Camper Van Conversion

Having been planing to install the solar panel for a while now the day has finally come, all the bits arrived so I loaded up the van and headed to my parents to make use of the drive and garage once again. As the weather was expected to be changeable this weekend I started off by doing the bits that would make the van no longer water proof while it was still sunny.  I started by making the cable entry point where the supply from the panel would come into the van, this meant drilling a hole in the roof (I'm really glad it did not rain at this point) feeding the cable through the cable entry box then through the roof.  The cable entry box was then sealed to the roof using silicone sealant, once that had dried the van would be waether proof again.  Then came the job of fitting the mounting brackets to the panel, dragging the panel up on the the roof and gluing it in place.  Some of you may be thinking glue, that does not sound like a good plan, well honestly its the best idea, it will hold the panel more than securely (it's going nowhere) and with no bolts and thus no holes in the roof there is no chance of a leak.  Any old glue wont do the job, I'm not encouraging people to try this with an pritstitk or anything, the glue I used is a glue/sealant called sikaflex which starts to cure when it's exposed to UV very strong stuff, don't got get it on any thing you don't wish to be permanently stuck to something else. One that was fitted in place I then fitted a spoiler in front of the panel to reduce it drag factor whilst driving, then set about wiring it all up.  Fortunate the sun stayed out whilst I did my wring thus letting me test if the whole thing worked, and it did.

There where a few other wiring jobs on the slate for the day, mainly getting some power to the passenger side of the van, currently all the power was on the drivers side but as the bathroom will be on the passenger side so I need to get some power over there under the floor and behind the ply lining before I can start work on the bathroom, so I got all that done and tested.