2011 Trip across the US
2012 Trip across the US
2014 Trip across the US
2015 Trip to Alaska
2015-16 Southwest Trip
2016 New England Trip
2016 - 17 Southwest Trip
Wednesday, December 13, 2017 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 24, 0 Miles, 3,740.2 Towing Miles For the Trip
After coffee & breakfast, I did some more thinking on tilting the solar panels. While I would prefer tipping on the short edge (perpendicular to the trailer length) because that gets the panels higher in the air, the only way I can do that and use the Escape installed mounting brackets is to add loose pin hinges between the bracket & the panel.
So far, I have not been able to find 2" aluminum heavy duty loose pin hinges. I really don't want to mix steel hinges with the aluminum panel frame & brackets, so for not I'm going to use a bolt as the pivot and tilt the panels on the long edge. Plenty of clearance on the rear panel, and less, but workable on the front.
The first step was to purchase some bolts to use as the pivot. Next was to move the trailer so the rear end is aimed south. I hope I'm done moving the trailer for a bit!
I used an on line solar tilt calculator & trig to determine how long to make the support arms. It has been awhile, and while I enjoyed algebra, trig was never one of the high points of my math education. Still, I picked up some aluminum flat to make 4 15" arms.
After all that, rather than start on the actual drilling & bolting late in the day, I relaxed and read for the rest of the afternoon. I did take a photo of an ultralight doing a flyby over the campground.
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| An Ultralight Flyby | |
Dinner was a chicken sub & Cape Cod reduced fat chips, which I like better than their standard ones.
So far it looks clear enough to catch some of the Geminid Meteor Shower tonight.
Until Tomorrow -
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Last Update:
December 14, 2017