DIY Unistrut Roof Rack (Easy Solar Install!) | Transit Van Conversion E12
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2021
- This time we're building our own DIY unistrut roof rack as part of our Renogy solar panel installation. We had a look at Ford Transit Roof racks off the shelf but they were too expensive. We wanted a cheap roof rack so decided to build our own out of unistrut, which turned out to be a really nice, modular, and flexible system for a fraction of the cost of a normal van roof rack. Result!
The basis of our unistrut roof rack is just 4 pieces of 3m long unistrut slotted channel. Two form the lengthways pieces on our van conversion, and two cut into smaller 1.5m pieces to go along the width of our van.
Once we had it all build we could get up there and mount our solar panels onto the roof rack and get everything bolted down.
Now we have 525 watts of solar power up there, just waiting to be tapped into! Hopefully not too long until that happens, as we're not benefiting from all that free electricity yet!
Thanks for watching and if you have any questions or comments let us know below, we try to reply to all of them! 🙂
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Products used in this video (includes affiliate links *):
↠ Renogy 175w Solar Panels (x3) - geni.us/YfXF (Amazon)
↠ Renogy Solar Panel Mounting Kit - geni.us/26ARks (Amazon)
↠ Black Nylon Spacers - geni.us/DklN (Amazon)
↠ Etch Primer - geni.us/gDJ0py (Amazon)
↠ Black Hammerite Spray Paint - geni.us/kpm6liH (Amazon)
↠ Wire Entry Gland - ebay.us/xRh5eZ
↠ Unistrut & Fixings - directchannel.uk.com/
* Disclaimer: Some of the links above may be affiliate links. If you choose to click on them we may earn a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
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All the different bits of kit and products we used in the video should be linked in the description, thanks for watching! 🙂
Thankyou
@@DesertTuna No problem 👍
This is literally the most clear and well defined hands on DIY rack ive seen for this purpose. Its without a doubt, the best tutorial ive found so far. Subbed. thanks alot guys.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it and it was helpful 😊
Really love the way you two work so well together …the way you share the work and your skills is lovely to watch.
My favourite van build channel Barr none.
Wow, thank you! Hope you continue to enjoy the videos! 😊
This really helped us so much.
Thanks so much for taking the time to film and share.
Maggie and Mack, Huddersfield
You're welcome, thanks for watching and glad it was helpful 🙂👍
Amazing work you guys! Glad to see you’re still smiling!
Thanks! Hopefully we stay that way by the end 😅
Plus one on the excellent video. Thank you for sharing!
No problem, and thanks 🙂
Another great video. Can't wait to see the solar panel hook up to your batteries. Keep up the good work, it's getting warmer!
Us too! 😀
Good job guys.
Thank you 🙂
Recently upgraded my van awning, copied yours ordered same installed. Very pleased, great series on your build, enjoyed it and has helped me no end, although i'd nearly finished my build by the time I came across you two. Enjoy ya travels. Gavin.
Ah cool that's great to hear! Glad it worked for you too, it's a great awning isn't it? We use it all the time now, so handy to have when there's a few showers to let us keep working outside 🙂 And thanks a lot, hope you enjoy taking your van out too!
So positive/happy!
Thank you, we try to be!
Excellent video guys! Nice one
Thank you! 😊
Thanks to both of you your inspirational I picked up a 16 plate jumbo a week ago and watching your video diaries is like watching a video Haynes manual version of an how to guide Ive got 15 days to but some kind of basic setup in the van for a 3 day holiday with the grandson (he's the boss ive been ordered to sort the van for an holiday and he needs power for his tv - lol) so far a blowup bed and a loo lol - the same panels batteries and a channel rack on its way fwoooo (tick tock) ---- your diaries will certainly help in my race THX
Cool, hope the build goes well! And wow 15 days, that's quite the challenge, good luck! Our first ever night we spent in the van was just after we bought it with an airbed, coolbox and wearing lots of warm layers 😃 You don't need much to be able to use it for some adventures, enjoy! 🙂
Great video, thanks
No problem, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Hey guys! I went back in time to watch this episode (yet) again and I just wanted to say THANK YOU because it finally gave me the confidence to build my own unistrut roof rack. My van is an Iveco which doesn't have threaded inserts so I had to drill holes but otherwise I ended up doing exactly the same as you. Butyl tape, spacer, unistrut. The result is better than could have hoped for. You guys rock 😁
Awesome, glad to hear it worked out well for you too! It's pretty satisfying to build one for a fraction of the cost of the bought ones isn't it 🙂
Yeah, good job well thought through!
Thanks! Yeah it worked out well in the end :)
Clean build! Great attention to detail in each different part. Liking the Unistrut, seems to be a decent alternative to 8020 too.
Cheers, and yeah the unistrut is nice and versatile :)
Great video guys.
Cheers 🙂👍
It is one of the cleanest diy unistrut racks I have seen on the platform! I like the low profile rails, black paint, and rubber spaces underneath, also a clean sealant job!
I purchased 6x black anodized, mono, 190W panels, 142x70cm, and hoping to mount them on a long-wheelbase sprinter or crafter. They have circa 4.3 meter payload compartment length, so there is little space to spare, 6*70 is 420cm, almost 1.2 kW of power ;) I will have to mount them with no gaps in between. I think it looks better and is double. In the worst case, I will have one spare panel for winter. I am also hoping to have a tiltable mount, which is not a strict requirement, more like a side effect of the mount I am thinking about. I might have to rise the last panel or install it under an angle like a spoiler, to fit two low-profile vents underneath the panel. I will be living in the van full-time, because of the high rent prices, so wish me luck! ;)
Thanks! Yeah it's working out really well for us :) Nice, that's a lot of power! What are you going to be powering with all that? Good luck 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Thanks for the response! I will be living in the van and hopefully continue working remotely in IT. So computer all day, lights, fridge, blender, ventilation/fans, charging devices, dehumidifier in the winter, diesel heater, water pump, some power tools. My way of thinking was panels are cheap and I have no particular use for the roof, so why not. I live in Ireland, so with winter in mind, I expect only 1-2 peak sunlight hours in the winter on average, and 5-6 in the summer, but could migrate somewhere else for winter. At home, I use about 4 kWh per day with electric cooking and a desktop PC. I have Bluetti AC200MAX 2kWh power bank that can handle 900W solar and the battery extension is 3kWh (200W solar), 5kWh in total, hopefully some 3-5 days of autonomy. I don't want to cringe too much when checking the battery levels ;) Maybe I will move to an off-grid (static) location, and I could rely on the van as a mobile power plant ;)
Cool, yeah if you have the space up there then why not! Sounds like it will be a nice setup 🙂
Well done
Cheers 🙂
You guys are fantastic. You guys work so well together and explain everything in great detail and with good humour. We are doing a van conversion build at the moment and have had our own fair share of ups and downs. We bought a roof rack last weekend that ended up just being slightly off and doesn't fir out roof mounting points. We are going to make a unistrut roof rack like yours with a few tweaks for our citroen relay and will then mount our renogy panels on top. Your 525W should power a massive amount for you!
Thanks a lot! 😊 Yeah we like to share the mistakes as well as there are inevitable things that go wrong all the time in a project this size. And that's cool, hope it goes well for you. Our roof rack is holding up really nice and having all that free power on the roof is great 😀
Super clear video and great to see step by step. I was shouting at the video for you to use a grinder on the bolts! So glad you got one 🤣🤣 I’m about to do my solar on my roof rack so useful tips! Thanks! Subbed.
Haha yeah, it makes much lighter work of cutting them down, we'd probably still be there now otherwise 😂 Hope the solar install goes well, and thanks! 🙂
Hi guys, thanks so much for the great video! We ended up following this design pretty closely and found that we had some leaking, which we realized was coming in from between the strut and the pucks, so we added a layer of butyl tape on top of each puck before re-securing the strut down and now we are leak-free. I just wanted to point it out for anyone else who might run into something similar. Thanks for helping us build a solid and budget-friendly roof rack!
Awesome, glad it was helpful! We did something similar with sealant and covered all around the tops of the bolts and around the rubber washers, butyl tape sounds like a nice way way of doing it too. Enjoy your new rack 😄
nice job
Cheers!
Kolay gelsin tam aradığım vidyo olmuş transit aracıma bende panel koymak istiyordum vidyonuz işime yaradı teşekkürlet
Rica ederim 🙂👍
Bom dia meus amigos, estou achando incrível vocês trabalhando na construção desse motorhome, vocês estão de parabéns ,acham soluções para tudo e soluções encriveis o rak do teto as placas solares estou gostando muito e aprendendo muito com vocês obrigado pelos vídeos , abraços e fiquem com Deus 🙏👍✋✋✋
Thanks again and glad you're enjoying and learning from our videos 🙂
I can't believe you used that tiny hacksaw! They have terrible blades. Good job persisting.
