Carraige Bolt Wedge

We mounted a couple of solar panels to the roof of our RV. To attach mounting brackets to the panel, we used the small brackets that were recommended.

They need to be bolted to the panels, which is straight forward when the panels are off the RV but difficult if not impossible when the brackets are all screwed down to the roof! We had chosen to use carriage bolts with their square shaft below the cap to fit into the straight sided bolt holes.

When the panels were off, it is easy to apply pressure to the carraige bolt while tightening it down, but if the panel were already mounted, that becomes very difficult. 3D Printing to the rescue!

I designed and printed this part so that it would slide easily in the channel of the solar panel aluminum frame, but had a cut out the shape of the carriage bolt so that when it slides over the bolt head it holds it firmly. The "handle" for sliding it provides a convenient alignment to the aluminum panel frame to insure the wedge goes over the