[Wavery]

Scratching the panels are not as much of a concern as stressing the panel from road vibration. These trailers don't have shock absorbers and it's quite a rough ride back there. There is a lot of flexing of the roof as one bounces down the road and that flexing will be transferred to the solar panel. The front roof will be constantly bouncing on top of the solar panel the whole ride.

As discussed previously, the panels are made up of tiny wires that both make up each cell and connect the cells to one another. When those tiny wires are under stress like that, they tend to separate and result in a failed panel.

I had bad luck with flexible solar panels on my yacht. I'm not a real fan of them for RV use. Even when mounted flat on the roof (without having the top roof bouncing on one), there is still a certain amount of flexing going on from road vibration. I may be wrong but I don't see flex panels lasting as long a framed panels under these conditions.

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