Haha! It worked pretty well cutting through the unistrut to be fairbut we gave up cutting down all the bolts with it. Switched to the angle grinder for those 😅
Finally time for me to build a rack, so I’m back watching again. Any updates on how it’s held up? Thanks for the great tutorial!
No problem! And we've had no issues with it so far (save for one spot where we had to go back and add a bit more sealant we missed). The only thing we thought would be nice would be if the widthways bars were slightly longer to give a bit more flexibility with different panel sizes if we ever wanted to do that, but then we wouldn't have been able to nicely cut a 3m piece into two for them so it would have cost more. So we'd do the same again with maybe that one change if we could get some slightly longer bars for a good price 👍
ഇതു കൊള്ളാല്ലോ. 👍🏼
നല്ല ഐഡിയ 😎
Thank you 😊
doing the same thing soon, just very scared with building the frame! You've been great to watch, got the same van so everything is so helpful. When are you off living full time? You've been building for ages!
Cheers, and glad to hear the videos have been helpful. Sure you'll be fine, the unistrut is a bit like meccano, so it's easy to bolt together and reconfigure it anytime you want. We finished the van quite a while ago now, the videos just take a long time to put together 🙂 Currently in Norway since a month ago, enjoying it a lot! We're a lot more up to date on Instagram 😎👍
These galvanized steel rails are a decent alternative to aluminum rails. Currently we have an aftermarket (commercial) rack with emergency lights installed. I'd restore that thing, but it's solid steel construction and way too heavy.
Great setup with the solar panels and good to see the progress! :-)
Thanks, yeah looking forward to having them all wired up 🙂 How is your build coming along?
@@SelfBuiltStories Due to some health issues and other projects - we've been dragging our feet a little. Yesterday I did take a closer look at the rack and it's bolted to existing, factory installed C-channeling. If the bolts are not terribly rusted, we should be able to take the rack off with about 4 people this weekend. Then it's time for an extensive cleanup underneath. Small steps.
Small steps are still moving forward 🙂 Hope that it goes well when you're able to pick it up again 😊
Nice job! I would have put cable entry gland under solar panel - that way it is less visible and also protected from up (rain and sun).
Cheers! :) You could do that but we wanted to use the existing covered holes on the roof of the Transit instead of drilling anything. Also makes it easy to get to it for maintenance/adding sealant without having to remove a panel first 🙂
Could have swore Jackson said 'help' at 19.17😂
Haha it certainly sounds like it! silly cat 😸☺️
wheww , you guys need some cutting tools.. Anyhow great job, Cheers.
Haha cheers, we got there in the end. Tried to get by as much as we could with what we already had or could borrow 😛
Top videos and great explanations, can you remember how many cans of etch primer and top coat you used
Cheers! And believe we bought 1 can of the etch primer (400ml) and 3 cans of the black hammerite in the end. Don't think we used all of the third one, but we needed more than 2. HTH 👍
Great video, enjoyed watching this but maybe get a decent hacksaw!
Haha cheers, it does the job eventually 😅
I have 4 bolts for mounting points on my roof of my VW Caddy. I'm gonna use unistrut for the rack and box and make my own mounts using rubber spaces, washers, 90⁰ brackets, and t-nuts. Then I'll make a rack and rack box
Cool, hope it works out well 🙂👍
Don’t cut the bolts in a vice with a hacksaw….. put the bolts in a drill, secure the hacksaw in the vice and BOOM….! #YourWelcome
Haha cheers :) We did try something like that recently for something else but the hacksaw just moved down the treads of the bolt, guess we need to work on our technique 😛
Great video guys, thank you! Loving watching your vids, everything is so well explained! Don't know why I never thought of this, as I'm not keen on fixing panels straight to my van. This vid was 2 years ago, so has the rack stood the test of time? Thanks
Cheers! And yep no issues at all and we've driven thousands of miles with it now 🙂👍
Awesome, thank you for your reply! I think I'm gonna do this and follow your guide to the letter, thanks guys! 😊
@@kirstandste4251 No problem! Hope it works out well for you 😀👍
Hi, thank you both for the very helpful content. Did you use galvanized square plates and washers or stainless?
