HOW TO Install a Campervan SOLAR PANEL | Episode 4

0:08 Welcome back, guys. In this episode, we're going to look at a solar panel. So, we're going to show you how we fit these solar panels onto the roof and everything you're going to need to get that done. So, let's take a look at that. First, the first thing we need is a solar panel. Now, we are fitting a 440

0:24 W all black monoristalline panel. We're going to need some solar panel brackets, said brackets. We're going to need the nuts and bolts for those brackets. These are stainless steel. We're going to need some self drilling roofing screws. Standard Syclex 522. We got a 10 mil spanner and socket to use the nuts and

0:45 bolts to get the brackets on. We've got an 8 mil socket, which is for our selftapping roofing screws. We've got a labeling machine. And we got some tile spacers. Now you're wondering what on earth does he need tile spacers for? But it'll become clear shortly. The first thing we're going to do is mount our

1:03 brackets onto these solar panels. Now this is quite a big solar panel. So we are going to get four on this. We're going to fit one. We're not going to go on the very outer one. We are going to come in a little bit just to get a bit of a better weight distribution. So we're going to fit two this side and two

1:20 the other side. And I'll show you how we do that. We need the labeling machine to mark up the cables. I'm just going to put an NEG tag and a pause tag on each of those. So when that is fitted, I know [snorts] which cable is which. We fit a lot of these. We happen to know which one is which by now. So we've stopped

1:37 doing this, but for the purpose of how you're going to do it, it's always good practice to tag them cuz it's going to be easier for you to know this now than it will be for you to try and figure it out later on. Now on the back of the panel, you will see these little modules. Now quite often they are

1:51 printed on these and you don't know if you'll see it just in the shot but just printed there is a negative and then on the other side there is you'll have to trust me when I say it there is a positive there. I don't know if you can make it out. It's just embossed [snorts] into the plastic. But there we get them

2:10 tagged and then we're going to fit the brackets. Now don't worry if you haven't got a print machine. You don't need a print machine. We use it a lot for cabling inside the van. bit of masking tape around it and just write it on is perfectly sufficient. So on these brackets you got two holes in one flat

2:25 plate and then you got a long elongated hole here. That's the section that is going to sit down on top of the solar panel like that. So if you look at it from the side, you see this bar is lifted. This is to create a gap between your solar panel and your van. We want that gap because that gap's going to

2:43 create air flow which is going to help keep the solar panel cooler because the hotter these actually get ironically the less efficient they become. Now we're going to take the bolt. Then we're going to put a split washer on the bolt. Then a washer and we're going to place that through the hole. We're then going to

2:59 take another washer for underneath and then put the bolt on. Now this is a bit fiddly and can take a couple of attempts but we'll get there. So, I'm just going to hand feed that on until I can feel it's going to start to bite. And then we're going to make sure that the bracket is nice and flush up against the

3:16 panel here. It's nice and tight. I'm just going to place the spanner on the bottom nut and tighten that up. That's our first bracket on. We'll repeat the same now for the other three. >> [music]

3:45 >> Okay, that [music] is all four brackets on. Now, we're going to be using the tile spacers. Now, I'll explain what these are for. So, you can see these are approximately about 2 mil thick. So, what we're actually going to do is we're going to glue these onto the bottom plate. Pretty much just like that. And

4:03 we're going to just use some miter glue and activator. That means the glue will go off straight away and we can start working with it. Now, the purpose of the spacers is that's creating a 2m gap between the bracket and the van. And we do this for two reasons. One is we haven't got metal on metal. We're not

4:20 going to scratch the van or it's going to help prevent oxidization in that area. The second reason we do it is that the 522 Serlex we use, it's actually at its strongest about 2 mil thick. So, by keeping it at that thickness, we're going to get a nice bond. Now, we are also obviously doing a mechanical

4:37 bonding, but it's a very big panel. You know, wind's going to get underneath it. So, we want it to be nice and strong. So, we're going to go around and just glue these all in place. So, be I'm only using a little bit of glue just in the middle, just enough to hold it in place so we can transport the panel up to the

4:52 roof shortly. Okay. So, they've all been glued into place. We'll repeat that on the other four. Then we're going to do a little bit of prep work on the roof, which we're going to need some masking tape for. The next thing you're going to want to do is actually measure the outer edge of the brackets. So, I can see I'm

