Solar panel support leg

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stranded

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Hi - hoping someone with a more agile brain than mine might have some inspiration for a simple telescopic leg to support and adjust the angle of our rail mounted solar panels.

90w so 6.1kg panels mounted using NOA adjustable rail mounts. We would like to have them fully outboard when we are anchored up for an extended spell but I think that would put too much twisting strain on the rail fixings so would like to fit an adjustable and removable leg for each one to help out. My first thought was using canopy fittings but seems a bit unnecessarily chunky and I’m not sure if there any fittings that would just clip on the rail - if I’m unscrewing bolts over the water all the time I’m going to need a lot of spares!
Anyway, thinking out loud again - but really just wondering if anyone else has come up with a cheap and easy to use solution.
 
stranded said:
Hi - hoping someone with a more agile brain than mine might have some inspiration for a simple telescopic leg to support and adjust the angle of our rail mounted solar panels.

90w so 6.1kg panels mounted using NOA adjustable rail mounts. We would like to have them fully outboard when we are anchored up for an extended spell but I think that would put too much twisting strain on the rail fixings so would like to fit an adjustable and removable leg for each one to help out. My first thought was using canopy fittings but seems a bit unnecessarily chunky and I’m not sure if there any fittings that would just clip on the rail - if I’m unscrewing bolts over the water all the time I’m going to need a lot of spares!
Anyway, thinking out loud again - but really just wondering if anyone else has come up with a cheap and easy to use solution.
Click to expand...
How about:

A leg made of canopy fittings, but permanently fitted, with the lower fitting able to slide fore and aft, and both ends hinged. When deployed, it should hit a stop and be tied horizontally (in the direction of the stop).
 
stranded said:
Hi - hoping someone with a more agile brain than mine might have some inspiration for a simple telescopic leg to support and adjust the angle of our rail mounted solar panels.

90w so 6.1kg panels mounted using NOA adjustable rail mounts. We would like to have them fully outboard when we are anchored up for an extended spell but I think that would put too much twisting strain on the rail fixings so would like to fit an adjustable and removable leg for each one to help out. My first thought was using canopy fittings but seems a bit unnecessarily chunky and I’m not sure if there any fittings that would just clip on the rail - if I’m unscrewing bolts over the water all the time I’m going to need a lot of spares!
Anyway, thinking out loud again - but really just wondering if anyone else has come up with a cheap and easy to use solution.
Click to expand...
Mine are 2x1" timber with notches cut every couple of inches. They push the panel out and the notches sit on the lower guardwire. A rope holds the panel down in windy weather via the holes in the aluminium toerail. Done several Atlantic crossings with this setup and panels deployed 99% of the time. You don't need anything fancyreceived_665196675608241.jpeg
 
I forgot to mention that my panels are 9kg, 180w each. Four of them supported this way. Single strut and two tiedown lines. You don't really need the lines tight until you are sailing
 
Like geem says, simple is good. I used to use a cut down aluminium pole from the diy shop normally used for painting rollers. Extending with twist to lock it. I made a simple bracket for the panel end and it sat nicely against the cockpit coaming at the inboard end.
 
Ok, thanks - exactly the sort of ideas I was hoping for.
RJJ - sounds a great way to avoid an extending stay - when you say hinged at each end (I struggle to find somewhere I can look at all the fittings to work out what they can do, and they’re not cheap enough to just order a load to try - so, is there a universal joint kind of fitting for each end, or a rail clamp with a fork, which I can see working in the rail side, but if I bolt a fork to the edge of the Mabel I am going to struggle to get the full range of extension?
 
