Installing Solar Panels on a Van | Mercedes Sprinter Van Conversion #13
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- Installing solar panels on a van is one of the most common methods of generating power for off grid living and is essential for most van lifers. In this video, I'll show you how I installed my 3 x 175w Solar Panels from Renogy.
This series has now moved to the new Matt's Van Channel!
/ @mattsvan
Renogy 175w Solar Panels
mattestlea.com/renogy-solar-p...
Cable Entry Gland
mattestlea.com/solar-cable-en...
Hole Saws (Highly recommended)
mattestlea.com/starrett-bimet...
Primer (To protect against rust)
mattestlea.com/white-spray-me...
Sikaflex 522 (Adhesive and Sealant)
mattestlea.com/sikaflex-522
Sikaflex Primer (Provides better bonding)
mattestlea.com/sikaflex-206-p...
PTFE Liquid (For sealing threads)
kit.co/MattsVan/cleaning-seal...
Z Brackets
mattestlea.com/renogy-solar-p...
Rivnut Gun (More expensive but works very well)
mattestlea.com/sealey-rivet-n...
Stepped Drill Bit
mattestlea.com/stepped-drill-...
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:17 Cable Entry Gland
01:17 Preparation
01:48 Layout
03:41 Installation
05:33 Second Installation
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My name is Matt Estlea, I'm a 23 year old Woodworker from Basingstoke in England and my aim is to make your woodworking less s***.
I come from 5 years tuition at Rycotewood Furniture Centre with a further 1 year working as an Artist in Residence at the Sylva Foundation. I now teach City and Guilds Furniture Making at Rycotewood as of September 2018.
I also had 5 years of experience working at Axminster Tools and Machinery where I helped customers with purchasing tools, demonstrated in stores and events, and gained extensive knowledge about a variety of tools and brands.
During the week, I film woodworking projects, tutorials, reviews and a viewer favourite 'Tool Duel' where I compare two competitive manufacturers tools against one another to find out which is best.
I like to have a laugh and my videos are quite fast paced BUT you will learn a lot, I assure you.
Lets go make a mess.
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MATT ESTLEA WOODWORK 2019 - Розваги
Due to the popularity of this Van Conversion series, I am relocating it to a dedicated Van Conversion Channel! youtube.com/@mattsvan
The Matt Estlea 2 Channel was originally for shitposting and used as a proving ground for ideas we have, without the risk of damaging the main channels (Matt Estlea) ranking in UA-cams search algorythms. Ideally we'd like to continue using it for this purpose, but are concious of clogging up the feeds of people who only signed up for van related content. Hence the dedicated channel.
It also means I can use the dedicated channel for travel vlogs and other van related content once the conversion is complete which sounds fun. Go subscribe!
Finally a video that actually uses the brackets that come with the panels
Those thingies you use for measurements are bolting points for a roof rack. Which would have been another great way of installing solar panels on our roof 😊
Was just about to comment this
I was wondering if a roofrack was either too nick-able or too bendy for rigid solar panels.
I used these holes to fix a unistrut channel roof rack to hold my three 175 solar panels
@@wilbearworksdo u have any pics of yours?
"150mm 's and 2 inch wide" - love it :)
Great to see your videos again Matt! Love this series. Fair play on keeping all the hard work up
the corcles/holes on the roof are for mounting roof raks to the van
Great to see you uploading again, Matt.
As a side note, you could easily get a nice metal worker to create a metal frame which bolts to the existing rivnuts. This means that a new solar panel could be bolted to it, but it’ll just need to be designed to have areas for the new brackets to bolt to. Does that make sense? Either way, you could can definitely use what you’ve already got.
Anyway, it’s coming along nicely. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you in the next one.
Nice, I like how you take all the extra steps to make things solid, I too am enjoying this series. Keep up the good work.
Great to See the Progress. My OC was well satisfied by your attention to detail and care.
Really enjoying following this build! Great work! A tip for anyone looking to do this also is to look out for the closed end type of rivet nuts - one less area to worry about sealing.
I would have spun your cable gland entry 180 degrees, it will keep the DC cables clean so you don’t have to loop them back over. Otherwise great job, I’m liking the progress 👍🔥
Great to see you back Matt, thought you'd given up the whole youtube thing.
I used Renogy for all of my motorhome solar stuff, top notch kit
Good to see you back!
it's great to see you back online!
Excellent video, so well explained, cheers👍
hey those Circles you talked about are for mounting roofracks, on top of the roof the white circle is often painted plastic, and those are prone ot leaking water over time.
Great job
Thanks for sharing.
I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.
Always interesting to see how you approach your builds :) And go buy yourself a deburring tool, they're amazing!
I feel like you should've had a roof rack and maybe something so you can tilt your panels up instead of drilling directly thru the roof of the van. I'm trying to figure out how much I can fit on my project. I want 800w on the roof but I'm coming to realize it's only possibly to fit about 600w with a fan and possible ac on top also.
Yeah, that’s a risky way of doing it. The issue will be if you go over a road bump or pot hole and the vibration works things loose. It happens over time and then the water will find its way in. For my van I used racks on the roof and mounted the panels on there. Not a single hole in the roof. Good luck
It is also pretty much how most [panels get mounted. Not saying a rack isn't better but the 'risk' is actually minimal
I forgot about Matt 😂
Would you consider some type of temporary cover for the roof (solar panels) to protect them and the entire top of the van when needed? Like a waterproof and perhaps padded cover that can be stowed away.
Those nuts are for roof racks.
👍🚐😎