Corky 8 Posted December 9, 2013 Author Share Posted December 9, 2013 1footinthegrave - 2013-12-08 1:53 PMApparently it's an anti hail sheet, and having looked at mine just yesterday it it's glass fibre it certainly does not look or feel it, seems like a rubberised type of material, any way Corky maybe this post that I've found is confidence building for both of us. ;-) "If it was JUST a floating roof skin then yes BUT there are numerous other items Clamping the skin tight, ie roof lights/windows etc, My last Satellite was fitted by none other than Rapido themselves at Mayenne as I had to have a replacement roof because in manufacture the mounting bracket which the bathroom door was hung on was not in the correct location so the door would float about and hang incorrectly so they decided to remove the roof and replace the unit as it would be easier, they of course had to refit everything onto the new one, which resulted in everything being Sikaflexed back, even the Solar panels and also a Glomex TV Antennae The only time they actually drilled the roof was for the Cable entry gland" ;-) And this from a Rapido tech support bloke who is talking about a sat dish installation.Normally if the surface where it is going to be fixed is cleaned & scoured and the bonding is done with the correct primer and correct grade of Sikaflex it should not present a problem. On some larger systems it may be necessary to use a spreader plate to increase the fixing area.Onefoot, " Apologies" I missed this post, You had already stated all that I found out this afternoon looking at the top of my Motorhome, and as you said if all the replaced external roof fitting was just Silkaflex back down this may be the way to go with Confidence, but I stand by my comment about Brain he has only ever given good advice over the years I've been coming on here, I may not have many posts, I tend to read more that I write. Can I ask you do you have a solar Panel fitted to your Rapido, ? and is your Rapido the pre wired model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevina Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Corky 8 - 2013-12-09 9:01 PM............. David (overdrive) has let me know the roof is something like 2 to 3 inches made up of top sheet, tinfoil insulation, two or three layers of Ply then foam insulation ,final ceiling finish, I will phone Wokingham Motorhome tomorrow and seek their advice, If I can get hold of anyone, I Thank you all for your input/advice. it is valued, I will let you know which way I go, Thanks again DennisDavids roof construction sounds very different to my 2008 Rapido, what age is yours. If you open your heki and shine a bright torch in horizontally where the roof panel is you can probably see a cross section of your own roof construction.Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Absolutely no apologies needed, but I'm in a similar position as you, I have only had my van about two weeks, and no I have not fitted a panel as yet, but they are so commonly fitted on French Rapido vehicles, together with the other French favourite accessory, the sat dish, and in many Rapidos pre wiring there must be a definitive bit of advice from them for fitting to this anti hail roof skin. The closest I have come to surfing the net for info, both on UK sites and French sites ( thank God for Google translate ) is fixing with Sikaflex is the way to go. I can't for certain say that, but in the absence of actually talking directly to Rapido ( my French is non existant ) say for certain that is what they do, although I did read a supposed Rapido tech bloke saying exactly that, so that's what I've decided to do, and it's no big deal with a ladder to keep an eye on it, having used the correct stuff as I expect you have, and tried to remove some in the past, I doubt it will be going anywhere The only hole will be for the cable gland entry, and I'm toying with the idea of that being high up on the wall of the van rather than the roof. As for pre wired, there is an icon on the CBE control panel, and a connection point on the electrical distribution board, but I'll just wire mine via a solar controller directly to the battery in the absence of better info over the next week or so. There is also an odd connection in the wardrobe, that as yet I have been unable to determine it's purpose, but assume it is a factory fitted item, if I find out I'll let you know, cheers, Mike. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 My concern, if only relying on an adhesive, would be the amount of "area" the brackets provide... These corner type brackets seem to have a decent amount of surface area for Sika' to grab hold of.. http://www.solar-store.co.uk/set-of-four-corner-mounting-brackets.html ..although I would've thought a major downside with them is that once fitted, IF you ever needed to replace the panel, they'd be very "size specific"... :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 The quotes 1foot provided in his 8 December 2013 1:53 PM posting come from a July 2013 MotorhomeFacts thread relating to fixing a Snipe satellite dish to the roof of a Rapido 7090+ model. http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-142625-days0-orderasc-0.html