The All New, New "What have you done to your Bay today" thread.

Changed the oil in the gearbox and replaced the brake return spring. Changing the brake fluid tomorrow

 

Took it apart

 

Are you going to give it a clean while it’s out?might do mine in a couple of weeks time


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Fitted drop spindle on one side so far , doesn’t look any different

 

Started fitting two new solar panels, these ones are ETFE 110w panels.


But first I had to remove the old ones



It looks bad but after a wash all the marks went away.

It’s a while since I’ve posted pictures from Tapatalk so this could come out as Bobinpeterboro and if it does it’s actually me...sANDYbAY.

 

I wanted to create a space between the panels and the roof because I think the heat was what did the old ones in, and I discovered how incredibly hot the panels get. Hot enough to cause pain when you touch them.


Plan A was shaped ribs to keep the panels flat as well as creating space. They worked ok but didn’t look very nice so they got ditched in favour of plan B.


Which is a guttering down pipe cut at an angle to fit on the curve of the roof and give a flat support for the panel. There’s two more supports along the roof and a wider common one in the centre for both panels to fix to.


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Ultra neat - i like that

EDIT - will the plastic handle the heat though ???

 

Very neat ! In fact your quite a genius Bob



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A very good question...

I hope so, I was really surprised at just how hot these panels get when they’re in direct sunshine.

 

Used if for brothers wedding. Top day


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Wow somethings worked. Took the van for a spin yesterday. A34 from Oxford to Newbury. Kept speed at lorry keeping up sort of speed and the van felt stable and only wandered slightly. It was a bit breezy but that didn't upset it either. Only real movement as such was when a coach came thundering past.

Came back up B roads and minor A's and the handling was much, much better than before. Much less roll around corners and it felt much tighter and planted, even when a few tighter bends arrived unexpected.

Next to try it on a really windy day but so far so good, really pleased, our planned three week road trip promises to be a much less scary experience.

 

Not just me then (except for the broken finger nails )

 

Well that a teach ya to cut ya nails n soak it in hot water before you put it in next !

 

Think you might have to re work the same design in aluminium ...
Our selfbuild has a heat storage set up, taking heat off the back of the roof slates and dumping it in the ground for delayed delivery ... the point is it's a DIY design that came out of finding an Ozzie company was making solar PV panels with integrated pipe channels in the back so they could take off the excessive heat and dump it in a DHW system.

 

Welly nice lady will doum .