No problem, and we used the hot dip galvanized ones, then sprayed with primer and black hammerite 👍
Hi, great job. Where did you buy the unistrut bar? Looks like I’m going to need to do the same after watching your video 😀 - thanks
Cheers! And the links for everything we used should be in the description, for the unistrut we got it and all the fixings from directchannel.uk.com/, we went for the 3m lengths of 21mm light slotted channel. We found their prices the most reasonable out of everywhere we looked. Hope it goes well!
So much messing about…. And I am not saying you did it wrong ether. I am going to have to do all that stuff by myself too. Thanks for the video.
Yeah it was a little fiddly! Although a lot of that was just because it's so awkward trying to bolt things down up on a ladder 😅Good luck with yours 🙂
@@SelfBuiltStories I am going to use Aluminium, a little cheaper, not as overbuilt as my design with unistrut. I wanted to have a boarder on the sides adding another set of long struts. I think it will weigh about the same too. With vans it always is more steps and takes longer than you expect.
Can definitely relate to it always taking longer than you expect 😅 Sounds like a good setup, hope it works out well!
No spreader plate on the 8 roof holes? I'd consider it for strong windy conditions or when you get a lot of snow on top, or your roof may bend. Otherwise, good first principle thinking to eliminate buying a prefabbed roof rack.
Thanks for the idea, it's held up nicely for the last year but will keep it in mind if we get any issues 👍
This is an excellent idea. Now the question is whether or not I can do it on my Nissan NV 200. If the top is flat, I’ve got it made in the shade.
Thanks, we're happy with it 🙂 Our roof isn't actually flat it's curved in the middle, but we just raised up the height of the struts going widthways across the van until they would clear the curvature of the roof and that worked pretty nicely
@@SelfBuiltStories
The NV200 isn’t as wide as yours but the specs indicate the total width, sans mirrors is 172cm, so that should be okay. The three(3) 175W Regony panels I’m going to use are 126 x 70 so to minimize total length I’m orienting them the same way as you did.
@@Zerpersande Cool sounds good, hope it works out well for you!
Great video! I came across your build while trying to figure out how to mount my panels. Now stealing as many ideas from you as my limited skills will allow 😁
Quick question, do you think this would work with the more 'square' unistrut? I think you're using p3000 which is 21mm but I've got a good deal for the p2000 which is 41mm and think it would work the same, just with longer bolts.
Thank you, and ha no problem. There's lots of great resources out there so lots to get ideas from as we do too 🙂Can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work with the 41mm, the only thing would be the slightly increased weight and as you say making sure all the fixings and such were compatible. Good luck!
Great Video you two.......what torque did you use to do the bolts up please?
Cheers 🙂 And can't remember exactly what we set to now, but based on M8 bolts in a channel nut around 28Nm seems about right: docs.rs-online.com/35cb/0900766b815cb37b.pdf 👍
hi just got round to fitting my version of this, the m8 bolts i have ordered are the wrong thred they dont go in smooth tried some m8 roofing bolts i had lying around they go in real smooth. would be worth stating what thred the fittings are inside the roof. thanks for the ideas. i have used a few of yours.
Hey, interesting, it's not something we came across. We just ordered some standard M8 set screws and they worked fine. No problem, good luck with the rest of the build 👍
Are those factory holes in the roof prethreaded for the bolts? Did you put a nut and washer on the bolt from the inside of the van? Thinking about doing something similar for my transit connect. Great video by the way, thanks!
Hi Jason, yes the holes in the roof were already threaded so we didn't need to do anything from the inside. We bolted it all down from the roof then just tightened it with a torque wrench. One thing to watch for is not all of the the roof holes are threaded, some are straight holes into the inside (which we're using for our solar cables). Not sure if the Transit Connect is the same but on ours the holes that are in the squared recess parts of the roof are the threaded ones, that are over the main support ribs (can't get to them or even see them really from the inside of the van). Good luck with yours, and thanks 😊
Great video, what type of bolts are needed, and what lengths?
