Taking The Plunge

I finally filled the propane tanks and ran the heater for about 20 minutes to burn off. Boy did it smell bad for a little while. I then decided I was gonna sleep in my Hawk a couple of nights ago. It was supposed to go below freezing so I said what the heck. It was in my front yard so no big deal. I kept the heat at 49* and slept decently well all bundled up. The heater wasn't too loud I wasn't able to check the draw, but I was happy to just flip on the thermostat and poof! There was heat.
This morning I ordered 2 Renogy 100W bendable mono crystalline 12V panels and three sets of the 9" 12V MC-4 connectors. I'm gonna follow RC Pilot Jim's lead and use an adhesive to mount the panels to the roof of the Hawk. You just cannot beat a thickness of 0.12" and a total weight of 4lbs each. My rigid panels I was going to use are 17.6 lbs and nearly 2" thick. I really appreciate all of the valuable information available on this forum.
 
So, today I first cleaned off the roof with some rubbing alcohol and a towel. Then I laid the panels down where I wanted them and traced the outside edge with a pencil. I utilized the edge of the Yakima Tracks as a guide. I'm not too worried about the shade they might cause and it's unlikely I'll use the racks anytime soon, as long as I have my trailer to haul my kayak around. After that I removed the panels and laid down a nice amount of the 3M Marine 4000 UV Fast Cure Sealant. Then set the panels in place, pressed them down pulling them towards me while using a towel. Dang things were hot! The last thing I did was to place a towel, plywood and then bricks on each panel to insure good adhesion. I checked my solar charger before covering them and the batteries were reading 99%. After covering them my remote panel was still feeding the unit at 90%. So, now I can charge the batteries with the alternator from the truck, the 30 amp shore power, and 300 watts of solar.
 

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Nice job.
Your work looks great!
If you come up with a solution for all of those wires on the roof let me know.
My roof is full of those too.

How many amps is your charge controller?
 
Wow you spent a lot of money on panels, given the fact that you already had a rigid panel.
Probably a good investment seeing there seems to be a consensus that 100W is not enough. Not much sense having a system that doesn't provide enough power.

Myself I have one 100W panel, and I will see how well it works out for me. Where I live we generally get a fair amount of sun and our summer days are very long yet relatively cool. Hopefully 100W works for me. The sun comes up at 5am and doesn't set until 11pm in the summer.
 
Bill D said:
Wow you spent a lot of money on panels, given the fact that you already had a rigid panel.
Probably a good investment seeing there seems to be a consensus that 100W is not enough. Not much sense having a system that doesn't provide enough power.

Myself I have one 100W panel, and I will see how well it works out for me. Where I live we generally get a fair amount of sun and our summer days are very long yet relatively cool. Hopefully 100W works for me. The sun comes up at 5am and doesn't set until 11pm in the summer.
Click to expand...
I actually had two rigid panels. Originally I was working on putting together a system for my house, which then turned into solar for my expedition trailer. When I bought the Hawk, I was more concerned about weight and I really wanted to go with two 100W flex panels, because the rigid is much heavier. While wiring up the two flex panels, I also wired up one of my rigid panels, to use as a remote. The two flex weigh 8lbs together. The one rigid is 17.6 lbs. if I have to park in the shade, or have a kayak on the racks over the flex panels, at least I will have the possibility of charging the system with the remote panel.
 
This is what I did to organize the solar panel wiring on top of the Hawk. I coiled and zip tied the wires together where I could and then used aluminum tape to hold it all down on the roof. It ain't pretty and I don't know how long it'll hold up to the weather but, it'll be less likely to get yanked on by a tree branch and is now slightly more aerodynamic.
 

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Bill D said:
The FWC Gods are angry.
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That bad huh? It'd be less messy if FWC would use MC-4 connectors like the rest of the planet. Their proprietary plugs are different than the seeming norm. They send with the purchase of the hawk two small solar wires with their plug on the end. And you have to solder the MC-4 wires with the FWC ones and also integrate some 'Y' MC-4's. Plus there's only one socket on the roof and on the rear of the camper. So if you have more than one panel, you need to splice them together with more adapters. I could've cut, spliced, and soldered the mc-4 with the FWC ones and bypass the 'Y' adapters, but that voids the warranty of the panels. Even though it's somewhat unsightly, no one will ever see it besides this picture. I already had some Y connectors that connect two panels into one line utilizing MC-4 connectors. Got Ladders? I feel like falling off of one. Tomorrow is designing and constructing of the hopefully amazing wind deflector, which may be the coolest one you've ever seen...so don't start singing the theme song from 'Sanford and Son'. Not yet anyway.
 
It will do for now. You have power, that's what matters.

If you Google adhesive trunking conduit, you can get some ideas on how you can clean it up when you have more time.
 
It would appear that the primary reasons for the MC4's are being waterproof, latching, resisting corrosion, and ability to plug in serially for MPPT or parallel for PWM controllers. The SAE 2 pin flat connector for trailer wiring is the odd man out for solar anymore although Harbor Freight uses them on their 45 watt 3 panel kit. The tinned steel pins in the SAE connector certainly do not resist corrosion.
 
I picked up my new air deflector for the front of the Hawk. I had it personally stylized to go with the whole idea of over landing. The cost was negligible at $190 for the aluminum and the print. I'm gonna use my already existing Yakima bar and faring mounts with a little Foospa magic to get it to fit right.
 

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100acrehuphalump said:
This is what I did to organize the solar panel wiring on top of the Hawk. I coiled and zip tied the wires together where I could and then used aluminum tape to hold it all down on the roof. It ain't pretty and I don't know how long it'll hold up to the weather but, it'll be less likely to get yanked on by a tree branch and is now slightly more aerodynamic.
Click to expand...
Any reason why you didn't mount the panel next to each other (instead of end to end)?
 
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