Splicing ground mount rails

Green Building Solutions

Any advice on weather or not it's ok to splice ground mount rails. I want to put 6 40" wide panels in landscape mode on one set of rails on a ground mount array. My problem is I can't find any companies that make a 20+ foot rail without having to wait 6 weeks to get it.

That being said if I splice two shorter aluminum rails (N-S) over the middle frame rail (E-W) would there be enough strength in aluminum rails to support the modules? I'm looking at cantilevering the ends of the rails 2 feet (which is an acceptable length in the manufactures specs.) Also is this an acceptable practice?

Thanks,

Solar Guppy

Re: Splicing ground mount rails

I use the pool enclosure type beams ... comes as long as 32ft stock, is very strong ( used 2x4 Aluminum ) but larger sizes are available. At least here in central Florida is very common to get

If you do splice, you would need have good overlap and use many fasteners, do not rely on the panel frame for the splice