Alan and Jayne Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 G'day We've got 3 x 130W panels on the roof of our TopEnder.I was up cleaning the panels last month & noticed the rear one was shattered. Looked like a broken toughened windscreen! You could see the impact point where I guess a rock had hit it.We had just finished doing the Oodnadatta & Strzelecki tracks & the panel was OK half way down the Oodnadatta as I have a photo of the roof from the railway bridge & it was fine then. Tom at Kedron fixed at a very good rate.My question is has anyone else cracked a solar panel before? I'm trying to work out where we did this & whether it was from our car, van or a passing truck?I find it hard to imagine it was from our car or van, as while we were on these tracks our max speed would have been 45km/hr when there were stones around. We didn't pass any trucks that I can recall. We run BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO's on both car & van & I've heard these are bad for throwing up stones. If you've had a shattered panel let me know your thoughts on how you did this.CheersAlan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 Twice we have had a shattered solar panel. In both cases (a few years apart) our insurance company paid for the replacement. Actually, I think the first one may also have been damaged on the Oodnadatta Track!Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evo Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 Hi Alan,I shattered a panel on the Outback Way earlier this year,don't know exactly when but I also got a big star in the windscreen by a stone throughen up by an idiot going too fast in the oposite direction.I have been told hail will not brake them but sharp rocks will.Noel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan and Jayne Posted December 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 26, 2013 G'day Christine & NoelThanks for your replies. I'm not sure what caused ours to break, but the impact point leads me to a rock, but we didn't pass any vehicles either direction that could have caused this, so I suspect it was from our vehicle(s) courtesy of our BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO tyres which are known for throwing up rocks. BTW they work great of the car, terrible on the van. CheersAlan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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