Heavy Solar Rack on a 1984 Fleetwood Prowler Roof

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Original Member Title: 1984 fleetwood prowler 31G travel trailer best way to put a large heavy rack on top
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An RVer wants to convert a 1984 Fleetwood Prowler 31G travel trailer into a mostly stationary off-grid solar power station, with about 600 lb of panels on the roof plus hinged side panels adding roughly 700 lb more, before counting the rack. The main question was how to distribute that load, especially along the roof edges and sidewalls, since the trailer would not be towed often but may still be moved occasionally.

  • Several members were concerned that the setup could make the trailer...
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rockwind1

Senior Member
Joined
May 13, 2014
Posts
109
not sure if this is the best catagory but i am going to turn my old 30ft prowler into a mobile solar power station. i am going to put 12 405w panels on top, which is about 600lb, and i am going to put 7 along each side hinged onto the same rack, so that is an additional 350lb on each side of the rack, plus the weight of the rack itself. has any one ever put a serious solar setup on top of one of these, i am trying to figure out the best way to distrubute the load. obviously i want to keep the main supporting areas to be along the sides of the roof. it is not really going to towed very often. once at location i will lift up the side panels and lock into place.
 

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Last edited:
Sounds like a recipe to build a top-heavy TT, if the sidewalls will support the added weight. For sure it will alter the center of gravity.
of course but it will be used as a off grid power source so not going to be traveling with it
 
Find out the weight of one panel. Add up the total weight. The panels that hang are also roof weight. So 30X8=240 sq-ft. At 1300# that`s 5.4lbs/sq-ft.

1300# is say 6 X 200# guys. Spread out over the roof it's probably ok. However if you wanna get picky you are gonna point mount the panels for airflow. say 6 each 4X4 pads per panel. That's16 sq inches per footing. Each pad will hold 8.3 pounds of a 50 pound panel. That's 6psi.

The side mounted panels are dead weight but it is over the walls so you don't have span weight across the roof with those.

That's all the compression load on the interior walls. The walls are thin but I don't think they will directly buckle.

Someone said something about CG. Lets say the roof is 10 feet above the axles. 10 feet times 1300# is 13,000 foot pounds.

For reference let's guess the Coach carries 70% of it's 12,000 pounds below the floor. The floor is 2 feet above the axles so it's 8 foot to the roof from there.

12,000 X .3 = 3600 X 8(feet) = So the natural momentum is 28,000 foot pounds. You are adding 50% more lateral momentum loads to the vertical center of gravity.

I have no idea if the suspension of the standard coach has 50% lean margins.

Another concern to me is lateral loads. There is really no diagonal bracing inside this thin square box.

Let's say you pull 2g in a turn. Attach a winch and load cell to the roofline edge and apply 2600 pounds. If you don't pull the wall over I am guessing you will be getting close...

This is all educated guessing on weights. but the math is close and gives you an idea of the magnitude of what you are planning.

It is also how you should be thinking about this from an engineering standpoint.

You haven't talked batteries but I assume they are gonna go inside? at floor level? The good news is you have a giant frame to tie into. The bad news is you should have a look at RV payload and make sure the combned weight of solar panels, solar gear and chargers plus batteries stays under MGWR of the coach.
 
Find out the weight of one panel. Add up the total weight. The panels that hang are also roof weight. So 30X8=240 sq-ft. At 1300# that`s 5.4lbs/sq-ft.

1300# is say 6 X 200# guys. Spread out over the roof it's probably ok. However if you wanna get picky you are gonna point mount the panels for airflow. say 6 each 4X4 pads per panel. That's16 sq inches per footing. Each pad will hold 8.3 pounds of a 50 pound panel. That's 6psi.

The side mounted panels are dead weight but it is over the walls so you don't have span weight across the roof with those.

That's all the compression load on the interior walls. The walls are thin but I don't think they will directly buckle.

Someone said something about CG. Lets say the roof is 10 feet above the axles. 10 feet times 1300# is 13,000 foot pounds.

For reference let's guess the Coach carries 70% of it's 12,000 pounds below the floor. The floor is 2 feet above the axles so it's 8 foot to the roof from there.

