Shocking video has emerged of a solar panel flying off a moving caravan and nearly causing a nasty accident.
The footage uploaded to the AussieCams website was apparently shot at near Eastern Creek in Western Sydney on December 20. It shows a solar panel being ripped from a caravan and nearly hitting the following vehicle, which is forced to take evasive action. The footage can be seen here.
While it was appears no one was injured in this terrifying passage of events, the potential for disaster is obvious.
Back in October, three people died and four more were hospitalised after an accident near Ross in Tasmania’s Midlands. Police believe the tragedy occurred after a driver lost control when trying to avoid a solar panel that became dislodged from a caravan
The accident received huge publicity and certainly caused a lot of grey nomads to have a look at just how well their own panels were fixed to their rigs.
Tasmanian Graeme Twine was one of those spurred into action by news of the tragedy and, when he checked the solar panel mount brackets on his camper trailer, he was shocked by what he discovered.
“When I sort of looked at the panel, I was expecting to see some screws fixed to the roof and couldn’t see any – and it just appeared on the outside of it that it was glued, for want of better words, to the roof,” Mr Twine told the ABC.
He then carefully exerted upward pressure on a corner of the solar panel, which lifted.
“I proceeded to lift the other corner, and with very light pressure – an eight-year-old could have done what I was doing,” Mr Twin said. “And the whole thing just popped off the roof virtually.”
He said his research showed that much of the advice around the issue was to just to ‘glue’ solar panels onto caravans, but it was clear that there should be a ‘glue and screw’ approach to the fitting of panels.
It is a view shared by Michael Bloch from the Solar Quotes blog.
“A bit of common sense comes into play here – sticking a weighty device with a large surface area on the roof of van that could be travelling at 100 kilometres an hour, subjected to vibration and with air flow above and below the panel would suggest careful thought regarding fixing is required,” he said. “This is really a job for a professional.”
And he warned the stakes were exceptionally high.
“Aside from the tragedy through potential loss of life or injury and the costs of damage involved, a solar panel not properly affixed and coming adrift could land the caravan owner in legal hot water as well,” he said. “Imagine being the owner of that caravan and arriving at your destination to discover the solar panel was gone … there would (or at least should) be some sleepless nights to follow.”
As there was no resultant “Incident” there was probably no investigation as to cause of failure therefore no evidence produced of reason for failure or culpability.
On the facts of story related, it is merely an assumption that an Adhesive failure was the cause of the failure.
It is difficult to ascertain (due to quality and size of photo) the type of RV and how it was originally attached and by whom. It does appear that the corners of the panel are still attached to “Mounting Pads” or reinforcing metal plates.
I’ve mentioned this before, a lot of people are using Sikaflex to bond the pads to the roof but are not using the recommended primer prior to bonding. There certainly is a case for mechanical clamping in case of failure but the bonding process is secure when applied correctly.
In this instance it appears that the screws in one of the pads has let go from the panel and perhaps caused one corner of it to lift … and the rest is history.
No doubt that this is a concern for anybody with ANYTHING mounted on the roof to ensure its security.
Checked my solar panels 2 weeks ago..one screw missing on one bracket and 2 loose on another
After last one in Tazzie I checked mine and two others of mates and they all were corner and centre brackets were pop rivited on sides of panel and glued on bottom only. We all removed off roof and re glued and rivited to van and will keep an eye on them mind u oldest van is only 5yo
Never had a problem with our generator blowing off the caravan and it’s not even fastened down with Sikaflex 🙂
we checked ours after using a marine glue and screws 12 months later after the Tassie incident I checked again the glue stuck to the roof very well but didn’t stck to the solar panel mounts at all and they were the recomended mounts
My Solar panels were installed at time of build by the Manufacturers. they must have shares in a Silicone business!
My flexable panels are held down with VHB tape. It is so strong that when I didn’t get one of the mounting strips quite in the correct place I nearly delaminated the panel trying to pull it off ( I left it where it was) and this was after a light pressure, not the full mounting pressure. Tape is worth about $150 for 30 meters. I also have the corners glued and screwed. I will never be able to get a warranty as I would have to destroy the panels to remove them
Adhesives and sealants degrade over time. Panels should be mechanically secured to the vehicle not just glued on.