I used this idea for several years and realized 200 watts was overkill for me. I remounted one 100 watt panel on standoffs on the middle of the roof. This clears the hand rails and looks neater.
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I made the frame mounts to match the slight roundness of the roof and to shed water. I used readily available aluminum stock and SS hardware.
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Six clips mount frame to original hand rails.
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Rail clips from Defender. Easy off and on.
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If I bring the dinghy, the SP mounts over the cockpit, and acts as a dodger. As I seldom use the camperback, this is where I will keep it. It is narrow enough to not get in the way when going forward, boarding, or fishing. Later on I rethought this idea and moved the dinghy to this rack and left the sps on the roof. Final configuration is one solar panel on standoffs mid roof, dinghy in a case on the cockpit deck, 110 volt inflator running off the invertor. I can inflate and launch the dinghy over the side in 10 minutes.
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The cockpit framework is made of 7/8" thickwall SS and can be broken down to 4' sections and stored under the gunnels.
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The same clips used to mount the panels to the roof, mount it on the cockpit frame.
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The wiring is secured by tywraps and reaches either the roof or cockpit mount. Two connectors and 12 screws and I can move the SPs to my travel trailer.
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I don't like drilling holes in the boat. The only holes drilled were to mount the rear frame and one hidden under the rear roof to run wiring.
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Frame to grabrail is common SS fixture from Defender.
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The original Renogy kit included this controller, which worked fine, but I moved it to the travel trailer and upgraded to a better system for the boat.
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This controller, while slightly more expensive, is much more versatile.
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New controller specs. Also, the "load" output on this controller can be programmed to turn on at dark and off at dawn. I ran this through an on/off/on switch to the anchor light.
Viewed: 888 times.
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