Frozen furnace !

[cthelite]

Hey Forest river Family, it's been awhile for me to communicate with everyone (Too busy Campn) My last campn trip was filled with a "wally-world" like flavor. so my questions are these: what would make your furnace not work properly when the outside temp drops below 20 degs? itwould not relite i had gas because, my stove kept us warm all night. it got so cold that i left went home and came back when the temp was warmer.... tried it and it fired up.Finally, what makes a marine battey just leak all of its contents on to the ground while its connected to the unit?

[LadyWindrider]

Well, just as a guess, your battery went dead. That is why the furnace would not run. Then a dead battery will freeze and bust the case, and that is why the acid is on the ground. Make a solution of water and baking soda, and clean everything that the battery acid came in contact with. After you are done, rinse well, then do it again. Dissolve as much baking soda in hot water as you can.

If you were plugged in you may have converter problems not charging the battery. Otherwise your battery may have just died.

[KyDan]

You can also just sprinkle any area that was contaminated with
the acid. Just pour on the baking soda, let it sit a while then
rinse. I realize rinsing is difficult when it's below freezing.
Leaving the baking soda on there won't hurt.
Rinse when it warms up.

[Herk7769]

The Suburban furnace on my unit draws 6 amps when running. If your camper is like mine, in the teens it would run all night. The stock Deka DC-24 that came with my unit is a 75 Amp Hour battery. That means with a 7.5 amp draw continuous, it will be flat dead in 10 hours.

Just to let you know; ONE double incandescent light fixture draws 2.2 amps. A TV, radio, or a couple of lights on for a few hours and you will have a DEAD battery around 3 AM regardless of a DC-24 or a DC-27.

That is why most folks who dry camp in winter have 2 or even 4 house batteries in their rigs.

[The_Stuff]

get 2 or more and hook them up in parallel then. + to +, - to -.

[Herk7769]

When hooking up 2 IDENTICAL (real important) 12 volt batteries in parallel, tie the + to + and the - to - as stated.

HOWEVER, when you hook up the camper power leads the + goes on one battery and the - goes on the other.

That way the charging and discharge currents flow evenly through both batteries. Internal resistance in the batteries are low (but significant) and the resistance in the cabling becomes a factor in the circuit.

If the house + and - are connected to the same battery, the "apparent" internal resistance of THAT battery will be lower than the "apparent" internal resistance of the piggy backed one.

This causes the battery connected directly to the house cable to "work harder" and have more (and deeper) charge/discharge cycles than the piggybacked one. Since once you have 2 batteries they must be changed in pairs, you will be changing more often and wasting some of the capability of the piggybacked battery.

If you have your set hooked up as most folks do, swapping the two batteries now (and rewiring when you change out) will give you some added use out of the pair you have.