Ground Mount Help

[erik.calco]

I plan to play with ground mounting, but have little practical experience in building with wood. Can anyone share links to anything helping people learn how to build structures. I know I can search online, and plan to do that. Have already done it quite a bit... enough to know that it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for.

The links don't have to be directly related to mounting solar panels. I'd really like more basics on creating joints, types of bolts, cutting, tools, all the knit and grit that goes into building wood based support structures.

It can include other materials, such as steel. I just want wood to be the core. I imagine I'll need steel for some portions, including providing tilt capability, and, of course, bolts.

I'm also interested in options for rails and other methods for panel fastening. I do want the ability to quickly pop them off if needed.

My hands on goal is to start small near the ground, perhaps building something to hold 1-3 panels. Then, as I learn, consider higher structures, such as pergolas or pavilions. I'd rather learn hands-on with a simple one first, so when I build the final one, I'll be able to creatively create a better end-result.

Thank you in advance for sharing!

 

[erik.calco]

@JeepHammer Would love to see picts of your panel mounts.

Pictures from anyone would be very much appreciated. I collected some from here. Just not enough, yet. You can't post too many, so go nuts!

Short-term solutions are valued as much as long-term because I plan to do short-term ground mounting until I have the time to complete a more permanent solution. So, my first mounts will be temporary, lasting 1-3 years. Long-term might be a roof over a patio.

 

[Santa]

I will be building (someday soon) a system like yours beyond an RV. I would love to see pictures and or diagrams on how to do this safely.

 

[JeepHammer]

@JeepHammer Would love to see picts of your panel mounts.

Pictures from anyone would be very much appreciated. I collected some from here. Just not enough, yet. You can't post too many, so go nuts!

No you don't, I'm the worst carpenter EVER!

Decide 'Up' (stacked) or 'Horizontal' along with ground contour.
Your space usually determines this, small space, hills, flat ground.

Being the worst carpenter ever, and knowing a good idea when I steal it ,
I had the lowest cost with horizontal since I have the room.
Upright posts set on a string line to keep them straight,
Use that same string line for the horizontal pipe through them the panels mount on,
(Even I can stretch a string without screwing up too bad...)

Some of my panels are in a livestock pasture,
I staked the string line, used plain old round tree posts, I just got the tops up next to the string line before I set them, extra tall to keep the livestock from rubbing the panels.
Fence below like normal.
I did set more posts, a little closer together to keep the livestock from moving posts when they rubbed the fence...
(Electric fence REALLY helps)

What I learned,
Lots of wind, panels length wise, less wind leverage on the middle of the panel.
Low wind, wind break, panels width wise, more panels on any given length of fence/posts/pipe.
.......

While people talk about how 'Cheap' panels are, I use the better glass front, aluminum frame panels that last for 20 years, and I have yet to see a 'Cheap' well built panel...

I like pipes because they are easy to sun track with when installed North/South.
Sun tracking with something as simple as posts, a hole saw/drill and pipe adds 15-30% production when you sun track.
That's almost 'Free' Watts, and Watts are King... Especially during short winter days.

.......

Now, while people build dedicated heavy racks all the time which take up GROUND space...

Have you considered a 'Shade' cover over the patio? (With stylish 'Blue' shade panels)
Have you considered one of those $1,000 metal tubing/roof 'Car Ports'?
Ever want a metal tubing frame 'Green' House'?
A 'Lean To' added to the garage that can be boxed in later?

Some concrete, pavers, decorative rock underneath and you have USEABLE space.
Pavers or rock comes right back up in the event you want to move it at some point.
(Ever try to dig out big concrete surface anchors? ... I have... )

Screw in anchors used for light pole guide wires and house trailer anchors keep the lighter weight supports in place during big winds.
If you have a way to screw in the really big ones, utilities often don't reuse them, there is a pile waiting to hit the scrap yard, buy them for scrap weight...
I used my manual pipe bender handles for 'Cheater Bars'.

.......

If you DO want a big, heavy rack, go to the local sports field and see how the bleachers are built, take some pictures... Scale down as necessary.
Use screws, bolts & nuts, nails back out...
A broken weld is an event that requires a welder and creates electrical current issues, a broken or missing screw/bolt is a 15 minute job with hand tools...
(And this is coming from a welder by trade)

Some people MUST go 'Up', no room to spread out.
*IF* you have to build Up, rent a tractor with post hole drill...
(Unless there is a bunch of big teenage boys sniffing around a daughter, then have HER con them into doing something constructive )

Its much easier to put dirt back into a hole than to get it out in the first place, but if you use concrete, keep it low down in a DEEP hole if there is any chance at all the ground might be used for something else later down the road...
(And again, that's from experience...)

