The Motorhome Tear Out and Build Begins

[Chevelle_Nut]

We cook outside most of the time on the Blackstone. We have cooked a Thanksgiving dinner in the camper. We had a 22' Blackstone in the camper and another on the porch. We bought a 17" for the camper to save space and weight so now we have 3.

 

[kmakar]

We cook outside most of the time on the Blackstone. We have cooked a Thanksgiving dinner in the camper. We had a 22' Blackstone in the camper and another on the porch. We bought a 17" for the camper to save space and weight so now we have 3.

We pulled the gas cooktop out and we're going to use induction cooktop. We'll use gas outside.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Black out blinds are a must for the northern States.

 

[kmakar]

Yep, sun comes up early.

 

[kmakar]

Love my homebuilt crane.... no more breaking my back...... removing the first of 2 rooftop air conditioners.....

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Yep, sun comes up early.

Sun started to come up at 4:30 this morning in South Dakota and this is not even June. Got down to almost freezing last night.

 

[Nashville Cat]

Very cool ! No telling what that steel pipe boom would cost today !

 

[kmakar]

Very cool ! No telling what that steel pipe boom would cost today !

View attachment 5422

Cost me $300 about 3 months ago.

 

[77cruiser]

Sun started to come up at 4:30 this morning in South Dakota and this is not even June. Got down to almost freezing last night.

Should come up north.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Should come up north.

Montana far enough?

 

[77cruiser]

Montana far enough?

But it's southern Montana. Beautiful country out there.

 

[kmakar]

Here's the before and after of roof stripped of all vents and A/C's. Still have to relocate the plumbing stack to the center of the roof so it doesn't interfere with the 9 solar panels going on the roof.

The whole roof needs to be cleaned before I put the Henry's 100% silicone roof sealant on, but I have to set the solar panel brackets first.

 

[Alan F]

Looks like a lot of work Kevin. But nice job on making what you want. I admire that grreatly.

 

[kmakar]

Looks like a lot of work Kevin. But nice job on making what you want. I admire that grreatly.

Thanks. It's alot of work, but like everything I do, I make it mine to fit what I want.

As my kids always say YOLO (You Only Live Once), so make it count.

 

[Nashville Cat]

Would it be good to paint the roof flat white and use bi-facial solar panels ?

 

[kmakar]

Would it be good to paint the roof flat white and use bi-facial solar panels ?

View attachment 5437

The roof will get a coat of Henry's Tropi-Cool which is a super white silicone with lifetime warranty, but since the panels will be mounted so close to the roof (1.5"), there is no benefit since not much light will reflect under the panels.

 

[kmakar]

Here's the stack vent relocated. Now I have to make all the brackets for the solar panels to they can be mounted on the roof.......

 

[Shaner]

Have you thought about stacking your panels on a drawer type slide?

When your sitting they could slide and give you more surface area, more panels...

You would have to backward engineer some kind of slide/system, but you could get more wattage when you're sitting.

 

[kmakar]

Have you thought about stacking your panels on a drawer type slide?

When your sitting they could slide and give you more surface area, more panels...

You would have to backward engineer some kind of slide/system, but you could get more wattage when you're sitting.

I hadn't, but the issue with that would be creating undue stress on the roof structure since it wasn't designed to handle that kind of stress. The main framing is 2 x 2 aluminum and the rest is wood. Over time a cantilevered slide system would probably pull too much on the framing, not to mention it'd become a hell of a sail with severe updraft if a thunderstorm were to roll in (which happens frequently in Florida).

 

[kmakar]

Mounted the solar panels on BAB's (aka the "battle cruiser" as I'm calling her), but have to wait until later to take them back off (too hot to touch them right now) so I can seal the whole roof with the brackets in place and then put the panels back up.

Nine (9) 445 watt panels = 4,005 watts of solar on the roof.