I'm building a ground mount frame that consists of eight 15' of Superstrut (10'+5') acting as "rafters" to hold 16 large 440W panels (mounted as 4 panels by 4 panels - horizontally). See attached drawing I made. The high end of the mount frame will be anchored to a solid deck. 15' Superstruts then run down to near ground and along 28' of deck. I was originally thinking of simply inserting strut spring-nuts and bolting down from above using large washers (as shown in the drawing). But then realized that the middle panels will be pretty difficult to reach to tighten bolts from above. So, I'm now thinking of simply doing it from below by inserting shorter bolts through the panel frame mounting holes and into the spring nuts. Then all the tightening can be done on the back side where it's more easily accessible.
So my question is... are the panel aluminum frames strong enough in high winds to hold without the aluminum tearing? I would put washers inside the frame to distribute the contact but just wanted to make sure panel aluminum frame mounting holes are strong enough for wind. Thanks in advance!
So my question is... are the panel aluminum frames strong enough in high winds to hold without the aluminum tearing? I would put washers inside the frame to distribute the contact but just wanted to make sure panel aluminum frame mounting holes are strong enough for wind. Thanks in advance!