Solar panels

[rubberrat]

It's our sole purpose in life...

[zildjian]

It's our sole purpose in life...

by which of course he means, we are happy to be of help,

Entire point of group is to offer help on tap for people like yourselves and others new to the campers, so feel free to ask away,
its something of a learning curve for the rest of us,

(and we may only be a page or two ahead in the instruction manual)

[zildjian]

To which end Tony I meant to ask you about the insurance Co 'Crusader'
would you recommend them on their product so far?

Insurance is often a subject well down the list for potential purchaser's
many (including myself) only get to it at the point of sale in fact,

[Tony&Kika]

Hello again , Well I've gone and bought a 100w flexi solar panel with a charge regulator. The regulator has come complete with good clear instructions, but no instructions with the panel itself. I've contacted the supplier for more info but in the meantime thought I'd ask you my trusty demountable friends for tips. what I need is;
a. Type of glue. The panel also has 4 reinforced holes in the corner but not sure whether to drill the roof with self-tappers and mastic.
b. It has two tails with double wires and plugs but no corresponding plugs or leads to go to the regulator. c. Routing to my externally accessed battery box. Should I drill thru the roof and route it internally or lead it down an external conduit. Ideas on conduit/tape.
Thanks again demounties!! Tony

[Tony&Kika]

Hi again, Just saw your insurance question. Yes I must recommend Crusader because we did put in a fairly big claim last yr when I lightly tapped a rear leg on a local Welsh boulder and disrupted the whole rear corner of the camper. It was an over 2grand repair and they paid no bother AND my premium didn't go up! Assessor was very fair and asked my preferred repairer to match the cheapest quote.
WE are at present trying to get a good price on breakdown insurance for our French trip which I guess should include repatriation of vehicle in the case of catastrophic breakdown. Our Crusader insurance does include this butcan't see how they could do this if the truck breakdown insurance does not. A bit complex. Any ideas?
Thanks, TONY

[rubberrat]

A lit of hoops to jump through, but tr to get ADAC cover (German)

Mabe we should talk to Crusader as a group and get them on board as a sponsor?

[richc]

i've tried and tried with adac but never get any sense out of them

anyone else had better luck, if solist email addresses and phone numbers please (this prob should be a different thread now)

Rich

[zildjian]

There is a thread on insurance running at the mo, clicky although we are correlating as much insurance detail as possible and will become a sticky.


On the panel issue, I personally avoid drilling the roof unless I'm certain it won't cause any issue's, in my case I routed the panel's cables through rear wall instead (alongside door) to minimize risk

[richc]

If you drill the roof then use a housing to cover the hole.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROOF-TWIN-CAB ... 4d2fb891d8

you use sikaflex or similar (i use stixall) to glue it down, very effective

don't use mastic it doesn't flex like sikaflex or stixall so cracks away and lets water in

how long is the cable on the panel - can it reach the charge controller inside, if so then cut the plugs off and feed the cables through the gland box through the roof and connect up. the solar cables should be + and - , single cables to each connector

Rich

[cthodgson]

I'm just having a look at my solar needs and am eventually looking at swapping the 50w that came with the unit for a couple of 100w flexi panels and combine it with a couple of batteries.

My question is could I remove the current panel and use the already in place wiring to hook up a new panel? I realise I would have to change the controller to a dual one as I don't think mine would take two batteries.

Zildjian I see you have 2 batteries and charge them from 100 watts with no problem?