......

When you go Up and sun track, someplace you get high wind/severe storms, you will pretty quickly find those single post with swivel on top for panels...
Did I mention I live in Indiana's 'Tornado Alley'?

If it swivels for east/west sun tracking,
The easiest way I've found is a center posts with rack on top,
Sounds familiar?...
I used a big truck axle, on end so a heavy duty wheel beating 'Up' for panel deck to rotate around,
And the axle housing will literally stand up to a tornado.
The panel deck on wheel bearings that will handle 17,000 pounds,
All it needs is some support wheels at the edges/corners of the deck to keep the deck from warping/twisting.
Riding lawn mower tires will do that job, but I use sealed spindle bearings from front wheel drive cars (cheap/free used) with lug studs so I can use common economy car aluminum rims, also cheap/free.
An aluminum wheels with tire/bead lip removed gives a solid wheel that never goes flat and doesn't look horrible.

Since the spindle bearings bolt in, they can be bolted to wooden posts if you don't work in metal.
For lighter duty platforms, Horror Freight sells large diameter solid wheels, but the rubber does degrade and they aren't very wide.
I use pavers in an arc at both ends of my platform for the wheels, normally they don't touch the ground, only when the wind blows real hard against the panels.

The last part is my 'Deck', it's a salvaged office trailer frame with everything stripped off the top.
A plate welded/bolted in and set on the big truck hub (which has lug nut studs, so it bolted down) and put my panel rack on the deck.

While it's WAY overbuilt, it's survived 3 indirect strikes from tornados and more severe storms than I can count.
It's built from 'Junk', but a tornado can't kill it...

 

[erik.calco]

No you don't, I'm the worst carpenter EVER!

Decide 'Up' (stacked) or 'Horizontal' along with ground contour.
Your space usually determines this, small space, hills, flat ground.

Being the worst carpenter ever, and knowing a good idea when I steal it ,
I had the lowest cost with horizontal since I have the room.
Upright posts set on a string line to keep them straight,
Use that same string line for the horizontal pipe through them the panels mount on,
(Even I can stretch a string without screwing up too bad...)

Some of my panels are in a livestock pasture,
I staked the string line, used plain old round tree posts, I just got the tops up next to the string line before I set them, extra tall to keep the livestock from rubbing the panels.
Fence below like normal.
I did set more posts, a little closer together to keep the livestock from moving posts when they rubbed the fence...
(Electric fence REALLY helps)

What I learned,
Lots of wind, panels length wise, less wind leverage on the middle of the panel.
Low wind, wind break, panels width wise, more panels on any given length of fence/posts/pipe.
.......

While people talk about how 'Cheap' panels are, I use the better glass front, aluminum frame panels that last for 20 years, and I have yet to see a 'Cheap' well built panel...

I like pipes because they are easy to sun track with when installed North/South.
Sun tracking with something as simple as posts, a hole saw/drill and pipe adds 15-30% production when you sun track.
That's almost 'Free' Watts, and Watts are King... Especially during short winter days.

.......

Now, while people build dedicated heavy racks all the time which take up GROUND space...

Have you considered a 'Shade' cover over the patio? (With stylish 'Blue' shade panels)
Have you considered one of those $1,000 metal tubing/roof 'Car Ports'?
Ever want a metal tubing frame 'Green' House'?
A 'Lean To' added to the garage that can be boxed in later?

Some concrete, pavers, decorative rock underneath and you have USEABLE space.
Pavers or rock comes right back up in the event you want to move it at some point.
(Ever try to dig out big concrete surface anchors? ... I have... )

Screw in anchors used for light pole guide wires and house trailer anchors keep the lighter weight supports in place during big winds.
If you have a way to screw in the really big ones, utilities often don't reuse them, there is a pile waiting to hit the scrap yard, buy them for scrap weight...
I used my manual pipe bender handles for 'Cheater Bars'.

.......

