Racking issues with old barn

[MJSullivan]

So I'm new at this and not sure how best to set up some of the racking for a portion of my layout as shown in the attached graphic in yellow. Note that this is an old 1800s barn with a shingled roof -- there are no "traditional" rafters. Instead there are unevenly-spaced horizontal purlins to which I plan on attaching QuickBolt2s bolted to Tamarack 84" and 126" racks. Further, the only PV layout that works with the roof dormers (as well as taking into account significant tree shading) requires me to orient the 12 panels mostly horizontally with two the remaining panels oriented vertically. Again, my issue is the details regarding the yellow areas -- mounting the rest of the horizontally-oriented panels is straightforward. Any insight appreciated.

Michael

 

[MJSullivan]

So this is the only thing I can think of doing that makes any sense -- i.e. adding some sort of right-angle attachments to the rails to allow me to hold the vertically-oriented panels by their sides (this is for wind-load of course). Obviously, this will need to be custom fabricated as Tamarack makes nothing like this. Thoughts?

 

[MarkSolar]

I'm not able to understand what I'm looking at. Is that a plan view of the dormers, or the rails, or the purlins, or the panels...

 

[koobs]

Instead of making somekind of right-angle attachments, just get 2 pieces of extra rail for each panel at the bottom, cut them to size and attach them perpendicular to the long rail and use the normal attachments to attach the panels.
Fixing the long rail to the short should be easy with some brackets.
The only downside to this is that they will stick up higher... if these panels are lower than the rest, this will be a problem...

 

[Groscout]

uni-strut would bridge the gap and would allow easy installation. Then it would just be a matter of bolting everything down. Heres a few examples:

 

[MJSullivan]

Well, the items have already been purchased and are in transit from Northern Arizona. So I'm kinda stuck with 12 PV panels, Tamarack, and QuickBolt as the tools I have to work with. I would prefer that all the panels were flush with each other. I suppose one solution would be to take @koobs idea a bit further: simply add another layer of racks perpendicular to the other. In this way I could accommodate any situation as needed. Of course there is the issue of cost. I'm thinking four custom angles will be much cheaper than doubling my racking costs. Thoughts?

 

[MJSullivan]

So I'm now considering purchasing some 8" Tall L-Brackets which hopefully will allow me to simplify the design quite a bit as shown in the attached graphic. Before committing to this I'm going to have to get up on the roof first and precisely measure if such brackets will in fact allow my panels to clear the dormer ridges. Might be close. Other than that, are there any concerns with using such tall brackets for a solar PV in a region with occasional large snow loads?

Michael

 

[SolarPrep]

I would mount the brackets you show holding the rail to the extra tall L bracket, on the same side of the bracket as the foot attachment point. So the load isn't cantilevered.