I have only attempted to measure 1 Transit roof in any detail. (148 MR)

What I found is that the holes were not necessarily colinear with each other, so whatever you build needs to have the ability to deal with this.

That is why the setup that I did on that 148 MR allows doing a pre-mount of the support brackets, and then final alignment / bolt tightening was done after the N/S rail was attached.

Here is a photo of it in progress.

WirlNet, Inc

wirlnet-inc.square.site

 

Assuming the MR and HR might have similar layouts if they were both 148, did you keep any notes about the positions of the various holes relative to each other? I'll almost certainly be using some kind of strut channel or maybe 80/20, so there should be some room to maneuver. But thanks for the warning. I would have hoped they would be mostly colinear, but it sounds like it's typical Ford loose tolerances.

Cheers.

 

Roof rack rail width/dimensions

Has anyone measured how far apart the two rows of bolt holes are on the roof? Need a quick measurement to do some solar panel shopping, and I'm trying to get away with just using a T-slot plus some spacers if necessary, instead of a big frame or cross bars to hold the panels up. Thanks.

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

 

FT 148’’ roof set up. Rack, panels, fan.

Still working on lay out design for everything to fit on my roof. Goo thing I put the fan up t see that it needs more that 14x14 I was originally calculating. Should get three panels and maybe a thin walking platform to access and clean. Thanks to Harry at WirlNet for support and rack design now...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

This is the 148 MR that we used to develop a mounting kit package. (Mounts / fasteners from van to 1515 rail, and from rail to the solar panels)

Originally the plan was to include offsets to "fix" the angle that the mounting pads are at. In practice, it turned out to be better (IMO) to keep the angle for water drainage and it really didn't have any significant effect on the solar panel mounting when done this way.

 

I'm surprised it looks like the panels still sit roughly flat on the 8020 even though the rail and pads are presumably at an angle.

Cheers.

 

Hi!

I am not sure if this is of any value, but I put 3 REC Alpha solar panels (which if I recall correctly are the ones you are going to use) on my EL roof using Hein's brackets and 8020. Happy to answer any questions if this is in any way helpful. These posts have some photos:

The big silver van - a 2021 AWD build from the Bay Area

Hi! Yesterday I took delivery of a new 2021 High Roof extended length AWD cargo van, after waiting patiently since placing my order in mid December last year. All in all it seems like I got lucky and everything went according to the expected schedule, and so far it seems like the vehicle works...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

The big silver van - a 2021 AWD build from the Bay Area

Hi! Yesterday I took delivery of a new 2021 High Roof extended length AWD cargo van, after waiting patiently since placing my order in mid December last year. All in all it seems like I got lucky and everything went according to the expected schedule, and so far it seems like the vehicle works...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

 

Nice! Great minds think alike. I honestly didn't know anyone else had put 3 REC Alphas on the roof. With an EL it makes sense but I'm hoping I can just squeeze them on a standard since I don't have a roof fan to contend with. The REC Alphas sure look good on paper. How are you finding them in practice? Did you go all parallel and stay in the 38-45 voltage range, or series? I have to go series to get high enough for my 51.2V nominal battery bank, but my MPPT can handle that.

Once concern I have is that it looks like Alphas are now discontinued, and the new Alpha pure panel is a fair bit larger, so it won't be easy for either of us to replace a single panel that gets damaged, except maybe in the used panel aftermarket. Thankfully that split panel design means half the panel can get damaged and the other half can still function.

I have a dozen more questions but I'll drop them in your build thread. I hadn't seen what you've been up to. That floor heating system looks dope!

Cheers.

 

I wouldn’t expect them to malfunction after the initial 7-8 months but it would be nice to be able to replace them in that timeframe. From what I understand you don’t want to mix different voltages but different panels within the same voltage range wouldn’t hurt. Just think of a set of panels some in shade and some in direct sunlight - they will be providing different voltage and amperage and your controller can manage it.

 

Yesterday I spent time trying to get my roof rack long rails parallel and square, and my conclusion is that "exact" is not a term to use with regard to the roof mounting points. They are not lined up with each other exactly and the left and right sides are not at exactly the same angle. So, your design needs to be resilient to this variability.

 

Okay, good info. Thanks for the warning. I'll go ahead and assemble everything a bit loose so I can adjust for differences, then tighten at the very end.

The good news is the front to back distance between the threaded holes themselves are literally exactly the same on both driver and passenger sides on my vehicle (I updated them in original post rounded to nearest whole inch). I measured them yesterday down to 1/16 precision, and both sides are spaced from the front outermost threaded hole heading back toward the rear at (hole 1 to 2): 29 minus 1/16; (hole 2 to 3): 39 exactly; (3 to 4): 20.5 minus 1/16. I mean they are perfectly spaced in that direction on both sides. I was surprised given Ford's loose tolerances, but obviously pleased to see it.

However, I don't have an easy way to very accurately measure the side to side distance between each set of threaded holes due to the roof curvature, so I'm forced to trust Hein's statement of "57" for cross 1515 cross rails. It's entirely possible the two rows of holes are spaced exactly the same front to back but the entire rows angle outward or inward.

Thankfully his bracket has the ability to easily rotate its angle a bit because it's slightly smaller than the pad. I wouldn't have thought to worry about that without your warning, and I might have sealed them in from the start, so now I'll test fit the structure first and use markings to outline the exact angle the brackets need to sit at when I do the final install. Thanks for that.

Also, his brackets are slotted, not through-hole, so there's room to adjust the left-to-right position of the 1515 rail and the bracket mounting hole if the side-to-side distance isn't exactly 57". Or so I hope! We'll see.

@gregoryx Fortunately it appears that the cutout access holes are what's unevenly spaced on my vehicle, not the bolt holes themselves, at least in the front to back direction. Side to side I'm not so certain. I nearly bought a nibbler after seeing your good work on that much higher value install you did (I'm wasting serious cash on this rack, I can feel it), but I decided to try the dremmel rock grinder tool like I normally use for drill hole smoothing/widening, and sure enough it made fast work of it, leaving me with nice smooth elliptical holes. Just had to shop vac out the grinding dust and paint.

Cheers.

Btw, here's a shot of the overpriced but well-designed Hein bracket:

 

On the 2015 low roof Transit's they forgot to glue the roof ribs in place, There was a recall for it.
Not your problem just a interesting fact.

And it does not seem to matter what model year, None of the threaded inserts line up with the holes in the roof sheet metal. Trimming of the roof sheet metal is required to get all of your bolts in.

 

Agreed wtih @jkmann: only way to get it pretty square is to have the mount plates with enough play to accommodate the sometimes significant variability in the bolt-holes. And that's mis-alignment from the roof panels... which aren't likely to be square themselves, so... 🤷‍♀️

But just a bit of room on the mount plates allow aligning for square ulimately.

 

Agreed wtih @jkmann: only way to get it pretty square is to have the mount plates with enough play to accommodate the sometimes significant variability in the bolt-holes. And that's mis-alignment from the roof panels... which aren't likely to be square themselves, so... 🤷‍♀️

View attachment 166006

But just a bit of room on the mount plates allow aligning for square ulimately.
View attachment 166007

And - that is why - just like you did - I designed my mounting kit brackets to be easily adjustable by someone on a ladder on the outside of the van vs having to reach all the way around from the roof side. That way the whole thing can be built up on the roof in easy to deal with parts and then the final alignment / tightening is easy to do since it all self aligns.