5:09 just shy of 120. And then we're going to go up to the roof and just check how that may sit on the panel. So, I can see it's going to fall on this one and on the very end one. Now, I've deliberately kept one free here because this vehicle later on is having a norning. So, we do want it offset a little bit back. Now, I

5:29 know which two ribs the solar panel is going to sit on. What I'm going to do is just put some masking tape right along this rib and the outer rib. That's just to protect the metal work until I get the solar panel into its final position. Now, you'll notice when I was positioning it, we've got a trough here

5:46 and then a peak here. We're fitting the brackets on the peaks. That's just to help mitigate any unnecessary water pooling around a bracket where we're going to have holes in the van. Now, whilst we're going to be using sealant to seal that up, if you're in a position where you can put your solar panel on

6:03 the peak of the rib rather than within the trough of the ribs, it's going to be far more better for you. This stage, we've got the panel ready and the roof is ready. They're big, they're heavy, they got some sharp corners on, so this is definitely a twoman job. So me and Ethan are going to get this up on the

6:21 roof. We'll get it into position and we'll go from there. So we've now got the panel into position. Now it actually took three of us to get this done to do it in a safe manner, but it's on. We squared it on the ribs. And what we want is this entire flat plate to fall inside this full section. So you can see on

6:38 that one it does. And it does on the other side. And I'll show you what we do next. Right. So we've removed the tape. We're now going to just mark around where the brackets sit on the actual roof. So, I'm just going to mark the sides, the front, and the side, this side, and do the same on the other side.

6:57 I'm just going to do a little marker just so I can see where the back of the panel is. Now, we're going to jack the panel up so it's just out of our way enough. And that's going to allow me to complete the next stage. So, I've just gone and got myself some 150 grit sandpaper. Now, what we need to do where

7:11 that bracket is going to sit, we need to score that area with the sandpaper just to make it a little bit less smooth. Then we need to degrease and just clean that back up using some isopropenol alcohol on a microfiber cloth. And we're just going to clean that whole area and get rid of the ink that we put there in

7:36 the first place as well. And now happy that's nice and clean. Ready for the next stage. So at this stage, we've now sandpapered that area, both sides, cleaned them both with isopropenol alcohol. We have redone our lines again in pencil just because we're about to put a bead of silicon. The reason we

7:54 sandpaper or scarf that area, it just gives better adhesion for the 522 silicon rather than it going onto something super smooth. So let's get this siliconed both sides. We can drop this whole side down together and then we can fix it down.

8:30 [music] Dropped it down now onto its bed of silicon. We're now going to put our selftapper screws in. Right. So, we've now fixed on both of these. So, we're just going to clean the silicon that's come out. And then just repeat the exact same thing on the other side. That is your solar panel

8:47 completed. So, we did go around. We've just cleaned the silicon all around the brackets. This is now nice and solid. We've got a sick flex bonding as well as two selftapp screws in each one. That's the panel in. But there is one more job we have left to do, and that is the solar entry gland. You can get them in

9:06 different varieties. We're using this style today. The most important thing with these right now is the cable entry section, which are these two grommets here, are facing the rear of the van. When you're driving, if it's raining, you don't want that driving into your grommets. That's why it's been designed

9:24 that that points towards the rear. And that's why this is aerodynamic. So, we're going to mark around this. Again, we're going to score the area with some sandpaper. And then we're going to drill a hole using a stepper drill bit, and we're going to go to 20 mil. So, we can then fit this electrical grommet. And

9:42 that's just going to stop then the cables that go through the roof from rubbing against sharp metal. Right, let's get that done. [music]

10:13 >> [music] >> Okay, so we've got our hole drilled. So it's a 20 mil hole. So that will allow for the grommet to fit nicely into that. Now because again we've got a bare metal, we do need to treat that. So I've got my trusty primer and swab and we're just going to get that treated. Now you

10:36 may have noticed when the swarf was there, don't brush it off cuz you're just going to ris risk dragging that along the paintwork. So I use a blower and we everything we try and do even when it comes to washing the vehicles, we go with contactless. So, the more contactless you can do, the better. I'm