Geem - love the look - but 2 x 1 sounds overkill for my little panels - guess I could use something lighter and maybe get some plumbing pipe c lips to fit to the lower rail (not lifelines)?
 
greeny said:
Like geem says, simple is good. I used to use a cut down aluminium pole from the diy shop normally used for painting rollers. Extending with twist to lock it. I made a simple bracket for the panel end and it sat nicely against the cockpit coaming at the inboard end.
Click to expand...
So that’s also the sort of thing I was thinking about. Wondering about adapting an old fashioned tubular alloy extending fishing rod bank stick - trouble is, my metalworking is limited to sawing and drilling, so will have to work out how to fabricate brackets - maybe hardwood, which would slide along the rail a la RJJ’s idea - but duh, if I combined the two I wouldn’t need the telescopic pole; or if I did, not the sliding bracket. I don’t think people with engineering minds realise how quickly for the rest of the the multiplication of possibilities becomes the human equivalent of a quantum computing problem.
 
stranded said:
So that’s also the sort of thing I was thinking about. Wondering about adapting an old fashioned tubular alloy extending fishing rod bank stick - trouble is, my metalworking is limited to sawing and drilling, so will have to work out how to fabricate brackets - maybe hardwood, which would slide along the rail a la RJJ’s idea - but duh, if I combined the two I wouldn’t need the telescopic pole; or if I did, not the sliding bracket. I don’t think people with engineering minds realise how quickly for the rest of the the multiplication of possibilities becomes the human equivalent of a quantum computing problem.
Click to expand...
I used clamp on bimini fittings , a length of tube between pushpit and gate and two saddle clips to mount a 100w panel at mid rail height. It hinges to vertical for stowage just under the top wire. No need for any stays. Friction of saddle clips is sufficient to hold panel at any angle. I may be able to find e bay site link for fittings.
 
TSB240 said:
I used clamp on bimini fittings , a length of tube between pushpit and gate and two saddle clips to mount a 100w panel at mid rail height. It hinges to vertical for stowage just under the top wire. No need for any stays. Friction of saddle clips is sufficient to hold panel at any angle. I may be able to find e bay site link for fittings.
Click to expand...
Photo?
 
Mine hang on a bit of ~4mm rope. One side I have an old wind gen pole, the other there's an aerial mast. You could maybe take a rope to the backstay if you don't have a suitable pole etc. It was a temporary solution that I set up about four years ago. Crossed the Atlantic like that.
 
TSB240 said:
Same arrangement but set on am additional centerred cross bar just above the mid safety wire.View attachment 153227
Click to expand...
Since my guardwires are bar tight on bottlescrews I don't need to bottom bar. Do you not find that when the panels are deployed you get a shadow off the top guardwire? Also, do you not struggle to get past them when they are horizontal?
 
geem said:
Since my guardwires are bar tight on bottlescrews I don't need to bottom bar. Do you not find that when the panels are deployed you get a shadow off the top guardwire? Also, do you not struggle to get past them when they are horizontal?
Click to expand...
I think they are my concerns - though I really like the actual fitting idea. Is anyone aware of any physical store, preferably in the south west, which stocks a good range of fittings - I think if I could actually see and touch what is available I could work something similar out.

I want to keep ours like our current set up - on the top rail, fixed at the midpoint on NOA panel mounts. That is fine when we are sailing - we very rarely have to leave the )centre) cockpit to go aft and can squeeze by easily enough if we need to; they are balanced and stay out year round in any weather and can be swung inboard out of harms way when mooring, dozy water taxi drivers arrive etc. But because we will now have more and slightly bigger panels, and will need max output because we’ve abandoned the generator, when we are at anchor for longer periods we want to be able to slide them out on their adjustable mounts so that they are completely outboard of the guardrails and we can swan around unencumbered. It is that position, where there will be a very substantial twisting force on the fittings, that we need the stays for.
 
geem said:
Since my guardwires are bar tight on bottlescrews I don't need to bottom bar. Do you not find that when the panels are deployed you get a shadow off the top guardwire? Also, do you not struggle to get past them when they are horizontal?
Click to expand...
Works fine for me.
But we don't get sun overhead for long in Wales so panels more often angled!
Plenty of space to walk by as our raised aft deck is easy to step on from our narrow side decks.
I can't detect any significant problems of shading from the top wire.
Tested by removing it at midday and monitoring sp output.
Admirable currently gets plenty of ice from fridge for her g and t's👌
 
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