I Was On The Roof Again

 While Bea was walking Dixie this morning, I readied myself for another job on the roof.

Challenge #1 was to get the panels onto the roof without damaging them - or the rig. Climbing the ladder with them was not an option as I had to use both hands to keep me from falling off it. So I borrowed an extendable ladder from a neighbour and placed it behind the coach. Then I took a solar panel, covered the solar side with some of the cardboard they came in and put 2 slings of rope around it all. This "package" was then placed against the leaning ladder. With the end of the rope I climbed onto the roof and was no able to pull the wrapped solar panel along the ladder until I could grab it from above. This procedure was done three times.

I mounted the crossbars onto the mounting rails (strut channels) then bolted the solar panels to the cross irons.

By specially tightening the nuts on the outside, I was able to tilt the panels towards the sun. They will get a support for that position later.

Then it was to connect wires and run the main connecting wires down the side of the motorhome, where I temporarely connected them to the charge controller. 

The panels down on the trailer had already been disconnected, so now the roof aray could take over. The whole operation today took about 6hrs. I clambered up and down the rear ladder many times and tonight I can feel it in my knees.

Today's achievement is only one quarter of all work I still have to do.