I was up on top of the van yesterday to wash it and discovered that the solar panel has been fit in such a way that three edges are sealed! The front and both sides - So when the van is in nose-down aspect, the fitting forms a closed pool to trap the water. That's bad enough in summer but in winter, that's a continuous pool of water freezing and damaging the roof. Not to mention that fact that I can't get in to inspect and clean it at all.
I had imagined the panel would be fit with a pivot on the front edge and semi-permanent fixings on the trailing edge - so I could remove the fixings on the trailing edge, pivot the panel up and inspect / clean the roof underneath it. But no - it's fixed permanently.
So that's another project for me - rather than wait for the roof to fail under that panel, I'm gonna have to fix up some better arrangement that allows me to get under it and clean/inspect/repair the roof before it becomes an expensive job.
Anyone done similar? Any pointers?
I imagine the leading edge is sealed to prevent the wind whistling through at speed. Fair enough, but there has to be a better way.
Cheers!
I had imagined the panel would be fit with a pivot on the front edge and semi-permanent fixings on the trailing edge - so I could remove the fixings on the trailing edge, pivot the panel up and inspect / clean the roof underneath it. But no - it's fixed permanently.
So that's another project for me - rather than wait for the roof to fail under that panel, I'm gonna have to fix up some better arrangement that allows me to get under it and clean/inspect/repair the roof before it becomes an expensive job.
Anyone done similar? Any pointers?
I imagine the leading edge is sealed to prevent the wind whistling through at speed. Fair enough, but there has to be a better way.
Cheers!
