Xantrex Inverter Mount Failure

[Tom and Doreen]

Durning my preflight inspection I noticed that our Xantrex inverter had become detached from the fiberglass sidewall. Has anyone had their Xantrex inverter mount detach from the sidewall? 

Any recommendations as to what type of adhesive or alternative fix for this situation?

 It appears that the adhesive that was used at the factory did not stick to the fiberglass and was possibly only holding on with the sticky black tape.  

[jd1923]

24 minutes ago, Tom and Doreen said:

Any recommendations as to what type of adhesive or alternative fix for this situation?

Question is Tom, would additional adhesive work, when it did not work the first time?
(Can I say, what a lame glue job OTT! 🤣)

When I installed our Victron inverter, I had seen installations on this forum using a vertical mounting board and adhesives which made me worry. That's a lot of weight to to be glued to a wall of a travel trailer!

I decided to build a shelf sitting on the floor below and after the inverter was in place, I used anchors and strapping to hold it against the wall (see pics). You should see if you can move the inverter up and out of the way and see if building a floor-mounted shelf would work in your hull. Pull the battery ground or turn a shut-off switch before moving or removing your inverter.

In the meantime if you must travel, stuff some insulation on both sides of the inverter to keep it from moving!

Edited Saturday at 06:11 PM by jd1923

[Snackchaser]

I've used epoxy before, but it's rather permanent and overkill IMHO.  I've had great results from ACE construction glue.  There are plenty of inexpensive and high strength construction glues that would be more than adequate.  These come in caulking tubes that require a cheap caulking gun for super easy application.  It's tacky enough that clamping is not required, just push it firmly in place and prop the board up so it doesn't slip. 

It appears they originally used this type of construction glue from your photo.  I've also had original glue failures, and I believe it was caused from glue application on dusty surfaces, and it looks like yours was barely touching both surfaces.  There is a surprising amount of dust on the interior surfaces, so be sure to clean surfaces before using glue.  Also, I think you could just add more glue to that surface and save yourself a lot of scraping of the old glue.  

Cheers!  Geoff

[Tom and Doreen]

17 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Question is Tom, would additional adhesive work, when it did not work the first time?

 

 

I had the same thought! ...It has lasted two years though, surprisingly.  It's definitely a lot of weight to be hanging off a vertical surface especially when subjected to shock forces bumping down the road. 

I like your installation which supports the weight on the bottom. I also like the Victron stuff.

[John Dorrer]

2 hours ago, Tom and Doreen said:

Durning my preflight inspection I noticed that our Xantrex inverter had become detached from the fiberglass sidewall. Has anyone had their Xantrex inverter mount detach from the sidewall? 

Any recommendations as to what type of adhesive or alternative fix for this situation?

 It appears that the adhesive that was used at the factory did not stick to the fiberglass and was possibly only holding on with the sticky black tape.  

Mine did that

 I scraped that off and applied a heavy duty Gorilla Adhesive, re-adhered with compression and have had no issues since. Set blocking underneath to keep it in position

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 08:08 PM by John Dorrer
Typo

[Tom and Doreen]

17 minutes ago, Snackchaser said:

I've used epoxy before, but it's rather permanent and overkill IMHO.  I've had great results from ACE construction glue.  There are plenty of inexpensive and high strength construction glues that would be more than adequate.  These come in caulking tubes that require a cheap caulking gun for super easy application.  It's tacky enough that clamping is not required, just push it firmly in place and prop the board up so it doesn't slip. 

It appears they originally used this type of construction glue from your photo.  I've also had original glue failures, and I believe it was caused from glue application on dusty surfaces, and it looks like yours was barely touching both surfaces.  There is a surprising amount of dust on the interior surfaces, so be sure to clean surfaces before using glue.  Also, I think you could just add more glue to that surface and save yourself a lot of scraping of the old glue.  

Cheers!  Geoff

Thanks very much! I agree with the "dusty surfaces" as being part of the issue.  I've cleaned powdered fiberglass residue out of most places including switches and speakers among other areas. 

