Vantech Roof Mounts.

[666JTK666]

I am looking at my solar options,
anyway My question is this well here take a look at this,

http://vantech.us/H1-3-Bar-Aluminum-for-Fullsize-Vans-H1-AL3-FULLSIZE.htm

Has anyone used these on there van ? Do they hold up well ?
I would run length wise hollow aluminimum 2x4 tube on the drivers and passengers side of the rack then use these to mount solar panel's to them.
At $467 plus the cost of the alum. 2x4's (not sure what they will cost yet) just to gain a surface to mount the panels it's going to take a pretty penny before I even get to adding a single panel.


currently I have no saveings, but I can put away about 150.00 a month to devote to improveing my van/quality of life.
should I even consider solar as I will be heading north at some point to everett wa area?
This generator looks really good to me,
https://www.amazon.com/Champion-Power-Equipment-100302-Technology/dp/B01M3R711N
There are extra costs and unknowns going generator mainly I would need to build some kind of dog house to quiet it down and make it fit onto a hitch mount cargo carrier.
Sry folks I have drifted away from my main topic..

 

[666JTK666]

I don't see how to edit my last post so anyway I thought I would share a photo of my van as that would explain why I would need somthing to elevate any solar panels installed on the van.

https://goo.gl/photos/51bBVwhaQbz9NUPS7


It's a peanut style hightop worse the prev owner decided to put a vent right behind the drivers seat in the roof.

 

[Zizzer_Zazzer_Zuz]

... I thought I would share a photo of my van ...

https://goo.gl/photos/51bBVwhaQbz9NUPS7

I can not view that image without giving permission to an app to have access to the photo directory on my phone.

Not gonna happen.

Please upload picture to thread.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[gapper2]

I have a similar model vantech roof mounts and they are sturdy and overpriced.  I plan to use 2" x 4" x 12' lumber to mount solar panels since aluminum is so expensive.  The racks mount into the gutter channel which I don't believe your high top has.

My brother has a similar champion generator. The first one was DOA . His one now is as quiet as my honda and will run everything in his tt.​

 

[BradKW]

I can see the picture because I'm logged into Google, but most people are not...sharing pics from Google pics isn't a good choice here. I use Photobucket (with adblockpro running), but others like imagur, etc, work.

Anyway, with that fiberglass hightop I can't see the bar racks working...nowhere to even mount them without drilling a lot of holes or engineering a Rube Goldberg machine. I'd say just work with what you've got and work around the vent, mounting panels directly to the roof. There's a number of threads in archives with various mounting methods, adhesive tape or velcro being the least invasive.

 

[John61CT]

I'd use RhinoRack full-length tracks, affixed with PlusNuts, butyl tape waterproofing, then Yakima "feet" and their traditional round bars.

Maximum flexibility for (re) arranging layout over and around the fan.

Once you get to know the nomenclature, look for components secondhand on eBay.

 

[WalkaboutTed]

We have the Vantech H3 roof racks. They were extremely easy to put on and extremely tough and secure. We have plywood for the solar panels bolted to the racks.

DH said that, aside from being fairly heavy "if someone can't install them, they probably shouldn't be doing other improvements on the van. They are that easy". That assumes that you have the gutter mounts.
Ted

 

[666JTK666]

I am sorry about the photo problems, I did not think google would be an issue,
here is a imgr link hopefully.

 

[jonyjoe303]

Those racks won't work on your hightop because they have to be attached to the metal rain gutter on the van roof. I see cheaper racks on amazon that would work but you will have to drill holes on your roof.

In the picture, I put it here for those who can't see it, it's hard to tell how high the vents extend. On my astrovan I had a vortex roof vent which was in the way of the 240 watt panel I wanted to install, instead of removing it, I just removed the movable cover and the vent only extended 2 inches. For mounting the panel I just use 4 longer L-brackets about 4 inches tall (I bought at home depot for about 8 dollars) , it easily cleared the vent, the solar panel itself prevents rain from getting in my van. Vent fan is still operational. It'll save you alot of money to just use 4 L brackets, if you can do it.

400 dollars will buy you a large panel which you'll need in washington, your roof will easily fit a 240 watt or higher panel, with mppt you'll get about 12 amps in sunny conditions and 5 amps when cloudy, I even get 2 amps when its drizzling. Small panels with pwm won't give you anything in overcast conditions.

 

[John61CT]

Sorry to be that guy, and I know lots of people do have homemade roof rack systems and many of them never ever have a problem comma but paying a little bit more for purpose-built components designed to withstand highway speed stresses with loads on them, by companies very paranoid in the USA of getting sued when things go wrong , I think is worth every penny. In the event of an accident if your big solar panel goes flying through somebody's Mercedes, that would be a bad time to find out your insurance company can get out of covering you.

Not to mention safety being important in its own right

 

[MrNoodly]

The aluminum uprights on my Vantech racks cracked. After two years of trying to fix them and keep them fixed, I tossed them and got some steel racks of a different brand.

 

[WalkaboutTed]

Thanks for a heads up with that post ^! We'll keep a real close eye on them.
Ted