If you DO want a big, heavy rack, go to the local sports field and see how the bleachers are built, take some pictures... Scale down as necessary.
Use screws, bolts & nuts, nails back out...
A broken weld is an event that requires a welder and creates electrical current issues, a broken or missing screw/bolt is a 15 minute job with hand tools...
(And this is coming from a welder by trade)

Some people MUST go 'Up', no room to spread out.
*IF* you have to build Up, rent a tractor with post hole drill...
(Unless there is a bunch of big teenage boys sniffing around a daughter, then have HER con them into doing something constructive )

Its much easier to put dirt back into a hole than to get it out in the first place, but if you use concrete, keep it low down in a DEEP hole if there is any chance at all the ground might be used for something else later down the road...
(And again, that's from experience...)

......

When you go Up and sun track, someplace you get high wind/severe storms, you will pretty quickly find those single post with swivel on top for panels...
Did I mention I live in Indiana's 'Tornado Alley'?

If it swivels for east/west sun tracking,
The easiest way I've found is a center posts with rack on top,
Sounds familiar?...
I used a big truck axle, on end so a heavy duty wheel beating 'Up' for panel deck to rotate around,
And the axle housing will literally stand up to a tornado.
The panel deck on wheel bearings that will handle 17,000 pounds,
All it needs is some support wheels at the edges/corners of the deck to keep the deck from warping/twisting.
Riding lawn mower tires will do that job, but I use sealed spindle bearings from front wheel drive cars (cheap/free used) with lug studs so I can use common economy car aluminum rims, also cheap/free.
An aluminum wheels with tire/bead lip removed gives a solid wheel that never goes flat and doesn't look horrible.

Since the spindle bearings bolt in, they can be bolted to wooden posts if you don't work in metal.
For lighter duty platforms, Horror Freight sells large diameter solid wheels, but the rubber does degrade and they aren't very wide.
I use pavers in an arc at both ends of my platform for the wheels, normally they don't touch the ground, only when the wind blows real hard against the panels.

The last part is my 'Deck', it's a salvaged office trailer frame with everything stripped off the top.
A plate welded/bolted in and set on the big truck hub (which has lug nut studs, so it bolted down) and put my panel rack on the deck.

While it's WAY overbuilt, it's survived 3 indirect strikes from tornados and more severe storms than I can count.
It's built from 'Junk', but a tornado can't kill it...

Great advice! Thank you. I'd still kill for some picts. For the temporary single level ground mounting, I was thinking of screwing it into the ground to hold it down, like you said, instead of pouring concrete for 4x4 or 6x6s. The latter just seems too permanent when I want to reclaim that part of my yard. For a pavilion, I'd definitely concrete the poles in. But I want to do a simple single-level mount first. Learn from that, then try something else. I'll learn too much to want my first attempt or two to be permanent.

I've also thought about leveraging trees, wondering why more people don't do it. Need to keep them alive but out of the way -- no shade on South side. But, they are great natural anchors I already have. I only have 1 tree blocking, and it's coming down.

I really need to understand better a lot of details, like how to tilt or track. I'm more interested in seasonal tilting. I can learn tracking later. Having no experience with bolting large things, I see tons of options and no clear place to start. Not sure how to fasten the panels so the frames don't bend in the strong winds, let alone how to build a strong frame.

I wish I had your experience with axles and gears. I'd love to leverage scrap from a junk yard. I know I'll be lost when I go there, though. If I replace the bearings on my Chevy truck, is there a way to use the old ones?

You shouldn't let how your setup may look to others keep you from sharing picts. It may have rust or w/e. But, if it does the job and holds up to strong winds, and you don't have neighbors 100 feet away, then who cares? You are clearly an innovator, and I'd love to see how you tie things together. Picts of the bolts, the tree, the deck, the wheels, your daughter, etc,....

 

[April]

Just google up build a pergola or build a shed . Flat roof ,4 uprights ,bolt one to the other

 

[erik.calco]

Just google up build a pergola or build a shed . Flat roof ,4 uprights ,bolt one to the other

Great! Now that you caught up, can you add value?

BTW, definitely not a shed. The higher long-term structure would have to be a roof over people sitting in a patio. Complications include proximity to property line and water flow. I can't even begin to piece together all the building codes right now, so this is not my short-term goal.

Pergola challenges are around wind and tilt. If all I wanted to do was build a Pergola, this would be easy.

To give an example of something I've seen in Pergola discussions here that presented value were the materials and method of anchoring the 4x4s to maximize longevity, padding potential corrosion synergy. Also, the order of doing things to coincide with grounding, a PV requirement.