12,000 X .3 = 3600 X 8(feet) = So the natural momentum is 28,000 foot pounds. You are adding 50% more lateral momentum loads to the vertical center of gravity.

I have no idea if the suspension of the standard coach has 50% lean margins.

Another concern to me is lateral loads. There is really no diagonal bracing inside this thin square box.

Let's say you pull 2g in a turn. Attach a winch and load cell to the roofline edge and apply 2600 pounds. If you don't pull the wall over I am guessing you will be getting close...

This is all educated guessing on weights. but the math is close and gives you an idea of the magnitude of what you are planning.

It is also how you should be thinking about this from an engineering standpoint.

You haven't talked batteries but I assume they are gonna go inside? at floor level? The good news is you have a giant frame to tie into. The bad news is you should have a look at RV payload and make sure the combned weight of solar panels, solar gear and chargers plus batteries stays under MGWR of the coach.
He later said it will be stationary, not being moved. The roof might withstand the weight in that scenario.
 
How about a heavy duty gooseneck trailer with a pipe frame for all the solar and the Prowler permanently mounted underneath the pipe frame?
 
How about a heavy duty gooseneck trailer with a pipe frame for all the solar and the Prowler permanently mounted underneath the pipe frame?
well, a heavy gooseneck is expensive. i am not going to reside in the trailer. i amdoing it jsut because it seems like a very, very inexpensive way to get about 40 amps per leg of 220v power to subsidize my usage. i can hook it up to certain high load circuits and keep them seperate from the grid. i do not need a permit to put solar on my trailer. and nothing say si can't hook up outside things to the power.
 
Find out the weight of one panel. Add up the total weight. The panels that hang are also roof weight. So 30X8=240 sq-ft. At 1300# that`s 5.4lbs/sq-ft.

1300# is say 6 X 200# guys. Spread out over the roof it's probably ok. However if you wanna get picky you are gonna point mount the panels for airflow. say 6 each 4X4 pads per panel. That's16 sq inches per footing. Each pad will hold 8.3 pounds of a 50 pound panel. That's 6psi.

The side mounted panels are dead weight but it is over the walls so you don't have span weight across the roof with those.

That's all the compression load on the interior walls. The walls are thin but I don't think they will directly buckle.

Someone said something about CG. Lets say the roof is 10 feet above the axles. 10 feet times 1300# is 13,000 foot pounds.

For reference let's guess the Coach carries 70% of it's 12,000 pounds below the floor. The floor is 2 feet above the axles so it's 8 foot to the roof from there.

12,000 X .3 = 3600 X 8(feet) = So the natural momentum is 28,000 foot pounds. You are adding 50% more lateral momentum loads to the vertical center of gravity.

I have no idea if the suspension of the standard coach has 50% lean margins.

Another concern to me is lateral loads. There is really no diagonal bracing inside this thin square box.

Let's say you pull 2g in a turn. Attach a winch and load cell to the roofline edge and apply 2600 pounds. If you don't pull the wall over I am guessing you will be getting close...

This is all educated guessing on weights. but the math is close and gives you an idea of the magnitude of what you are planning.

It is also how you should be thinking about this from an engineering standpoint.

You haven't talked batteries but I assume they are gonna go inside? at floor level? The good news is you have a giant frame to tie into. The bad news is you should have a look at RV payload and make sure the combned weight of solar panels, solar gear and chargers plus batteries stays under MGWR of the coach.
excellent points, i have been thinking of putting some anchor points inside the trialer for some X cross bracing with big tiedowns. just for transport or i might leave them i would go from rack to frame diagonally
 
i was going to keep everying inside the trailer, the inverter and the battery bank. i would put a small miini split on it to keep it within a decent temperature range for the batteries if necessary.
If they are wet cell batteries, I hope you are thinking about putting some type of ventilation inside the trailer venting the gases out when charging.
 
If they are wet cell batteries, I hope you are thinking about putting some type of ventilation inside the trailer venting the gases out when charging.
they will be high voltage lithium/lifepo4 and the inverter is a high voltage unit also so all the wires are not so big,, less current.
 
it is a shame really, the trailer is in excellent shape. i wish i could find someone who would want it for it's vintage purposes but it's a big one at 30ft. most of the vintage people wnat the small trailer
 

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