The advice from Anthony Pfaff (the "Rapido tech support bloke" who deals with UK queries) that 1foot mentions goes on to say: "Fixing of any accessory like this should be left to a Rapido Concession to do. Attaching a heavy object to the outside of a vehicle should not be considered DIY." Logically, (as Brian has said) the least controversial way of attaching the solar panel would be to exploit the vehicle's roof-rails (as David (Overdrive) has done) as this method side-steps any potential problems if the panel's attachments were glued or glued+screwed to the roof itself. If it's decided not to use the roof-rails, then it should be plain from comments in the MHF thread and in this one that there are two distinct schools of thought, one that involves just using adhesive and the other that recommends that 'mechanical' fixings should also be employed. I can't see mechanical fixings being effective on this type of roof unless they were of the 'hollow wall anchor' type that would expand below the underside of the roof's outer skin, or were fixings that connected into something solid. Just using short self-tapping screws that passed into empty space or soft material beneath the skin wouldn't have much value. To provide a usefully strong fixing (additional to the adhesive) screws would need to enter a wood/plastic stringer or the "two or three layers of ply" mentioned in Corky's posting of 9 December 2013 9:01 PM. (But I note that kevina mentions that the roof-construction of his 2008 Rapido 7090 apparently differs from that of Overdrive's motorhome - another thing to bear in mind.) This issue wasn't resolved within the MHF thread and it's not going to be resolved here. Rapido may pre-cable for a solar panel when a motorhome is being built, but (as far as I'm aware) always devolves the choice and fitting of a panel to the buyer. Consequently, the only solar-panel-fitting advice one should expect to get from the Rapido factory is what Anthony Pfaff said about fitting a satellite-dish - an adhesive-only bond (with relevant caveats about cleanliness, etc.) should be adequate, but the job should be carried out by a Rapido dealership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 "but the job should be carried out by a Rapido dealership". With respect Derek, they would say that wouldn't they, as I suspect would every other brand. ;-) but I'm inclined to agree about fitting to the roof rails after thinking about it some more, if for no other reason than a panel going faulty or getting broken that I thought about once in the early hours after being parked up under some pine tree's with cones the size of a rugby ball ( silly me ) , and that that Sikaflex is something else to remove as well. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corky 8 Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 Sorry to keep resurrecting this post, but it may help other Rapido owners in the future, firstly to give to an idea of the mounting feet I'm using they are Similar to the ones Pep63 was kind enough to find plus my set up has side brackets /feet as well , they are hollow on the underside with about 1inch of plastic the length and breadth of the feet, that said it does get a good adhesion, the Solar Panel is then bolted to the feet so it can be removed without disturbing the feet, doing some experimentation today by laying timber across the roof rails and laying a piece of ply the same dimensions as my solar panel on top, I have ruled out mounting it on the roof rails, there is a slight arching of the roof rails from the centre of the bars to the forward and rear, and where the would be mounting needs to be towards the rear it gives the solar panel a slightly nose up effect, oncoming wind would make it act like a wing and give lift under the Panel, My Thanks to Derek another chap of many helpful posts, for the link to Motorhomefacts, which I read with great enthusiasm, after all your Gratefully accepted posts I have decided to just Silkaflex the feet of the solar panel But also to pre drill them but not use screws at this stage,(I have 20, size 10 x 25mm stainless steel self tapping button head screws) which I will keep in the Motorhome. When I phoned Wokingham motorhomes today, I was informed they have received my email and it is receiving attention and I will get a reply very soon, I did pose them another issue which is, within the 12v distribution board are two terminals ... (Sorties B1) Terminal B1 which deals with Engine Battery connections and (Sorties B2) Terminal B2 which has all leisure Battery connection, I asked could I connect one of the solar panel incoming positive supplies to Terminal B1 after the Solar Panel charge Controller to charge the Engine battery ( not knowing if there are any Diodes in line) Terminal B2 does not need to be used as there is a direct pre wired route to the Leisure Batteries from the solar panel incoming wire via a Solar panel charge controller.so you can see why I don't want to push the point with Wokingham motors, I have also email Rapido France with the same questions, to date I've had a anti spam panel to fill in from Rapido. but its early days, Onefoot if you find out anything to do with mounting the