If you have a complete design of a Pergola with mechanical tilt of PV with all the proper grounding, cutoffs, with all the measurements, a BOM, the tools used for each step, your snow and wind load calculations, how you handled water flow in a living area, and lessons learned, with picts, I'd be grateful. If you can find that on via a web search, please share a link. You would be a better web searcher than me, and your prowess will be honored until the rest of time.

 

[April]

Jeez you don't want much do you ? Better to learn how to build first ,how to estimate your own needs second and ask questions on the finer detail when you have more understanding . No disrespect .You are asking someone to design the system in full so you just do it as a flat pack . It doesnt work that way

 

[erik.calco]

Jeez you don't want much do you ? Better to learn how to build first ,how to estimate your own needs second and ask questions on the finer detail when you have more understanding . No disrespect .You are asking someone to design the system in full so you just do it as a flat pack . It doesnt work that way

In the OP, I'm asking for anything and everything that could help. Tips, lessons learned, picts. How hard is it for someone to share pictures of innovative they did in their mounting? I've captured as much as I can in the past 2 months, and am very happy with that. Yet, it still isn't enough for me to just build one, because I"m having a hard time understanding concepts that are no brainers for people with experience building.

As for the reply to you, it was a demonstration of what you cannot easily find in Google. But is the ultimate goal.

Now, if someone wants to share a design they already created for their own project, I'd very much love it.

@JeepHammer did a great job sharing useful info and insight. He affirmed some things I've thought about, and when that affirmation comes from him, it's worth a ton. He's a true DIY'er. That's the sort of insight and innovation I'm looking for. There is no one's opinion I respect more than JH's.

Read the green part of my sig. Instead of assuming the intentions of an OP, politely ask questions. Most importantly, if you don't have value to add, don't shut people down for asking questions. All the newcomers to this forum will see that and be afraid to ask questions. The biggest harm anyone can do to this forum is make people uncomfortable asking questions.

 

[April]

Whatever. There is a post on here in show and tell I think that has such a structure .
I'm not seeking to shut you up .
You just ask a lot that would take years to explain and can only be learnt by doing yourself.
Goodo is someone has the time to waste.

 

[erik.calco]

Whatever. There is a post on here in show and tell I think that has such a structure .
I'm not seeking to shut you up .
You just ask a lot that would take years to explain and can only be learnt by doing yourself.
Goodo is someone has the time to waste.

Did you even read the original post? I said "I know I can search online, and plan to do that. Have already done it quite a bit..."

Pointing out the obvious and making assumptions and trying to make someone feel like they should not ask questions is not adding value.

I waited over a month to post this because I wanted to be sure I was at a point where I was really stuck and could use help. I feel in over my head on the mounting. Thanks for throwing dirt.

 

[MisterSandals]

I'm also interested in options for rails and other methods for panel fastening. I do want the ability to quickly pop them off if needed.

I saw a setup like this (attached picture) once in person. It was pretty cool that you were "cemented down" yet you could move it if you needed to.
I would imagine using 2x4's and decking brackets/hardware would work.

Check craigslist for stuff like this. There was a huge aluminum ground-based solar racking setup (40 panels?) in Montery for a couple hundred bucks. I wanted to buy it for the aluminum struts!

Home depot has super struts in 20' lengths for about a buck a foot if i remember correctly. Bolts/screws together easily. I have this on my roof, the spring loaded channel nuts are a lifesaver for mounting panels on a slope.

Superstrut 10 ft. 12-Gauge Half Slotted Metal Framing Strut Channel in Gold Galvanized ZA1200HS 10 - The Home Depot

The Superstrut 1-5/8 in. x 10 ft. Metal Framing Channel can be used for framing and mounting and for constructing load centers and vertical pipe supports. With a gold-galvanized finish and a half-slot

www.homedepot.com

We're are back to racking again right?

 

[JeepHammer]

For ground mount like Mr. Sandals posted, don't reinvent the wheel.
Reduce to most simple terms...

If you live in the lower 48 of North America, 'Summer' is going to be just off 90° to vertical facing south.
Low winter sun is more like 45° between vertical & horizontal.
This means you have two options,
Tilt the deck, or tilt the panels.
The deck takes more effort, but it's the strongest,
Panels require more adjustments, each panel string, but since it's lighter weight, less effort per string.

While we are all familiar with Pin & Barrel hinges (door hinges), a bolt through two structural pieces is also a hinge.
Don't get nailed down with something specific, let every day things you see give you ideas.

