hello my names Mel welcome to my world for those of you that are new to my
channel I'm currently turning this Mercedes Sprinter into an off-grid go
anywhere sleep anywhere kind of stealthy camper van so if that's something
that interests you then please do consider subscribing to my channel now
today I'm going to be fitting my solar panel but I'm not you're thinking
there's hundreds of solar panel videos on YouTube but I can guarantee none of
them are quite like this now you might think that's a bit of a bold statement
but if you are regular view to my the channel you'll know that I fitted uni
strut rails to the roof of my van well I very first got here I'll use that
you nice truck down each side of the van and Conan made it into a roof rack and
this video it's all going to come together and you'll see exactly why I
fitted that you nice truck rail but if you haven't seen that video then I'll
put a link up here a little thing should slide across your screen now that's a
link to that very very first video and it'll kind of make more sense if you
watch that video first so anyway let's get me silo panel out of box light down
fix some brackets and I'll show exactly how this is all going to come together
well I was getting the solar panel I had the box and dark clouds come over so I
kind of rushed annexed I'd be old sun's coming in anyway nevertheless I can
still kind of explain as he's gonna go let me start by showing you some unis
struck this is what I've got bolted some our roof this is just an off cut that's
been kicking around and this is a uni strut nut and bolt really clever idea
really simple and really clever and you know I say keep it simple keep it safe
that's exactly what this stuff does right so uni Stratos is angled and I'll
get like that so you see and this is a uni strut nut now these are designed you
can see they've got curved curved off corners on one very sharp corner one
curved off and this is for a reason so that when you put I should have danced
about a washer when you put the nut inside the rail you can turn it and then
it fits like this can you see how that works so that goes
in turns and it clamps down once you screw that there and that's going
nowhere and it's also got these little serrated edges as
well and now that helps all grip together so that's why I use this
because this uni strut stuff you can buy an array of brackets L brackets 45
degrees 90 degrees all sorts of weird and wonderful brackets shooting by for
this stuff it's really is universal so that's why I chose to put this on the
roof of my vein and because it did start looking like it was gonna run I've
already fitted they are L brackets some more side Latonya bring it down a little
bit so you see exactly what I've done
so this is the age of my solar panel these are my L brackets now these are
zinc plated they are for roofing beams I've got these from Lukas's they're not
part of the you nice truck brain although you nice truck do do something
similar but nevertheless I've got these from wix's they are for yeah like I say
roofing beams and stuff so they're zinc play it so they might rust and the bumps
I'm using the incidentally a chrome-plated as well so they won't rust
and likewise with the washers you have to think about rust when you're putting
stuff on the roof right fuck this up see it's simply an L bracket screwed no I
trim a bit off right I cut it off would be a jigsaw it's so easy to cut it stops
quite soft and cut the self temperatures very straight through the side like that
so they're in the old brackets now back to me nut so before I put this on the
roof I'm simply gonna place these food there pre install it like this
trust me this is all going to make sense
so pre-installed these four that's one in each corner now when I put it up on
the roof fingers crossed I've got my measurements
right and this will simply come down and slide into my units truck I then twist
it and it will hold itself in place it's as simple as that but they're not simply
just do this nut up and it will clamp into place and the other good thing is
it's easy to remove as well it's not no poachers nice embarrassing women because
the good finger pipe is he's they're easy to put on it raise it to get off as
well maybe they're easy getting off part isn't such a good thing but it's so high
up right now before there's one other job on it though before I put these
panel on the roof let's put some soft felt pads underneath because if my
measurements are correct this is going to be quite close to the roof of my vein
and I don't have run the risk of it vibrating and touching the roof and then
causing any paint to wear away and must to occur so good felt pads on each
corner to do that I'll make a flip over
but I've been up on the roof in another look and got a straight edge I didn't
film it there's a massive big black player there so gotta be as quick as I
can the only place where it looks like this panel can actually touch the roof
is there's a big dome bit in the middle of the roof that stains up and it's
gonna be this corner here that if you have if anywhere it's gonna be closer if
we're here so I'm simply gonna stick some of these felt pads on that corner
just to make sure it doesn't rub the metal to metal rubbing its gonna wear
the claim away I really don't so I'm just gonna put some of these on
here
think it was just cool no yeah just a couple of these
and that is purely just to make sure because ya bought more calculations and
you know that Farah Ryan it should should work well right so let's get up
on the roof get this bad boy in there before it starts to right
see how do you like this video give me a thumbs up
just square it up is rewires
pre-installed everything got it already
I'd say we're plugged easy now easy
yeah well they do now is attach some cable ties for that so I told you this
was gonna be easy didn't mind those nuts up Oh put me wretch it right way around
yes
all I'm doing is lining that nut up and just turning it around and locking it
into place just holding it with one finger now what I've got to do is put a
couple of cones ice through these times you know way now this is just a stop I'm
wrapping around I'll watch the cables a flap around in the wind doing albemarle
now down a mite all they really really do I was 60 just a legal limit you know
done and that is the quickest solar panel install saw so either no paper no
statement but that is a really quick simple solar panel install right now now
I know I will get asked where I got the solar panel from so I will put a link in
the description of this video well got a solar panel from any uni
strap and all that good stuff forget off the roof this is why I put
those felt pay to do as you can see it's very very close and it doesn't quite
touch but I didn't want to run the risk of that rubbing and wearing a paint away
and causing any rust to develop on the roof yes that's why I did that so some
of you might be thinking more I'll put my sign a panel to one side then I'll
just put his strike down this way it was a matter of fact
the measurements for this solar panel will actually fit perfectly across this
way but the reason I've done it lengthwise is because I want to save
this space on the roof for something else
after down the side of the panel this is a hundred and sixty watt panel my fing
that'd be plenty for what I need so if you like if you go please do give me the
thumbs up and don't forget if you are new to my channel please do consider
subscribing and by subscribing to my channel my fate of ket and I've got to
and hit both hungry thanks for watching I'll see you next time
Tata for now