Mobile Solar Panel Rack

Recently I wanted to move my big solar panel off the roof. I also wanted to move it from where it was getting shade for nearly six hours out of the day. The place on the roof where I installed it this previous summer works great in the summer but this time of year it was getting entirely too much shade cast by a tree covered ridge to the southeast of the homestead.

So I racked my brain for a while and considered building several different types of stationary solar panel racks but ultimately I wanted something that was mobile and that I could change the tilt on the solar panel rather easily.

I had this old trailer frame that I had put tires on previously but had never done anything with it beyond that. So after a lot of thinking I scavenged the building materials out of my dwindling supply and set to work assembling a rack for my big solar panel on the trailer.

I got it all built and then mounted the solar panel on the wooden rack and anchored it in place. I then set the panel facing south with a compass. I then leveled the trailer. I then lifted the tongue of the trailer until I reached my desired tilt angle and then used some cinder blocks and shims to hold it in place. I also added cinder blocks to the center of the trailer frame to weight it down.

I now get nearly five hours of direct sun on my big solar panel and I can now rather easily move it or adjust the solar panel tilt.

Also I used a long enough length of 12 gauge wire to drop the panels voltage down a little which is great because my cheap charge controllers were previously struggling with the high voltage coming off the solar panel. The charge controllers would previously cycle their power but now with just a few volts lower they no longer do that.

Thanks for reading!