........


The most simple ground mount, post and pipe...
The post is self explanatory, the pipe has panels mounted directly to it in it's most simple form.
Panels mounted INLINE LONG WAYS has less panel Unsupported when strong winds blowing,
Panels mounted CROSS WAYS allows more panels on any given pipe length, but since they stick out further from the pipe, wind gets more leverage on them.
(If you don't recognize the 'U' bolt, then this project is best left to professionals)

*IF* the posts/pipes run north/south, turning the pipe rotates panels east/west as sun crosses the sky.

--------

The big solar fields use this quite often, notice the 'Posts' & 'Pipes' are quite expensive and anchored like a sky scraper is going up, but plain old wood works just as well, and a round pipe turns in a hole in a wood post a lot easier, without engineered bearings on top the post...

If you notice, the above has cross bars to mount panels to.
*IF* that cross bar were longer, a panels could be mounted on both sides of the 'Pipe'.
A little more expensive, twice the panel mounts, twice the production on a single row of posts/pipes.
This field has several rows nest to each other, double wide might shade the next row, but on a single row no sense NOT to expand on the base infrastructure.

.........

Most all '2 Post' mounts that hold single or double rows of panels will be 'Post & Pipe' or 'Post & Beam' construction.
Post & Beam with hinges is common, and I always ask myself why not a hole saw and pipe across the top?
The pipe is one gigantic hinge 'Pin' in the post hole 'Barrel'...

This guy is a doubled '2 Post' arrangement, but why the offset in height?
Again, while he used barn hinges to pivot panels, a pipe would have been simple...
All that expensive treated lumber, all that concrete, and missed the opportunity for the cross bars to double panel capacity...

Another example of tilting Post & Beam with barn door hinges,
This guy is building for a tornado!
Again, for me, I see missed chance for taller posts and longer hinged cross bars to double panel capacity.
(Maybe they get huge winds or something I don't know about...)

 

[JeepHammer]

BEING THE KING OF RANDOM...

Two posts, two hinges, two panel mount (top & bottom, where wind force gets leverage on the panel!).
Wood where it's effective, metal where it needs, simple and clean.
Panels are triangulated in the mounts, they aren't going ANYWHERE!
Notice he used hinges at the top, but a bolt through metal hinge at the bottom for elevation adjustment.
Not everything needs to be crazy over-engineered...
Fat bolts make good 'Axles' and are cheaper than heavy hinges.

If you don't recognize that metal, it's racking for water & electric pipes that often gets mounted to walls or ceilings in industrial applications.
If you are a farm kid, it looks a lot like the folded metal fence posts that run about $5 each.
The bends make it stupid strong for it's weight, and it's a snap to work with.

You might also notice the tubing spacers with a bolt through the center, no expensive custom made spacer clamps...
Some spacer/clamps I just worked with were 'Approved', they were also $54 EACH, 4 needed per panel.
A bolt, tubing and flat metal shaped to clamp is a crap load cheaper and does EXACTLY the same job.

..........

These are building framing supports, there are bins full of these at every lumber yard.
The purpose is to hook wood to SOMETHING, wood to wood to increase joint strength, wood to concrete, etc.
This is pretty random, but two 'U' shamed pieces, with a center pin (bolts here) and you have a stand off HINGE that is stupid strong.

The center (end) hole can become a swivel. No bearings, but in a seldom moved swivel situation it's a cheap, strong and commonly available idea...

........

This is a post and hinge, with a screw jack attached.
Either manual or powered, the screw jack allows for gear reduction, more motion at less force, like screw threads work...
Screw Jacks are stupid stable, and are used as a structural member as well as adjustment.

For those of us a certain age, the BIG satellite dishes all had a screw jack to adjust them remotely from the home.
Screw jacks are so strong and stable, they are used to level the huge RV busses, the only thing as stable but stronger is a hydraulic ram...
Screw jacks never leak down.

1-3/8", swivel hinge built in, manual, $20 from China-Mart.
The source is construction SCAFFOLDING (where to start a search).

Electric (high dollar) model with enclosure,

These are available in hundreds of lengths & strengths on eBay, search Electric Screw Jack.
These are what I use for automatic east/west sun tracking.

Like I said, KING of random DIY...

 

[MisterSandals]

If you don't recognize that metal, it's racking for water & electric pipes that often gets mounted to walls or ceilings in industrial applications.

