on an EDPM roof is it will stick to the roof no matter what. So well in fact, that it will lift the adhesive off the underneath of the EDPM and take the EDPM off as it blows down the road.

If anyone uses a tether seeing a pic would be nice. I know will recommends a tether, but I don't recall in his book seeing the specifics on how to make this tether, like:

"1/8" Steel cable with a #12 ring lug on each end routed through holes drilled in the panels and secured at the end of each string with #12 self tapping screws."

That's the detail I'm looking for and not making up something that makes the problem worst. I always consider the front most panel the most likely to go and also the most likely to take the two out behind it that is tethered to it as it flaps in the wind and tears the others out one by one with the driver not even hearing this.

What exactly is a frame mounted tether? DO I run a cable through the ceiling and floor 10 feet down to the frame?
 
chrisski said:
What exactly is a frame mounted tether? DO I run a cable through the ceiling and floor 10 feet down to the frame?
Click to expand...

No idea. I suspect they mean it has to be in something more substantial than roof underlayment, which is often 7/16" OSB. Trailers that do not have a walk-on roof probably have underlayment even thinner than that.
 
I glued my flexi-panels directly to the roof of my vehicle with Dekasyl MS-5, a "sylil modified polymer power glue" - whatever that is.
I was reluctant at first, would they really stay up there?
Last month, one of the panels had a damage (no idea how that happened), and as it had warranty, I got a new panel. Now getting that damaged panel off the roof seems almost impossible... when I asked around, some guys told me they slapped the new panel just on top of the old one for avoiding the pain in the a**!
If using Dekasyl, losing a panel seems im possible to me.
 
chrisski said:
The thing that's wrong with 2 sided tape on an EDPM roof is it will stick to the roof no matter what. So well in fact, that it will lift the adhesive off the underneath of the EDPM and take the EDPM off as it blows down the road.

If anyone uses a tether seeing a pic would be nice. I know will recommends a tether, but I don't recall in his book seeing the specifics on how to make this tether, like:

"1/8" Steel cable with a #12 ring lug on each end routed through holes drilled in the panels and secured at the end of each string with #12 self tapping screws."

That's the detail I'm looking for and not making up something that makes the problem worst. I always consider the front most panel the most likely to go and also the most likely to take the two out behind it that is tethered to it as it flaps in the wind and tears the others out one by one with the driver not even hearing this.

What exactly is a frame mounted tether? DO I run a cable through the ceiling and floor 10 feet down to the frame?
Click to expand...

I don’t even have an RV so I’m just spitballing here with something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Lumintrail-H...id=1603146067&sprefix=Lock+cab,aps,183&sr=8-5

Connect it to anything solid enough to keep it banging on your RV if something goes wrong instead of launching like a missile.
 
I also vote for tethering all panels using cable as a safety measure, even if it's screwed down. It's not the weight of the panel, it's the wind drag and wind gusts pushing them backward and lifting them up/off.

For adhesive installs, I advocate for continuous C/U channels for more adhesive surface area rather than a few mounts that were designed for screw-down, not glue-down.
 
Has anyone got any examples of tether setups inc photos

If a panel is screwed and glued to a roof what would you use for the tether and what what you attach it to?
 
Suppliers on the internet give the impression their corner mounts are the thing to use because they won't be liable. Heaps of stuff flies off vehicles all the time, rubbish from trailers, surfboards, tradies timber, whatever. It's sad but cars crash from hitting animals too especially in Tasmania. There's more dead wombats than sign posts.
 
I had a couch come off a trailer ahead of me at 80km/h and disintegrate into shards many years ago. Avoiding that was ... fun.
 
ianganderton said:
Has anyone got any examples of tether setups inc photos

If a panel is screwed and glued to a roof what would you use for the tether and what what you attach it to?
Click to expand...

I Second this.

atatistcheff said:
Screwed in panels with tether.
Click to expand...

Mind giving a little detail into construction. I'm guessing it's 1/8 inch steel line with the ends self crimped. I would like to know what you did with the two ends of the wire, and what they are attached to. My guess is its around an antenna mount you can raise.

Not many tether-worthy points on the top of most RVs.
 
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