180w Photonic Universe Black Solar panel with rear cable.
again i could have done this myself.
but seeing as it means drilling the PT and frame etc - i though id let the guys do it.
it was a £200 option to fit the panel, i asked them fit the supplied panel and run a 4mm2 cable back to the seat base - which they did.
i love the look of "no cables on show"

the panel its stuck on with Tigerseal / Sikaflex etc. with the rear cable gland drilled through the roof fiberglass.
ill be adding some extra tigerseal at the top to fully seal the exposed fibreglass.
here you can see the colour coding . . . or is that black? - im not sure yet.
back at the seatbase i dropped in a 100/20 Victron MPPT for a test . . .

all was well.
and today we had some cracking sun too. . . .
if you have a van and thinking about solar - just do it its free leccy !!
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i did have one issue, where the PV cable on the roof had pushed back into the van. . .
this was due to a combination of thick 4mm twin core cable on the panel, and the Tigerseal not being fully cured.
basically when the roof was lowerd it pushed the cable back into the void in the rear cover.
so i dug out and removed all the sealant.
then stripped off all the outer core of the PV cable, just leaving the inner two cores,
then taped and tessa taped those,
and shaped the cable into a C shape as best as possible,
the resealed the lower cable entry - and left up for a few hours to set,
but . . .
the next day raising the roof - the same had happened, the Tiger seal hadn't set and with the roof pushing down it pushed the cable back into the void again. GRRR !!!
so, ding dig roud #3
after a dig out and clean up again.
this time i drilled a 4mm hole next to the cable entry to that i could fit a cable tie and secure the cable firmly.
then a re- tiger seal again.
fingers crossed this will work ok, and now the cable has a C profile so that when the roof is down there is a more natural way for the slack to squish down and "unfold" when the roof is up,
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the first morning with the new PT, and opening the front window. . .

we have a couple of happy campers. . . .
++++
oh, this happend too.
yep freezing cold night.
the derv was down half way between the 1/4 mark and the RED section.
being a flash git in the pub. . . . . and turning on the heater with my phone APP.
come out to a freezing cold van and a E13 error !!!
a quick google leads us to NO FUEL.
asking the other the following morning . . . . thats the normal point for the derv heater to cut out.
so note to self - next time make sure you have morer than 1/2 a tank before plotting up for the night.
oops . . .
+++
the weather the following morning made up for it.
if your planning on heading to Halifax to get your roof done, we highly recomend a Britstop at the ALMA INN, they also have room too !!!
an awesome pub, great food, and good selection of drinks, great staff - and they do breckie too.


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