Thats the super strut from the Home Depot link i posted above. I have 20' lengths running horizontally on my roof, works great. I do like the top and bottom panel supports that JeepHammer shows.

Some clever designs in those pics!

 

[JeepHammer]

Thats the super strut from the Home Depot link i posted above. I have 20' lengths running horizontally on my roof, works great. I do like the top and bottom panel supports that JeepHammer shows.

Some clever designs in those pics!

There SURE IS!
And the OP wanted my cobbled up BAD ideas!

That racking, 90° angle, 'U' Shaped, or full box is a deal on wheels when you DIY!
Since solar panel racks are 'Around' or 'About' This Angle or That Angle, the pre drilled holes are 'Close Enough',
We aren't launching a Mars mission here...

Just a couple days ago a guy was complaining about having to buy a $400 digital angle finder...
I use a plumb line (string) and $1 plastic protractor from the dollar store.
If you are a carpenter, my speed square has a 90° scale on it, and a hole for the string line was easy, I own drill bits...

Carpentry USED to be done with a string & weight (plumb-bob) for vertical, a string and bubble (spirit) level for horizontal, and 2, 3, 5 measurement for square (measuring stick).
While digital this and laser that works, it's not cheap or easy...

Square, 2 inches or feet (respectively) one direction, 3 inches or feet (respectively) the second direction, when 5 is the distance between the marks the corner is square...
Gravity ALWAYS pulls a plumb-bob weight straight down, no matter what the ground is doing...
A stretched string is ALWAYS a straight line...
Clear tubing with colored water in it, the two ends will ALWAYS equalize, no matter the distance, to show you horizontal level...

Gravity never fails, the batteries don't go dead, getting dropped never throws it out of adjustment, it never gets bent, or left at the shop...

Long carpenter Bubble levels are nice, but OFTEN too long, too short, won't fit, got left at the shop, etc.
A string & weight in your pocket doesn't get lost... Try putting a 4 foot long level in your pocket to plumb posts with...
You don't NEED $2,000 worth of 'Digital' to build a $100 rack.

Extruded aluminum rails, custom machined clamps, etc are 'Nice', but proprietary.
A bolt instead of a weld replaces/adjusts with hand tools, no cutting or welding machine required, a drill/bit at most to change things.

Try and find EXACTLY what you need 10 years from now when the 'Nice' has changed design and old parts are no longer available...

Build tall.
You can mow under it, it doesn't crack you in the head, and as long as it's braced, just as study as surface mount.
Want to weigh something down? Set your posts in 5 gallon buckets of concrete.
You can mix 5 gallons from bags in a tray with a garden hoe, and if you buy that 5 gallon bucket (wider hole) it will take a bulldozer to get that anchor out.
Disposable plastic concrete mixing trays are $7 at the big box stores...
(Bags of cement weight 80 to 100 pounds! I blow a tube trying to carry them around!)

A wide hole, 6 or 8 inches of concrete in the bottom, a long cross bolt through the bottom of your post to engage the concrete, and then dirt back in the hole to surface, it's an anchor that's actually stronger than pouring a skinny post hole full of concrete all the way to the surface.
I don't even use a long bolt anymore, just drill a hole and stick rebar through the hole at the bottom.

It's up to you, I don't know your situation...
In hurricane country I would build stronger,
In tornado country, if it's strong enough to stand upright in a strong storm, it's good enough.
Tornado force winds (up to 300 mph) will fold panels no matter how well your braced, while hurricanes push on panels...

Tornados exceed the strength of the glass, and there is nothing you can do about that except replacement cost insurance, it's nature and only fools think you can outsmart nature...
My panels are wired to the weather station, when winds exceed 40 MPH the panels go flat, like for noon day sun, and then you just HOPE it's not 'The Big One'.

With tall angled rack, trees or some wind break BEHIND helps a lot.
If the wind can't get under the panels, you will probably be OK.
Again, in a tornado, which comes from the West, all bets are off since you will go broke trying to build a tornado proof rack, nothing stands up to an F4 or F5 that's not a solid monolith...

 

[erik.calco]

@JeepHammer I passed out last night reading your first post because it was just so much to take in. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your input. I need to drink some coffee, clear my headache, and just really look over everything you shared.

I can say this for now. You said:

While we are all familiar with Pin & Barrel hinges (door hinges), a bolt through two structural pieces is also a hinge. Don't get nailed down with something specific, let every day things you see give you ideas.

