April 26 2020
Update on our van. It is equipped with dual batteries and the upfitter switches but I have decided I don’t like drawing off the starting batteries for camping power. I would rather have a stand alone system that I can completely kill and not worry about being able to start the van. I had a solar panel and charge controller laying around, so I decided to make use of it.
Weather guard makes a pair of roof rails that make a nice place to mount stuff. They are inexpensive. I ordered a pair and got them installed the other day.
Step one is to setup scaffolding. Working on top of a 9.5’ tall vehicle is awkward. Then remove the stickers that are covering the mounting points on the roof. There were a couple stickers that were not fully adhered. This is why it is important to plan for water intrusion with insulation and materials that can deal with it.
I removed all the stickers that looked questionable and replaced with some eternabond tape. This tape is handy to have around for stuff like this.
Then the stickers for the roof mounting points were removed. Ford did an awful job at lining up the threaded inserts with the holes. A little grinding fixed that up.
The Weatherguard kit includes some rubber pads and sealant. I applied the sealant in a pleasing pattern. It is mandatory to use the thicker pads and they include some optional thinner pads that can be stacked on top. I opted to use the thinner pads too for a 1/8” more height. Without them, the roof rails touched the roof, very slightly, between mounting points. I thought with some movement, the paint would get rubbed off the roof eventually.
With the rails bolted down, I moved onto solar. First, I made a few aluminum plates with RivNuts to slide into the roof rails.
Then I drilled a hole through the roof for the solar wiring. This is always a scary but fun thing to do. Sally is applying paint on the hole in the pic.
A rubber grommet protects the wiring where it passes through the roof. Then I put a little silicone sealant on the solar bulkhead fitting and taped it in place for a while.
Once the sealant dried, I cut some more eternabond tape and applied a few layers of it. This will be the only thing holding it in place. No screws were used.
The solar panel is mounted to some pieces of 1/2” conduit that is bent to match the contour of the roof. I am trying to use as much stuff that I have laying around and not make trips to the store. The ends of the conduit was filled with foam backer rod, to minimize and wind howling.
The bulkhead fitting lives under the panel.
All done, on the roof of the van. There is a lot of space to expand to more panels if we need them but I think 100w is all we will need.
This is where we are at now, with a couple wires hanging down. The current amount of rain is making it a miserable day to go out and work on the van.