For terry

[Mrcoolabah1au]

Great message from the sunshine

[T1 Terry]

As Dottie said in her post about the solar panels needing the leaves removed regularly, wasp nests are another thing that kills solar panels because they can not get the heat away from the underside. The system I redid at Bodalla on the NSW south coast had leaves built up under the panels and they were blackened and ready to start a fire, there was no circuit breaker switch involved on the roof and the panels were only at 12vdc nominal. The problem with that system was the cabling being undersize and crap cable connections.
That fire could have been started by poor MC4 connectors, I have a Tindo 295w second hand panel that the MC4 connectors are melted as a result of not being plugged into each other fully causing an arc across the contacts. In that case, it was a single panel that had been removed from a system and as is best practice, the male and female plug are connected together to nullify any output from the panel while stored outside in the sunshine. If the output from a single 295w panel can cause enough heat to melt the MC$ connectors, what level of heat could be generated with 10 or more panels together in series, current is the same but the voltage is x 10. This is the reason why we remove the plastic MC4 plug cases and solder the male and female MC4 connectors together before slipping heat shrink over the join to seal it against moisture entering. A positive joint every time, double checks the connection of the MC4 connector to the cable is good and eliminates that as being the source of a problem when diagnosing faults.
With the cheap Chinese panels, we have often found the crimp between the connector and cable to be poor or have actually cut the conductor cable through to all but a few strands. We have also found poor connections inside the connector boxes on the back of a single panel, they are paid by the number they get through QC, not the quality of their work, so the pride in workmanship isn't there, it is all about how quick they can get the soldering job completed. This goes for the 12v nominal panels from evilbay etc as well as the house rooftop solar panels that the cheap and nasty installers use.
Tier 1 qualification has nothing to do with build quality, even though the solar installer mobs seem to make sound like a quality stamp, it's about how many have been used for commercial installations v problems not addressed by the manufacturer as far as warranty claims and this is based on complaints lodged with the Solar Industrial Council by the licenced/registered member installers, not the general public.

T1 Terry

[Mrcoolabah1au]

8D0B4A34-C6BE-4FB2-AC0A-55100B4BD515.jpeg

Ok next job

[supersparky]

Good one Wayne. Where did you find that?

[Mrcoolabah1au]

Facebook

[Greynomad]

While touring through Albany, WA, some years ago, we came across a m/h built onto a Land Rover Defender.
The name on the front?
“Snail Killer”

BTW, just looking at the Snail Camper’s ground clearance — particularly the front bumper — you’d only get one tank of fuel to tour Australia... it would never clear the gutters at any Oz servo.
We’ve scraped Girt’s towbar on a few — and it’s mounted high enough to puncture the radiator on a normal sedan.

[jon_d]

I initially thought it was photo shopped but no.

4H1A7686_1.jpg

http://fueltank.cc/blog/snail-camper Here is the story.

[supersparky]

Ray, I would that vehicle would have air bags that de-air when the engine is stopped.
Just read the attached story that Jd just put up. Interesting if you like VW's

[Greynomad]

Citroen did it better...

[supersparky]

Citroen did it better...

I wonder how many heads that will go over.
But yes, you are correct.