Protecting van top solar panels from hail

Norm,

Insure them. Prayer is unreliable. LOL.

Seriously tho', I carry a heavy grade silver plastic tarp but in reality would have a helluva job doing anything constructive with it, especially in the wind.

Michael

Hi Norm,
Over here in sunny WA, hail is so unpredictable that you wouldn't have enough time to get protection in place, I reckon.
Just recently I hit a hailstorm on the Nullarbor, with thumbnail-sized hailstones, pelting for about 10-15 minutes. I was expecting the windscreen and the solar panels to crack, but there was no damage. Years ago, I had tennis-ball sized hailstones hit my new car, the whole body was dented, but all the glass remained intact. So I don't think it's an issue for most cases.
In my current case, my 4wd insurance covers my solar panels for everything except theft. (I hope!)
cheers, Gerry

Norm,

A good question, so now I think I'll look at using those square 'rubber' mats from Rays Tent City, the type that clip together. Use a small tarp or elastic cargo net over them to hold them on.

We carry the mats anyway as a floor for the shower etc.

Rgds,

Rob.

G'day Norm,

As posted on the BT forum.

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But apparently not all that common.

Kind regards

I've had Solar panels attached to the vehicle roof since 1997, it has never ever been garaged in that time (till this year) I've never had any problem with damage to the solar panels from hail, stones or naughty light fingered ppl either :-)

Image Could Not Be FoundMainey . . .

Hullo Norm,

Us West Aussians don't get hail like you Banana Benders do so unless we've experienced it, it's hard to comment.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, as may be the case) my old 80 series got peppered in Brisbane once and looked like the surface of the moon. New roof, new bonnet. Every surface that was exposed to the vertical was panle beaten and a total re-spray.

So I can comment....

The solar panels are so expensive that I would go to somewhere like Clark Rubber, or a good automotive upholsterer, and get some custom made rectangular quilted canvas or similar and get velcro sewn on the sides and stick some heavy duty velcro down the sides of the panels.

Or get some elastic loops like on a tonneau cover and use them. Probably easier anyway.

Then just put the protective covers on when the need arises.

cheers

At the recent Perth 4wd show I noticed that a lot of camper trailers had the option of a solar blanket for keeping the sun of the canvas roof.
Just thinking that they may also be suitable as a quick temporary hail cover for a caravan and solar panels.
The material looked like heavy duty silver foiled bubble wrap, and was hemmed with webbing and eylets for tying down to roof.
Very similar stuff to a pool cover but stronger.
Just a thought.

There are two main problems with protecting from hail.
Firstly is that the hail often arrives at the start of the weather event.
Secondly is that there are two sizes of hail; little stuff that will not damage your panels and the other is big stuff (cricket ball sized and upwards) that you will not protect against with anything other than a solid shield. The use of anything thin, flexible or air filled will not help if you are hit by large hail. If you are hit by big hailstones, the broken windows in your rig and the holes in your awning, annex and shadecloth will make you not worry too much about damage to your panels.
My experience was not in a van but at my house at Raymond Terrace NSW. Awesome to see the hailstones coming down and bouncing on the lawn before they went up to break windows in the house. This put things into perspective for me that I was not so worried that the car also suffered.

Matey,

Hold the 75% inflated mattress/es on the panels with a cargo net...... I thought we discussed that on Saturday night as well....

;-))

Cheers

Brian

If you have some money to spare you can use 3M Polyurethane Protective Tape I'd go for the 4 inch tape at $483.56(US) a roll, this is the tape that is used on satellites solar panels.

Norm,
I have Unisolar panels which have stood up to quite a lot of abuse over the years. The worst mistake I made was dropping the electric drill on a panel and putting a hole in it. I filled the hole in with silicon and to my surprise it made little difference to the output.

Kinda think that the same would apply with hail.

Cheers

Steve

We look after around 20 solar comms sites here in CQ and have never had a smashed panel due to hail and most have been operational for 10+ years. Have had 2 smashed panels from rocks when a coal mine carried out a blast without moving a comms trailer but that is it.

Just today we had a callout to a site and found 3 x 60W backup panels still in their frame on the ground 20m from the hut after a freak storm front hit Sarina last week. Panel glass was intact but the junction box of 1 was torn from the panel where it was wired to the hut.

Honestly I would not bother as the roof of your van would cop more damage than a panel due to being so thin.

Regards
David

Well, after a bit more research including Google and a post I did on Caravaners Forum, I have concluded that solar panels are made tough enough to handle a 'normal' hail storm (say 20mm hail)without damage.

For a large freak hail storm (cricket ball size hail), I suspect there is not much I can do to protect them in any case. Most of the reasonable actions I could take would not protect them in that situation anyway. If I'm unlucky enough to get hit by that, I'll just claim the solar panels on insurance along with all the other damage.

Thanks for all the input. This exercise has probably reversed my position. I might not even bother to cover the panels at home when there is a hail storm warning any more.

Caravaners Forum thread

Norm C