Today I did a first test fit of my diy roof rack and 180 watt solar panel. It worked! What a relief after so much back and forth trying to find the right components to make it all fit together securely.

My aim is to try make a low profile, strong, easily modifiable and repairable, and economical solution for mounting solar panels on the top of my Transit Connect van. I want fit as much solar as possible. I did measurements and I think I can fit just over 300 watts. As I said, today was just a trial fit of the basic rack framing so I only put one panel on.

It turned out low profile and stealthy. A look I was hoping. I used the thin channel strut which is plenty rigid and strong enough for holding the panels. Mounted on top is a 175 watt panel and from this angle you can barely see it which is great. Buy 175 Watt Solar Panel on Amazon

I mounted door hinges to strut channel and to the solar panels. These are door hinges with a removable pin so that the panels could be easily separated from the strut. Mounted on hinges, I will be able to angle the panels towards the sun to increase their efficiency. Buy hinges on Amazon

These channel nuts with the blue plastic rings worked great for fastening the hinges to the strut. Buy channel strut nuts on Amazon

Here the panel has been successfully mounted to the channel strut on hinges and can easily be position at any angle. Of course I will need to construct some sturdy braces to hold the other end of the panel up--in the picture i am just holding it up with my hand.

Here I am testing out the spacers between the channel strut and the roof of the van. The top of the Transit connect is slightly curved so spacers are necessary. I am using the four existing mounting point on the roof. The spacers have a hole in the middle that the bold will go through. I needed something heavy duty and I found automotive suspension grommets do the job. suspension grommets on Amazon

Here you can see the length of the channel strut mount across the van roof.

This view shows the bolt and the washer in channel strut to hold it down.

Now I have the crossbar mounted but there is a little problem. the bolt is tight up against the edge of hole in the channel strut...maybe a little too tight. this happened because of the distance between the mounting holes in the roof. The don't line up so goo with the holes in the strut. I will probably drill out or file out some metal so that there is not so much pressure on the sides of the bolts.

This is the other end, you can see the same issue with the bolt up against the edge of the hole. It is a minor issue, but for now I want to put the panel up and see how it looks.

As soon as I mounted the panel. I took it for a test drive to the marina. The rack works great.

The driver side view. On this side I used zip ties to secure the panel to the rack, just temporarily. I think I will also put hinges on this side as well. Then I can angle have the option of angling the panels from either side. I also like that I can easily remove the panel from the rack by removing the hinge pins.

What an amazing sunset tonight!