solar Panel please let me know as I will with your goodself. Many Many Thanks All of you, Regards DennisNb . It would be something like a 700 mile round trip to visit my Nearest Rapido dealer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Corky 8 - 2013-12-09 9:01 PM..............Brian as always you give good sound advice and normally I would adhere (no Pun intended) to what you say, but today when I got above the M/H roof and looked at all the fittings already cut into the roof top sheet, IE Helki roof light, satellite Dish , shower vent, toilet roof light, Bedroom roof light/vent, then the roof rails running three quarters the length of the M/H screwed down in three places each side, and finally the Extendable TV Aerial , there is not much of the roof left that can expand / contract . the roof rail fixings alone would restrict and expansion / contraction also all the holes cut through the top sheet will have been seal with some form of sealant/ adhesive to make them water resistant which will also hold the top sheet from moving , so you can see the Quandary I'm in. David (overdrive) has let me know the roof is something like 2 to 3 inches made up of top sheet, tinfoil insulation, two or three layers of Ply then foam insulation ,final ceiling finish, I will phone Wokingham Motorhome tomorrow and seek their advice, If I can get hold of anyone, I Thank you all for your input/advice. it is valued, I will let you know which way I go, Thanks again Dennis Best idea, I think, Dennis, and then just follow their advice. I was imagining your roof to have only the odd factory fitted rooflight already on it. Since it already has a number of after market fixtures, and presumably shows no signs of stress cracks or leakage, I guess what you are proposing will make little difference. But, with motorhome roofs, better to be safe than sorry, I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 We have a Rapido 7090 island bed m/home with a wardrobe each side of the bedhead. The "odd" electrical connector in the wardrobe in our 7090 is an electrical block with a 12V negative, a 12 volt live and a 12 V on when the habitation panel is switched on. No idea what current it takes. There are also a satellite and a TV connection in there as well. I have a feeling, though not confirmed that these connect back to the TV station over our fridge freezer. The idea being that a connection can be made through the garage, into the wardrobe and then fed back to the TV if you have external dish or TV mast. We have Camos dome satellite mounted just behind the Heinki roof light, I have a feeling tht it is screwed down, but there is a lot of mastic on and around the feet. Pleased to say that it does not seem to move when pushed ! although the roof material is flexible. (Similar to a boat's deck flooring) The cable from the dome is fed through a gland facing to the rear, and the cable is mastic-ed so it does not move when traveling. The gland feeds directly to the the TV cupboard roof, and cable runs to the Camos control unit. Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corky 8 Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 tonyishuk - 2013-12-12 6:56 PMWe have a Rapido 7090 island bed m/home with a wardrobe each side of the bedhead.The "odd" electrical connector in the wardrobe in our 7090 is an electrical block with a 12V negative, a 12 volt live and a 12 V on when the habitation panel is switched on. No idea what current it takes.There are also a satellite and a TV connection in there as well.I have a feeling, though not confirmed that these connect back to the TV station over our fridge freezer. The idea being that a connection can be made through the garage, into the wardrobe and then fed back to the TV if you have external dish or TV mast.We have Camos dome satellite mounted just behind the Heinki roof light, I have a feeling tht it is screwed down, but there is a lot of mastic on and around the feet. Pleased to say that it does not seem to move when pushed ! although the roof material is flexible. (Similar to a boat's deck flooring)The cable from the dome is fed through a gland facing to the rear, and the cable is mastic-ed so it does not move when traveling. The gland feeds directly to the the TV cupboard roof, and cable runs to the Camos control unit.RgdsSounds like the same lay out as ours, in the wardrobe which houses the Extendable TV aerial, on the back wall is a similar electrical connector, if you take the four screws out of the back panel of the wardrobe and move it slightly to one side you should find the aerial incomer and if fitted the pre wired solar Panel wires which come out in the Garage/under locker, and as you say the Aerial cable goes from there to the over fridge TV station, the roof has at least 7 holes/ fitments to it, but I intend to go with Silkaflex 521UV but I intend to pre drill the feet of the solar Panel, the Silkaflex will come out through these holes and add another anchor point and should it be needed I can fix stainless steel screws through these holes. but hopefully they wont be needed, Thank you for your response, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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