Furnace Question

dtolar · 05-28-2009, 09:56 AM

Been out 3 trips since purchasing '06 Rockwood 2701SS. Since we purchased used and in Ohio, we live in Colorado, not much in way of dealer support. Question is, At start up the furnace works fine for a cycle or 2 then seems to go dormant. If I restart it will cycle a few times again then, again, dormant. Of course main issue is while asleep gets cool and have to get up and start again at thermostat. Have tried changing thermostat with the Hunter digital and same experience. Back to the Dometic. Have checked exhust ports and seem clear. All other gas appliances work fine. Any ideas on what problem might be?

rthrbelsewhere · 05-28-2009, 12:35 PM

Hmmmm, not sure.
I had somewhat of a similar problem with my 86 rockwood pup, however the furnace would start the fan and try to fire off, but never wood. Come to find out, it was a circuit board that needed to be replaced. I let the battery die down too low and it blew some circuits on the old board. Took it into Boulder RV and they replaced the board and it's as good as new again. I think it was slightly over 150 beans to get that replaced, but it was worth it.

I've had service done to my pup and my roo by both Boulder RV and Great outdoors RV in Evans and they both come highly recommended if you need a reference.

dtolar · 05-28-2009, 01:05 PM

Thanks for the info, both are in the area so I'll see what I can find out.

rthrbelsewhere · 05-28-2009, 01:14 PM

you're welcome.
The guy that does all the work in Evans is Doug and the counter guy is Jordan. Good folks and they work really well around my schedules. I've gotta get my Roo in this weekend to take a look at the hot water tank and get some estimates on what to do to replace it.

See ya around.

08flagvlite · 05-28-2009, 03:04 PM

Yes, if the battery is not fully charged, the heater will shut down, due to it's large power consumption. But that should only happen if your'e camping 12 volt, without shore power. I've had that happen to us, I started my truck, and plugged in the tongue power, then the heater worked, AND it charged up the batteries. Randy

NWJeeper · 05-28-2009, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dtolar

Been out 3 trips since purchasing '06 Rockwood 2701SS. Since we purchased used and in Ohio, we live in Colorado, not much in way of dealer support. Question is, At start up the furnace works fine for a cycle or 2 then seems to go dormant. If I restart it will cycle a few times again then, again, dormant. Of course main issue is while asleep gets cool and have to get up and start again at thermostat. Have tried changing thermostat with the Hunter digital and same experience. Back to the Dometic. Have checked exhust ports and seem clear. All other gas appliances work fine. Any ideas on what problem might be?

If you can get up and manually reset and get it to start again then it isn't a low voltage problem. Furnaces will cease to work at 10.4 volts by design. I had exactly the same problem with the furnace on our older Fleetwood MH. I replaced just about every stinking part in the furnace. I replaced the circuit board, high limit switches, blower motor, etc. etc. etc. Finally gave up and bought a new furnace, that worked great! I trouble shot that dang thing within a inch of it's life for 2 years.

I hope you have better luck with yours...

**Bama Rambler** · 05-29-2009, 07:42 AM

Well let me throw my furnace problem into the mix for a little something else to think about.

My problem was the sail switch not making every time.
Easy right, fix the sail switch.
No no, it wasn't that easy!
While taking the furnace out I noticed that when they (FR) cut the holes for the ducts to go through the floor they cut them about an inch too close to the wall so part of the hole was under the furnace. Did they fix that when they installed the furnace, NO, of course not, they just forced the flexible duct by the furnace and in doing so pinched them a bit. Just enough to restrict the airflow enough that sometimes the sail switch wouldn't make.

Remedy: I cut the openings a bit bigger and problem solved.

powerboatr · 05-29-2009, 10:51 PM

let me ADD
on my creek the heater would do the same thing if it got real cold in the rv before i turned on the heater.
after i removed the grill i noticed the ducting was unsealed in a way that let HOT air get sucked back in the cold side and was tripping the over temp switch
i posted a cure some wheres on here, lest me search http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ead.php?t=1412
maybe it will help you out

donjuanss · 05-30-2009, 01:15 PM

Well my turn for the story. I had a Salem 19 Hybrid and 2 years running when I took it to hunting camp the system would start (ie the fan) then turn off. both times they had to clean the heater venturi's. I would recommend that you take it to a good dealer and have them look at it.

patti_m · 06-02-2009, 03:07 PM

We have had many issues with our furnace as well the past two years (2007 Sierra), a few guys have looked at it, cleaned it and it seems to work for a while, then all the sudden it won't light. Then finally after trying it say 50 times, it lights and works for another month or two. Really strange. No one has been able to find anything wrong with it. In fact, it seems to want to work perfectly fine when someone comes to look at it...grrrr. Flakey to say the least.
Thanks to powerboatr, I am going to give the sealing a go. It does seem to behave worse if we try lighting it from cold (like the night we ran out of propane in the middle of the night, woke up freezing and then switched the tanks and it wouldn't light!). In fact one time my DH partially blocked the exhaust outside and that got it lit, so maybe it really is a case of too much airflow.

You may also like: