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Old 10-17-2009, 09:03 PM   #1
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Another Furnace Problem

Our furnance blower turns on and runs for about 3 or 4 minutes and then shuts off, it never ignites.Although I haven't checked the tanks yet, will do so tomorrow, the fridge and stove works. We just picked this camper up two weeks ago from the dealer and I would hate to think that the furnace is bad. I did use it last week and it worked fine then. It is an 08 Surveyor that has never been titled we are the first owners. Any help you guys could give me would be great!

Garland
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Old 10-17-2009, 09:49 PM   #2
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If your gas stove is working and your furnace isn't...your propane levels aren't a factor.

If the unit was shut down/stored or run out of propane, and then switched tanks it could be a propane disruption in the line. However, it should light after an attempt or two.
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Old 10-17-2009, 10:30 PM   #3
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Could be a host of things but the first to check is the sail switch. This switch senses the air flow of the blower and tells the circuit board to start the ignition sequence. If the switch is bad the symptom is exactly as you describe. If you can find the sail switch and remove the wires from it and connect them together thus fooling the cirucit board into thinking the switch is working then that would be my first step in troubleshooting. If the blower runs and you can hear the "click, click, clic" of the ignitor but again no ignition then I would suspect the gas valve not opening during the start sequence.
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Old 10-18-2009, 12:38 PM   #4
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I'm not exactly sure what I did but it's working now. First thing I did was take the bug screen off of the outside vent, then I switched the tanks off and let it run through one cycle, it didn't ignite of course, then I switched the tanks back on and it lit! I am going to let it run through a few cycles, switch it back off and try it again later. Hopefully it will continue to work. I called one of the service techs and he said it could very well be the sail switch. Thank you folks for the help.

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Old 10-20-2009, 11:33 AM   #5
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I had the same issue come up after 2 hours of testing the furnace in our just purchased used Lexington 235 GTS, heater stopped firing. So to keep a long story short it was the sail switch, $15.00 part and 4 hours of works to remove and reinstall the furnace and 2 minutes to replace the switch. One side benefit of having to pull the heater was I discovered that Forest River's factory didn't properly seal the wheel wells to the side of the coach and the furnace blower was drawing fine dust from under the rig and blowing it into the coach. I cleaned the compartment, added a few screws, and generous amounts of caulking to get it sealed up. A bit disappointing to see such a critical mistake on their part but a good lesson on what to expect as far as quality control in the coach.
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Old 10-20-2009, 02:37 PM   #6
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I'm not too surprised to hear about the wheel well situation. I've replaced quite a few of those el-cheapo plastic drawer rail holders they use. They tend to crack or break when the weather gets colder so I've stocked up on the better ones sold at HD. I trim the bottom off the ? mark rail enough to slide it in the braket and resecure it to the wall. In each case I've found plenty of screws, pieces of wood and pieces of carpet under the drawers. My biggest surprise was to find the underneath portion of the bed having carpet completely to the outside. I removed the plywood top when we bought our Select Comfort matress so I could mount the control box/pump under there. I found a 1900 box with a cover where all the recptacles are tied into the electric circuit. I opened the box to find only one of the sets of wires were connected, the other was just coiled up. 2 receptacles next to the bed and only one wired. I added another receptacle under the bed for the pump and connected the other wire. I also found screws under there as well, had to count them, 17 screws. I have a pretty good collection courtesy of FR.
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Old 10-20-2009, 03:46 PM   #7
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I think since they're all hand made and not from any true plans that you can't expect a whole lot in the quality assurance realm. That's been my finding so far and I've had 2 new trailers in less than a year. I also have quite a collection of screws (about a dozen so far) from just the open areas. I haven't even gotten into the more hidden areas yet. I've also found a bunch of not really sealed areas from the "enclosed" underbelly and to the outside, including the front window that I had to remove and reseal. Not to mention, they take the main water line from the filter run it to the outside wall and into the floor substrate to move it 5 feet to the water heater then to the rest of the coach. Then, they run the hot water line right back in the same place in the floor to the very back corner again to run to the outside shower. Obviously, there's not real way to put heat tape on that if you're winter camping so it's a move of the water line to the enclosed area so that I can get heat tape and insulation on it for winter camping.

FR: Engineering at it's finest. LOL

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Old 10-21-2009, 07:04 AM   #8
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Check the ducting where it exits the furnace and goes thru the floor. sometimes they saw the holes slightly wrong and the flexible ducting gets pinched and restricts the flow. Also if there is anything like a rug etc. even partially blocking one of the registers it can cause a problem.
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