The fact that you said that means you get where I'm at. When I put a nail or screw in wood, I just don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I don't understand the structural integrity of wood. I bought a 2"x12"x8' at HD. Then I saw a guy spray painted a 2x12, the same type, because it had a crack up half of it. I bought that, because I got half of the 8 feet in length still solid at 70% off. But, I don't have any way of knowing when a piece of wood will crack like that. That's what's hard to really get my head around. Seeing how you built things helps because it helps me discover insurance for integrity issues, as well as just learning the things I need to know.

 

[erik.calco]

I saw a setup like this (attached picture) once in person. It was pretty cool that you were "cemented down" yet you could move it if you needed to.
I would imagine using 2x4's and decking brackets/hardware would work.

Check craigslist for stuff like this. There was a huge aluminum ground-based solar racking setup (40 panels?) in Montery for a couple hundred bucks. I wanted to buy it for the aluminum struts!

Home depot has super struts in 20' lengths for about a buck a foot if i remember correctly. Bolts/screws together easily. I have this on my roof, the spring loaded channel nuts are a lifesaver for mounting panels on a slope.

Superstrut 10 ft. 12-Gauge Half Slotted Metal Framing Strut Channel in Gold Galvanized ZA1200HS 10 - The Home Depot

The Superstrut 1-5/8 in. x 10 ft. Metal Framing Channel can be used for framing and mounting and for constructing load centers and vertical pipe supports. With a gold-galvanized finish and a half-slot

www.homedepot.com

We're are back to racking again right?

Now concrete block ballast-style mounting is new, yet I've been trying to get clear in my head as I ask how much weight does it take to hold down huge panels. I discovered ballast mounting panels. But that's primarily used on flat-top roofs and usually only adds a 5 degree pitch, IIRC. Now you just proved to me there is a way to do it with a 45 degree pitch. The wind becomes a bigger factor, so you have to account for that somehow, and I'm not sure how.

I have an aluminum patio table set, with 6 chairs. 2 of the chairs are heavier and have a round bottom for tilt/spin. Those two chairs have yet to be knocked over by the wind. But, at least once or twice in the winter, the other four chairs end up on their sides in one of those really bad wind storms. They are much lighter, so not surprising. I'm trying to identify that threshold that allows the 2 chairs to consistently remain upright, and transfer that to the very unique dynamics of flat 45 degree panels. LOL

 

[erik.calco]

@JeepHammer @MisterSandals This helped tremendously. Thank you very much. Very good ideas and helped me have a lot of clarity.

I measured pitch when I built my patio with stakes and string and string levelers on ground that had more pitch than I wanted the patio to be. It came out perfect. The patio is 12x24'. If I later build a pavilion, it would be over half of that, maybe 13'x13', leaving the other half for the grill, fire pit and sunshine. But, that's the future.

I'm glad you guys helped me with basic ground mounting. I know I'll make mistakes. I just need enough confidence I won't destroy the panels in the process of learning, and that I can tear down and rebuild to improve later. Between using buckets of concrete as ballasts, and the great hinging and tilting ideas, I think I can come up with a design now.

Height is a question. But, you are right JH that I need to be able to mow the final result. If I need to I can throw pavers down to ease that. I wish I could find more things that grow well in shade, cuz then could just garden under it. Nearly everything I care about needs a lot of sun, though. I could try to get ground cover to grow under it. But that can be finicky. I have a section where it just died. I can only suspect the PH balance got thrown off from decaying leaves. But, I have a lot of sections where it does great, resulting in zero maintenance and a perfect landing pad for flying dog poop. I'm a huge fan of maintenance-free.

All your tilt ideas are brilliant, JH. I love the use of framing for DIY, both because you add integrity with metal which can help prevent splitting as well as handle it better if the wood does split, and because of the tilt potential. And I love the screw jacks. You gave me a lot of building blocks to work with to begin to piece together a design.

You two helped turn a painful point into hope. I'll prolly get some of these parts next just to play with them, to see what I can do with them. Thank you for helping me connect the dots.

 

[Santa]

@JeepHammer @MisterSandals This helped tremendously. Thank you very much. Very good ideas and helped me have a lot of clarity.

You two helped turn a painful point into hope. I'll prolly get some of these parts next just to play with them, to see what I can do with them. Thank you for helping me connect the dots.

Good, so you can make the prototypes and post pics for us later?