Thanks! We used M8x50mm hex bolts for it. Those bolted the unistrut into the pre-threaded holes of the van. And then we cut them down a bit to use where we fixed the horizontal bars to the lengthways ones (as the 50mm were a bit long to fit into the channel without hitting the bottom). Was a bit of faff cutting them all down and painting the cut ends, so if we were doing it again we'd probably get some 50mm for bolting the frame to the van, and some shorter ones for bolting the bits of frame together
Hi guys, great unistrut video, very helpful. Did you order 41mm x 41mm or 41mm x 21mm unistrut? I have a transit too so should be the same but I will double check. Spoke to your supplier very helpful🙂
Hey, we used the 21mm light duty channel: directchannel.uk.com/21mm-light-slotted-channel-x-3-metres. Still holding up great with no issues and many miles on the road! 👍🙂
I’m curious if you find these lifting or rattling at all while driving or in windy conditions? The unistrut looked like it was bending with the weight of the panels in the centre (but that could be roof curvature?). I like the idea of not having to drill holes in the roof and modularity but wonder if it could benefit from a third long strut running front to back
Hiya, nope we haven't had any issues and have covered thousands of miles with them now. Maybe once in a really windy storm when the van was getting buffeted around we heard them bouncing a bit as the wind got underneath them but that's an anomaly. We used to notice the sound of the wires from the panels rattling around though so we cable tied them tight to the unistrut. And you occasionally hear some rattling from the maxxfan if you're going over a bumpy road, but not something we really notice anymore 🙂. The transit roof is pretty curvy so we had to raise it up a bit with the spaces before we could put the width ways ones across, but we still have clearance under everything, just a lot less in the center. We're using the light slotted channel which is 1.5mm thick so if it was something which concerned you then you could use the more heavy duty 2.5mm thick channel, but we haven't had any problems with our setup. HTH! 👍
I’m doing the unistrut 😂😂😂😂 17:24
😄
I'm about to do this too. I don't see a need for the Z brackets though. You could just attach the bold straight through the solar panels to the unistrut, couldnt you?
If you can find a way to securely mount them without the brackets through the frame then that would work, but don't think you'd be able to use the standard unistrut fixings as you'd be bolting through the side wall of the unistrut, not from top down. On the light duty struts we have the side wall is only 21mm and a little awkward to get a bolt/tool into tighten from the side. You could mount a length on its side to go up against the panel frame, but then you'd need extra fixings for that so for us using the Z brackets just made it pretty easy, as he panel and unistrut both have the holes for bolting already . Good luck! 👍🙂
Am I right in thinking I could leave all the roof rack bare metal and that the black was just a preference? Cheers
Yep, they're pre-galvanised so can be used outside as is, we just wanted them to be black 👍🏻
On transit van the side rail mounting area of the roof is on a slight angle . Did that cause any issue when mounting the cross bars without the need of shims ?
Yeah the roof does sloop up in the middle so you can't go straight across the middle without gaining a bit of height first. What we did is use the unistrut square washers which are a few mm thick in a stack, so the width ways bars are raised up by 3 (if we remember right) of those on each side. That gives just enough clearance for the curvature of the roof 🙂
Great video! Have you guys wires your panels in parallel or series?
Cheers! We wired them in series, 3x 175W panels. We go into the set up in a bit more detail in our solar install video, E23
Invest in a proper hacksaw rather than using a junior hacksaw, saves lots of time and a lot easier on the hands. Great vids btw...
Cheers! Fortunately we haven't really had to do much more metal cutting at all and the angle grinder finished off the bolts in no time, but yeah something to think about if we end up doing more metal work sometime! 👍
I love your idea with solar panel rack.... quick question to you, where did you get these black rings/washers (in 1m50sec)? Thanks and good luck!
Cheers! And they're M8 nylon spacers, there should be a link to them in the description 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories o yes, there is, thank you!!!
@@ArtByq No problem 👍🙂
Advice asking, I have a LWB not the jumbo, wondering if Unistrut extend further back would fit the the same 525w set up you have, I have a maxfan as well..Seems you have room at the back, just have to put the gland centred right at the back and drill a hole..Love your vids, funny I have a computer alarm clock, farm animals sound, so every time your sheep make a noise I think my alarm is going off..lol
Haha, that is pretty funny! Sorry about that 😂 And yeah we do have a bit of space at the back of the roof rack but not much, about 40-45cm (we've mounted an antenna for our internet there). Our panels do start quite far back on the roof though, probably the first 1/3 is just the sloping part and the maxxfan, so if you had them start further forward you could probably do it the same way. We could also have gone with slightly different sized panels that were a bit wider and just extended over the edges widthways a bit which would have been fine. So would imagine you can definitely fit 525w on your roof, just might need to play around with different configurations and panel sizes to get something that works 🙂
I've started converting a LWB transit and have managed to configure 500w using 2 x 200w and 1 x 100w panels - which according to sketch up (and my measurements!) should fit up there no problem! Fingers crossed it works in reality haha. I couldn't seem to find a realist way to fit 575w like SBS but I reckon 500w is more than enough. Let me know if you figure it out!
