Solar camped in Key West. November.

[jimf909]

Dave and Kourt, do you care to share the brand of panels you installed? I bought Amazon cheapos for a temporary install and five years of daily exposure rendered them useless yielding maybe 15% of their rated output. They were a temp solution and have since been replaced with rigid Renogy panels.

It appears that your results demonstrate that quality parts and installation practices matter.
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- Jim

[dobryan]

I do not know what panels they are and they are so old it is not relevant to todays market. The solid permanent panel is about 10 years old and the flexible one about 6+.

If you permanently mount a flexible panel it is advised to have an air gap so they do not heat up so much that the life span is shortened. YMMV.
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[kourt]

My panels were bought on Amazon from a vendor called King Solar. One had a manufacturing defect that they remedied with a replacement panel. This was five years ago. King Solar is no longer selling that panel, and I don't think they are in business anymore.

I installed Thule Top Tracks on the poptop roof, and then built a frame for the panels out of aluminum flat bar stock, which can be drilled and bent easily. I mounted the panels to the completed frame and then mounted the frame to the Top Tracks.

This setup has been very good so far. There's no discernible wind noise, and the panels have a nice air gap underneath.

In five years, about 70,000 miles of driving, these panels have really taken a beating. I was driving back from the Guadalupe mountains about two weeks ago in a cold front and I could hear and feel the headwind air hit the windshield, jump up over the luggage rack, and slam back down on the rear of the poptop as I was driving 80MPH on the highway. That slamming will no doubt lead to the demise of the panels.

I am looking for new panels. My first glass panel was Renogy and I would go back to that brand again. I am sold on the flexible panel model I've used for the past five years.

kourt

[jimf909]

^^^ Thanks, guys. As always, you have good info to share.
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- Jim