................................--- Mount For Six 80 Watt Solar Panels ---
.......................................................................................--- Part IV ---
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At this point diagonals have also been added to the rear frame, large left arrow. The arrows point to where other brackets were welded to the framework that the diagonals also attach to. This prevents the diagonals from bowing.
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Above you can see the three attach points for one diagonal. The other are very similar.
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I used this piece with the holes in it to mark where the mount holes needed to be drilled in the tabs. You can see a mount hole off to the right.
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There are a total of 6 attach points for each panel. I'd considered drilling through the bottom channel on the panels, but then changed my mind (before the holes were drilled).
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Imagine that the piece of strap above is the bottom of the panel frame. Instead of the holes going through the frame they are just to the inside of it. A SS bolt is used along with a large SS fender washer to clamp the frame to the tab.
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The top arrow points to the bottom of the panel frame and you can see the bolt hole is inside of the panel frame.
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Here we see two of the mounts and you can kind of see how the bolt/washer clamp the panel frame to the tab. I feel very confident that this will work well. I do want to remove the majority of the panels when we leave the boat at the yard for long periods so want the removal to be fairly quick and easy.
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Here all of the panels are...
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... mounted in the frames.
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It was kind of unnerving to build this so far from the boat with very few measurements of the boat itself. One of the main concerns is if it would clear the boom either below it with the topping lift or under sail or if it would work behind the end of the boom?
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Well when I get a couple more pages posted you will know the answer to that ;-)
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All in all the frame seems to be very sturdy and might survive some abuse. It could be prettier, but we just want it and the panels to be very functional. We are usually off by ourselves anyway, so looks are not at the top of our list.