@@harrietmorse5529 Cool, good luck! 😀
Actually just an update/correction if anyone read my earlier comment - apparently you shouldn't mix wattages within the same solar array! So I've changed my plan and sent back the 100w and exchanged it for an additional 200w. Now I'll be squeezing 600w of solar onto the top of a LWB transit hopefully! Just didn't want anyone to read my other comment and think mixing them was a good idea. I stand corrected!
@@harrietmorse5529 Cool, yeah you can mix panel sizes but it does make it a bit more complicated as you have to plan the array carefully to make sure the voltages/amperages make sense taking into account the different panel properties. Generally it's a little less efficient as the array is held back by the lowest common denominator, explorist.life has a pretty good article about it here: explorist.life/using-mismatched-solar-panel-sizes/. Enjoy your 600W array!👍
Brilliant, I’m literally gearing up to do this to our 2022 L4 transit too. Quick question before I start pulling out bungs and blanks at this time of year with the unpredictable weather…
what length M8’s did you use for mounting to the roof rack points? And what size nylon spacers?
Thanks! And keep up the good work!
Hey, just checked the order and we got a box of 100 M8x50mm bolts for ~£7. Used those as is for all of the fixings into the van through the plugs, and the same bolts trimmed down a bit for the unistrut joins. And there should be a link to the nylon spacers we used in the description, good luck with it! 👍
Thanks guys, your channel has been helpful in working out some of the bits unique to the transit L4
@@tombuckingham4500 No problem, happy to help 🙂
When you go to get the bolts to screw these in, do you get the drill bit one size bigger?? or the same size?
Hiya, for us on the Transit the bolt holes on the roof were already made and threaded, so an M8 bolt was all we needed. But if you're making your own holes then an M8 bolt will pass through an 8mm hole, but if you're using rivnuts or something to give you a threaded hole then you'd need it bigger to accommodate the extra diameter of the rivnut. HTH 👍
The amount of ads I got trying to figure this video out was insane! Glad to support you but it’s so hard trying to follow the guide watching 10 ads
Thanks for the feedback 🙏 There did seem to be quite a few so we've tweaked it so hopefully it's better now. Let us know if you have any questions on the roof rack 🙂
Hi nice video,
Did you have any issues post installation?
Cheers, and nope no problems at all, still going strong! 👍😀
Can you please tell me what size of unistrut you used? 1 5/8” x 1 5/8” or 1 5/8” x 13/16” ? Thank you sooo much!
Hiya, we bought 4x 3m lengths of 41x21mm light slotted channel, 1.5mm thick. This is the exact one we went for: directchannel.uk.com/21mm-light-slotted-channel-x-3-metres. HTH 🙂
Hi what size entry glad did you fit? Mines 6-12mm and is to big for the cable
Hiya, we got this one and we didn't have any issues with it, with 16mm^2 cables: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284003569620
Nice work guys as usual. Following your channel and just wondering did you use the 21mm or 41mm unistrut and was it the external hot dipped? Love the build im at the stage now . Good to see abi getting involved . 👍
We went for the 21mm light slotted channel pre-galvanised (product code CS21L). And cheers, we only ever work on the build together and have a rule that we have to do it all equally and both do a bit of everything. Works great for us and means we both have a complete understanding of every inch of the van we've built 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories thats a great way to work and thanks so much for the information ,and amazing informative videos. Onto prewiring soon, been dreading this part with the wire sizing ect . Once again thank you both 🙏
@@leelendon1482 No worries, good luck with it! It's not the most fun job but lays the foundation for all the good stuff later!
Do you know what the 525watt panels will be able to power in the van?
Yeah we choose 525W after doing a power audit of all the things we thought we'd be wanting to run off the batteries. We went through that in more detail in the more recent video where we wired it all up here: th-cam.com/video/pIc2LTdw80U/w-d-xo.html. But in a nutshell if we get around 3 hours+ of good sunlight hours a day, we think it should be enough to power the basic snapshot of everything we have, which includes the lights, fridge, pumps, heater etc. If we're somewhere with no sun, we should have enough battery reserve for a while, and can also drive the van to recharge the batteries from the DC-DC charger via the alternator if needed 🙂
Hi, are you happy with the light duty 1.6mm, or if doing it now, would you use the 2.5mm heavey duty. What would you advise me to use.