[Tom and Doreen]

@John Dorrer Thanks John! I'll see what I can do.  It's good to hear that yours is holding up after the fix. 

[John Dorrer]

1 hour ago, Tom and Doreen said:

Thanks very much! I agree with the "dusty surfaces" as being part of the issue.  I've cleaned powdered fiberglass residue out of most places including switches and speakers among other areas. 

After removing the old adhesive, I wiped the board and fiberglass with rubbing alcohol to achieve a very clean surface.

[2008RN]

I have seen reports of this happening before to the inverters.   I have had other things come off where it was adhered to the fiberglass.  I made the decision to be proactive and when I was working in the area, and decided put #10 bolts through the marine board and through the fiber glass.  I used and white plastic screw head cover on the outside to hide the bolts. 

[Patriot]

9 hours ago, 2008RN said:

I have seen reports of this happening before to the inverters.   I have had other things come off where it was adhered to the fiberglass.  I made the decision to be proactive and when I was working in the area, and decided put #10 bolts through the marine board and through the fiber glass.  I used and white plastic screw head cover on the outside to hide the bolts. 

There is a slight risk of the drilled holes and new bolts supporting the weight of the marine board &inverter resulting in  “spider webbing” the exterior gel coat. Hopefully with all the bouncing around running down the road or super slab with your Oliver in tow this does not occur.
 

The glue failed on my inverter board shortly after we took delivery in 2020. I contacted service and they recommended using a strong adhesive and not drilling through gel coat to secure the inverter marine board. So I cleaned both surfaces and reglued the marine board back on with no issues since. Service did not recommend drilling through the gel coat. 
The adhesive on the marine board spreads the weight out across the back of the board vs just the bolts. Hopefully long term you won’t have any issues with your gel coat cracking or spiderwebbing where the bolts are. 👍🏻

Edited yesterday at 01:14 PM by Patriot

[Tom and Doreen]

Upon examination it appeared that the original application of adhesive did not adequately  fill the gaps between the mounting board and the fiberglass as a result the mounting board was only adhered to the fiberglass in a few spots ( along with the black tape ).  

I followed the recommendation of @John Dorrer and applied Gorilla Max Strength Construction Adhesive making sure that the adhesive bead was adequate to more than fill the gaps and surface area.  I'm pretty sure that this bond will last longer than anything else in the trailer. 

[2008RN]

15 hours ago, Patriot said:

There is a slight risk of the drilled holes and new bolts supporting the weight of the marine board &inverter resulting in  “spider webbing” the exterior gel coat. Hopefully with all the bouncing around running down the road or super slab with your Oliver in tow this does not occur.
 

So far after about 9,000 miles and plenty of rough roads there is no spider webbing.  One thing that has probably helped is the original glueing/epoxying was still holding, so now I have bolts helping to support the original adhered joints.  The things that I have put back on, I have roughed up  and made slight grooves in a cross hatch pattern in the mating surfaces and then used JB weld to hold things in place.  If the inverter would have fallen off before my proactive change, because of all of the weight I would have JB welded and bolted.

[jd1923]

Minimize the use of Construction Glue, but OK as a repair when needed.

Mounting a styrofoam sheet to a wall to hold it temporarily in place until I screw down the paneling to finish. This was the original purpose!

Many over-use glue and sealants for lack of better solutions. The worse part is having to remove something you’ve glued down! 🤣

Edited 12 hours ago by jd1923

[Patriot]

15 hours ago, Tom and Doreen said:

Upon examination it appeared that the original application of adhesive did not adequately  fill the gaps between the mounting board and the fiberglass as a result the mounting board was only adhered to the fiberglass in a few spots ( along with the black tape ).  

I followed the recommendation of @John Dorrer and applied Gorilla Max Strength Construction Adhesive making sure that the adhesive bead was adequate to more than fill the gaps and surface area.  I'm pretty sure that this bond will last longer than anything else in the trailer. 

Well done Tom, 

And I agree, that mounting board is now permanently glued like it is supposed to be. 👍🏻