Quote:
Originally Posted by creativepart
Doug, I think as you do your research you'll find that solar panels being blown off roofs is not a common occurrence.
A great many even simply use VHB (very high bond) tape to hold down panel mounts.
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I agree with creativepart's comment about panels being blown off isn't common. Winnebago roofs don't have cross-members every couple of feet like other MHs, just a few, so their location may not be good for locating your panels. At best you'll be able to secure one end to them. They're metal so you could probably locate them with a wand style metal detector from Harbor Freight. They will also sometimes be visible as stripes in the morning dew.
I'm a big fan of VHB tape, but I don't think that it, alone, is a good solution for a Winnebago MH, particularly an older one. Our roofs are a very thin piece of Filon (fiberglass) glued to a 1/8" sheet of Luan plywood, bonded to a 2" or so thick piece of foam bonded to another thin sheet of Luan. The bond between the Luan and foam may deteriorate in places so using VHB tape isn't always as secure as we would want.
My preference is to use both VHB tape and SS screws. They don't have to be long but should be pretty large enough so the threads don't easily pull out of the Luan, maybe #12s. Some use rubber well nuts that expand when their screws are tightened, locking them to the Luan. When properly mounted, they should have more holding power than a regular screw:
https://youtu.be/QIOf-7WAZ5E
I like to make my own brackets out of aluminum angle stock. You can make them several inches long, giving you more holding power with several screws. If you mount two in the front and two in the back, they can be angled to match the curve of your roof. Also, by screwing the vertical part of the L to the edge of the panels, the panels are easy to remove if need be. Here's a photo of some that I used on my van's thicker fiberglass roof with VHB. You can see how they're angled to match the curvature of the roof: