You will have shading in the summer months if its east of the array as at your lattitude you will have ~220 degrees of rotation in June, from a chart from

http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SunChartProgram.html

I used bangor's zip code and you will be shaded before 8am which looks like 3.5 hours of daylight ( man the sunrises early there in the summer! )

You will probably have excess power in the summer, so I wouldn't be to concerned

good to find out about the requiremnt of the terminal block for adaptation as i didn't know if it needed it or not and now i know too.
if you are confident that you can do the electrical work you can just follow the nec rules or get an electrician to either do the work for you or have one advise and inspect your work. do note that there would not be anybody to force the nec rules upon you unless required by your home owners insurance and they would most likely force that upon you. if you don't follow the nec guidelines they may say you made it unsafe by not following the nec and they may refuse to pay for any damages with an out for them like that. insurance companies can be royal pains in the *ss and will look for any excuse to not pay for the protection you are paying them for and do know the nec is sometimes hard to interpret.
as to xantrex being new, they are not new and i believe the company is older than outback, sg correct me if i'm wrong. now, i understand what you meant though with particular products being new to the market as newer items tend to need bugs worked out of them in the beginning.
as to the shade, yes, you will have a slight degradation between the beginning of spring and the end of summer for less than an hour of morning sun, but it won't amount to much lost power imho.

Thanks everyone. I didn't think think that the tower would be a big problem. We are situated in a valley with an amazing view of the southern sky (good for satallite), but due to this arrangment, what should be the first and last 1.5 hours of the day in the summer are actually blocked by the hills on either side. In the winter its only obstructed for about 1/2 an hour. The tower is not an issue in the winter. My father an I re-wired this whole house our self, we have never used licenced electricians. The insuance compant (State Farm) has never given us any greef over anything, as a matter of fact, we got the home equity loan that is paying for the solar and windmill from them! The windmill is being installed professionally though, a rebar reinforcing cage filled with concrete for a Caisson and a 50' tower is a little bit more than I'm willing to deal with on my own without a construction team. I will be sure to get pointers from their electrician.
As for Xantrex. I was only worried about thier NEW equipment. We have used a Trace (Xantrex) Power Panel and DR3624 for about 9 years. The DR always worked as intended for backup power, but a squar sign wave is a pain in the ass! And you can't possibly grid tie it. We have also used C-40 charge controllers for just as long.

The XW is far from "new" ... When I was working on the SC-60, the Inverter project had been going for a full year, so its over 4 years old now and a very elegant and great performing inverter, nothing on the market comes close it its peformance and efficiency. You get true 240 split phase, 12kw surge and 95% efficiency all in one box.

I know whats inside most of the solar hardware sold and how it all works, if it means anything hearing it from me, you shouldn't have any concerns selecting XW stuff.

sg,
do you know if the xw would accomodate aluminum wires or will it too need adapted?

The XW inverter has two huge threaded bolts for the Batt+/- connections, since one would need to lug the wire, it would seem the XW wouldn't have a preference for the wire as the lug is what makes contact.

As for the Charger, it can except wire upto 3AWG/85A

This is the data sheet for the connector

http://www.molex.com/

use the search for part# 0399200104

I don't see anything suggesting you have to use copper wire

The link provided, appears dead. But my concern is that the aluminum wire,
crimped into a terminal lug, needs a LUG rated to accept aluminum wire, without fatigue, or heating the connection, for a lifetime.

Yes, I would expect to see CU/AL stamped right on the terminals if they could accept copper and aluminum (and it should be mentioned in the installation manual if approved). Look at the AC outlets in the hardware store and you will see the stamp.

It is possible that they are approved and not marked--but you would have to contact Xantrex directly and have them check their UL/NRLT report. There are many issues that may be addressed in the listing files that are not available to the "outside world" (not sure why--perhaps just corporate confidentiality). And if it matters, asking the manufacturer directly is about the only way to find out (unless you are tied in with NRTL organization).

-Bill

sg,
unless it states as bb said cu/al it can't use aluminum wire. it really may be irrelevant as the connector by your link is obsolete meaning either xantrex had bought lots of these connectors before it was discontinued or they went with a different connector for the current production models. here's what the manual says:
Maximum and minimum wire size in conduit #6 AWG to #14 AWG
it does appear to have been changed as it does not list up to #3 awg and if anybody finds out from xantrex, let us know.

There appear to be 2 parts, the bolt on the inverter
and
the terminal lug that crimps onto the wire, that then gets attached to the bolt on the inverter

The terminal lig that crimps onto the wire, is what needs the cu/al certification

Or I'm all wrong.