Ideas for a home-made panel rack?

[quagmyer11]

Hi All,

I've recently purchased a Evergreen 102w panel, and now have the dilemma of trying to build some sort of a rack to mount it on. Until now, I've only had a couple of very small panels (like 20 watts and under) that were easy to mount outside because they were so light. Now, with this new panel I need something more substantial for the mounting of a 30lb panel!

I've been looking at the Unirac "Side-Of-Pole" racks that would do what I want, but I thought perhaps I should ask others if they have any thoughts or design ideas on how I could make something similar on my own? For all I know there's someone out there that has already easily conquered this same scenario. I hope to be able to do something similar to side-pole mount *and* also be able to change the panels angle when the seasons change.

Does anyone have any home-made ground panel rack materials, plans, or design ideas that would work for someone located in Northern New England?

Thank you for your time and thoughts!

[BT Humble]

These worked for me:

They're made from 1" galvanised square-section tubing.  They have 3 large door hinges to allow the azimuth angle to be changed.  The "azimuth prop" is made from 2 pieces of square tubing, so that they can telescope inside each other.  I made the racks in pairs, and each one in that photo is holding two 140W panels.

Here's another view:

I've used them as a ground mount, with a couple of sandbags draped over the bottom part of the bracket.  For a single panel I think I'd use a pole mount though.

BTH  

[Tom in NH]

Here's the way I went about solving the problem. http://altenergy.blog-city.com/mount.htm

It has withstood some pretty fierce winds in northern New Hampshire.  --tom

[Volvo farmer]

I've been promoting this old satellite dish idea lately. If you can get out to a rural area, you'll likely find unused ones all over the place that can be free for the taking. Look for the little 18" dish on the house and the big dish in the yard and it's almost a guaranteed score. I've picked up a half dozen of them already and am going to get another one this weekend. On my first one I welded a couple of old bed rails to the frame, then bolted two 80W panels to the bed rails.

Here's the story.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/3/6/12351/04204

You don't have to track on one of these mounts, this setup was stationary for about a year until I got around to hooking up the tracker. Setting the panels for summer or winter is very easy as these satellite dishes have a threaded rod and a couple of stop nuts to adjust elevation, it's a five minute procedure with a couple of wrenches.

The neat thing is, should you ever decide you want to track the sun, all the parts are right there. A Redrock tracker, small SLA battery and small solar panel are all you need to boost your output 10-100%, depending on location and time of year.

[quagmyer11]

Thank you all for your great pictures and comments! They've helped my thinking process quite a bit. Funny thing is I too thought about using a old satellite dish since it can easily change angles quite easily. I also thought about using an old bed frame for parts, but did not realize that I too would probably burn up my drill bits. (hehehe)

Again, thank you for your time all.