Hiya, for our setup we’ve had no problems using the lighter one, if we did do it again we would most likely use the same. HTH
Would mounting these on a minivan instead work? OR would you have to do some parts differently in the setup and install?
Thanks.
Hiya, would imagine you can do something similar on any vehicle as long as you have a good way to bolt it down. The transit is convenient as there are already prethreaded holes for that, otherwise you would need to do something more DIY to bolt it but should be doable with a bit of thought 👍
Where did you get everything from please as we are struggling with the roof of our van so need to do something similar. Thanks
Hiya, the links for everything we used should be in the description, but shout if we missed anything 🙂👍
How many AH are your batteries combined? This enough solar? I might get 3x 215's rather than 175's not sure!
We have 200Ah in total (2x 100), and 525W of solar to charge them. Whether that's enough for you really depends on your climate and how much power you need. Having more solar would obviously be nice if you can physically fit it on the roof. Our setup works pretty great for us as when it's actually sunny we're always topped up. In Winter or when there's no sun we can't rely on the solar at all obviously, so for that we have the DC charger which also works well for us as we drive a lot, but YMMV 👍
What size unistrut you used, 1.5mm or 2.5mm?
Hey, we used the 1.5mm light channel: directchannel.uk.com/21mm-light-slotted-channel-x-3-metres
Oh, yes. Amazon Japan. One piece of 60 inch long unit strut, in green mind you, for only £207.
Ouch! Yeah that is crazy, looking now a 3 metre piece is £6.59 from where we got ours from (directchannel.uk.com/21mm-light-slotted-channel-x-3-metres). Would recommend finding a specialist unistrut/channel supplier not Amazon if possible where you are!
@@SelfBuiltStories
Have found a source for the Japanese version of Unistrut. ワールドドクタ or World Ductor. Starting at about £17 for a 2.5m section and up to £70 for stainless steel.
@@Zerpersande Cool, that's a bit more like it :)
@@SelfBuiltStories
Yeah, but even though I got out for about US$70 for the four pieces of strut, I had to buy a $300 Thule roof rack because my roof is curved and I couldn’t find any of those spacers I was comfortable with. Raise the height but it looks good so I’m happy with that. But then came all the hardware that I needed to properly attach attach everything. I decided I needed strong struts because the struts were extending past the crossmembers on my roof rack and I didn’t want them flexing, and by buying the strong struts I also had to buy the strong sliding connectors that use 3/8” bolts. For reasons that I won’t go into I decided to use two bolts for each connector making eight bolts per panel. The light aluminum brackets were bending under the force required to properly torque the 3/8” bolts so I had to add washers within the assembly to adjust it so that I could torque it properly. I’d say that right now I’ve spent at least $75 just for bolts and washers and sliding nuts and things like that.
However, I have a bombproof design.
@@Zerpersande Haha, nice one, sounds like a bit of a mission to get it all sorted but will hopefully give you years of trouble free use!
Hey sorry but can you advise me on something. What size are those panels? Online says 126 x 70 but when you got them width together for 140 it looks basically the same width as the length? So the two together should be 1400mm but along side the 126 length it looks so close
These are the ones we have: uk.renogy.com/175-watt-monocrystalline-solar-panel/ , we haven't measured them but presume the specs are correct. Yeah the two width ways ones side by side would be around 140cm of panel but don't forget there's brackets at each side as well which take up a bit of space. The two width ways ones end up sticking out a bit more than the third length ways one in our setup, you can sort of see it at 20:38 👍
High Guys I have recently queried with renogy reference the correct brackets for 175 watt panels they have told me I need to fit 2 sets of brackets per each 175 watt panels. Looking at your video it looks like you have used 1 set per panel is that correct and have you had any issues with the stability of your installation? Thanks David PS love you videos
Hiya, yeah we used one set of 4 brackets for each panel. As you say on the page for the brackets they say they're fine for a panel up to 150-160W, though they unhelpfully don't say what the weight carrying capacity is there and don't seem to sell a panel around 150W to compare. In the specs download though (uk.renogy.com/content/files/Specifications/RNG-MTS-ZB-spec.pdf ) on the last page it says each set can hold 40kg with no single bracket taking more than 10kg. Seeing as our 175W panels are actually quite light at 9kg, we figured that 4 brackets was more than enough. That doc also lists the model RNG-160P as being compatible, which doesn't seem to be sold anymore but from the specs was a heavier 11.5kg so 🤔(www.renogy.com/template/files/Specifications/RNG-160P%20spec.pdf ). And we also have them mounted upside down so they're sort of sitting on a shelf against the unistrut too so probably more braced. 1000s of miles driven now and no issues 👍 HTH and glad you're enjoying the videos! 🙂
Seams really strange I raised a query with them and their answer was to double up the amount of brackets per panel. Seems like a more making scheme to me. Was interested, have you reweighed your van since you are now using it in earnest?
