Retractable Solar Panel on Sprinter

[claytonstamm]

Hi guys!

I came across this design, and I love the idea of retractable panels when driving that deploy for more solar when parked. I'm not sure how vibration while driving affects panels that need to slide out when stationary. I would love some feedback as I'm aiming for 600watts+ on the roof of my Sprinter

Expandable RV Extend and Retract Solar Panel Array

 

[Supervstech]

800 fit fairly easy on a sprinter standard roof.
1000 should fit on the 170WB models.
Im working on mounting up 4 240W panels on one of mine.

There are videos of guys building 3000W of solar on sprinters with dual full length slide outs.

 

[Supervstech]

Kinda extreme...

 

[claytonstamm]

800 fit fairly easy on a sprinter standard roof.
1000 should fit on the 170WB models.
Im working on mounting up 4 240W panels on one of mine.

There are videos of guys building 3000W of solar on sprinters with dual full length slide outs.

Do you have a panel you recommend? This site seems dodgy a best.

 

[pvdude]

The roof on our RV is cluttered with various obstacles.
So I did a simple design. I put one 330 watt panel on in 2019.
Glued on w/ 3M VHB tape.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/vhb-tapes-us/product-selector/

Spent May-August 2019 in Alaska, worked great!

Victron charge controller under the sink, Trojan T-105 batteries.
The RV only has a 1kw inverter.
If I ever needed a larger inverter, I would also upgrade the batteries
(they are 5 years old now), and upgrade the PV.

I suspect there might now be a 500 watt panel in a similar form factor to the old PV.

 

[cs1234]

Hi guys!

I came across this design, and I love the idea of retractable panels when driving that deploy for more solar when parked. I'm not sure how vibration while driving affects panels that need to slide out when stationary. I would love some feedback as I'm aiming for 600watts+ on the roof of my Sprinter

Expandable RV Extend and Retract Solar Panel Array

That's actually pretty neat. I wouldn't even mind something like that for the spots in between the windows on my house. Extend them out to act like shutters on each side, collect more solar.