10:52 just going to go underneath and treat it from underneath as well. We'll give that 10 minutes to dry and then we'll come back with the sandpaper and just slightly sort of scarf where the entry gland is going to meet the metal. Give that a nice alcohol clean and then we're ready to bond that down. We're almost

11:07 ready now to fit the solar entry gland. But there is one more thing we need to do before we fit that and that is get the actual solar cable ready. We need to get them connected to the solar panel up top. They're going to come through the solar entry gland here and then they're going to come down to here. Now, this is

11:23 where our electric board is going. So, I've measured that for this van, which is 4 m. Obviously, your van's going to be different, so make sure you're measuring. And then [snorts] what I've done is I've actually cut two cables here cuz we're going to have a male and a female. So, we got them prepped, ready

11:38 to go. And we're going to be putting these connectors on. This is a male MC4 connector and a female MC4 connector. And I'm going to use wire strippers, cutters, and crimpers to get these fixed onto there. First thing I'm going to do is just desleeve this cable. And then I'm going to take this piece and just

11:58 check see how that fits on there to see if I need to trim this cable at all. Now I've got this on. You got these two tabs on the end. So we just need to bend those over a little bit just so it's clamping down a little bit onto the metal. I'm not going too hard with this. I'm simply bending them into place. And

12:15 then I'm going to take my crimper and I'm just going to crimp that on. And once that's done, I'm just going to give it bit of a pull. Make sure that's nice and solid. And this piece, so you got one piece is domed. The other piece has got the hole. So the connection that's got the hole in the end goes into the

12:33 male. And when you push that in, you'll hear that click. And then we're going to tighten the end of that up. So that just clamps the actual connector then onto the cable itself. That's the male one done. And then we've just got to put the do end part will go on the other cable. And that is our two cables done. Now the

12:52 last thing we need to do. Earlier in the video, we marked out and tagged our cables. So I can see that the female on the solar panel is negative. So what I'm now going to do is get the male connector and find the end of this cable. We're going to mark this one negative. Okay, that's done. And then

13:11 we're going to take the other one and we're also going to mark this positive. Now to be fair, you could just mark the one cable. I like to do the both just in case one of them comes off at some point. Then I have a spare one. So these are both marked. Now if you have forgotten to mark them, you can use a

13:26 multimeter to obviously figure that out later on. So what we're going to go do now is connect these up to the solar panel, run them through the solar entry gland, and then we can fit the entry gland. Right. So we've connected these onto our cables. The next thing to do is to feed the cable through your gland.

13:41 Now, a little tip for you. These are held on by some nuts on the back of this. You want to make sure they're nice and tight because on the outside is where your rubber grommet is to stop water ingressing into it. So, if you look just inside there, you can just see the two nuts. I've already done this

13:57 one. So, I'm now ready to feed them through the hole and then we'll silicon it down. Okay. So, I've got them feeding through

14:22 the rear of the entry gland and into our hole. I'm going to place that to gently to one side. Now, what we're going to do is place our bed of silicon where the entry gland is going to sit. We will then get a nice weight on that. We'll clean up around the entry gland. And that's another job completed. We're back

14:38 with our trusty 522 Serlex. I've still got a pencil line on the van from where I marked it earlier so I can see exactly where I need to place this silicon. [music] [music] Right. So, I've got that beded

15:03 down. We're going to put a weight on it, try and help hold that firm. You can see we've got a bit of silicon that's going to need cleaning up. But you'll also notice the ribs on this particular van are a little bit narrower than the entry gland. So, we do need to top up just the two sides to make sure we've got a nice

15:19 seal on that. Okay. So, we got a nice thick bed underneath it and all around it. And my trusty apprentice Ethan Vier, who's been hiding behind the camera all this time, is now going to come and just clean that up for us. I'll show you that cleaned up. I said we'll just leave the weight on it. We're not going to do

15:36 anything with the cables. Sort of tightening up those rear grommets just yet. We want that silicon to go off good and proper before we mess with that again. But say after 24 hours, you can go up take any slack out of your cables. We will tighten the rear grommets to make sure we've got that watertight seal

15:52 around the cable. And then we will use some stick pads with some zip ties. And we will then also stick the cables down. But that is how we fit our solar panels. Hope you found this useful, guys, and we'll catch you on the next one. [music] >> [music]