@@davidknights866 We last weighed towards the end when we still had a few projects to go, and will be weighing it again fairly soon. We've been waiting till we have new suspension fitted and then we're going to full fill up everything and take it again. We've uprated our van to 4T now as well though so have quite a bit of room to play with 😛
Cool! How many watts maximum do you get?
Cheers :) And it's very weather dependent but with the sunshine at the moment down in Cornwall we've been getting peaks around 480W in the day. With one day at 513W and another at 546 😛 We've always had enough power to have full batteries by the early afternoon so far, though Winter will be the crucial test of course!
Because of the curvature of the roof, how high from the mounting point does the width-ways strut need to be to clear the center of it?
Hiya, we raised up the widthways ones on top of the lengthways ones using 4 of the square washers. That makes it ~5.7cm from the van roof to the bottom of the width ways ones at the edges, which gives a clearance of around 1cm in the middle where it's at its curviest 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories thank you 😊
@@Two_in_transit No problem 👍
Hey is the paint holding up!
Yep! Still nice and black. Apart from the bit we accidentally pointed a high powered jet washer at, don't recommend that 😛
Did I miss the part where you connected the solar panel wires in a series or is that a later step?
We did it as part of this video and mentioned it briefly here (th-cam.com/video/1fh9iaTJ6Ic/w-d-xo.html), but there's no footage of it. Basically just before we bolted them down we just connected the MC4 connections going positive of one panel to negative of the next, so we just had a single positive and negative wire for the set of 3 finishing up by the entry gland ready to go down the roof
@@SelfBuiltStories Thank you!
@@RooMonroe No problem :)
👍👌❤️🇨🇦
🙂👍
Hi.
What length were the rubber spacers between the uni and the van please?
The packs we bought had 4 x 15mm deep, 4 x 10mm deep and 2 x 5mm deep, and for each stack we used a 10mm on top of a 15mm, so ~25mm in total of rubber. These are the ones we went for: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DB8BH2Z. Hope that helps 😊
@@SelfBuiltStories Thanks folks, much appreciated 👍
No problem!
Hi Guys, I'm just about to start this task. What size unistrut did you use it's like minefield of choices lol?
Hey, we used the 1.5mm light channel: directchannel.uk.com/21mm-light-slotted-channel-x-3-metres 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories thank you 👍😁
@@carlfielding2082 No problem!
@16:06 ... hey don't we have an angle grinder? ...
Haha yeah, having the right tool makes a big difference 😛
You guys need to buy a proper socket set and wrench. Your find it so much easier than using that hand 🔧
Haha it wasn't too bad, but we do have a mini torque wrench and socket set in the van now 😛👍
A bigger hacksaw would have been grand.
We have acquired a fair few tools but there does always seem to be one extra you could do with 😛 for which bit do you mean?
Do you have to spray the Unistrut or is this just because you wanted it to be black?
Hiya, nope you don't need to paint it as it is pre-galvanised, so can be used outside as is. We just wanted it black 😛
amazing good to know!
@@SelfBuiltStories
@@harrietmorse5529 No problem! 👍
Ahh, I was just starting to make a comment that cutting bolts is a lot easier with an angle grinder when….
Yep, plenty of learning by doing on this project 😛 Angle grinder was about 100 times faster, we would probably still be cutting them down now if we'd carried on using the hacksaw 😅
@@SelfBuiltStories
And it wasn’t even a full size hack saw! I really don’t like angle grinders though. I may use them when necessary but those blades can just explode. Only had it happen once. Scary hings.
@@Zerpersande Fortunately we haven't really had to use it for anything else :)
Great tutorial! What size bolts did you use for the threaded holes on top of the transit? Also, what size gronmet for the solar wires?
Cheers, and they're M8 bolts in the roof. Not sure on the grommet size, the opening is more of a rounded rectangle than a circle but we have an assorted box and just picked the one that fit best 😛
"We are literally generating electricity we just can't tap into it yet"
😛
are you guys farmers?
Nah it is just a smallholding with a few sheep and chickens 🐑🐔🙂👍