What's your thoughts on this saw dust in the propane heater?

[carboncow]

Hello,

Took delivery of our Grey Wold 23DBH this week. Since this is NOT our first camper from FR I had no illusions of quality and craftsmanship. I spent the better part of two days correcting wiring, tightening fittings, reattached graphics and the usually fun stuff.

I noted while crawling around under the sink there was A LOT of saw dust everywhere so I did some vacuuming...then I noted they did much cutting AFTER the heater went in. See the attached photo of the rear of the heater with the cooling vents and all the saw dust in there.

Thoughts?

Is this area not much a concern to have combustable world product around the outlet pipes or is this in direct contact with the exchanger/flames...or is that all sealed for safety?

It wouldn't be easy for me to get it out and I'll be taking the trailer back in a month (1 hour away) for brake adjustments as they are basically useless at +10 on the gain.

Thanks for any real world experience/expertise I what I'm looking at.

[2thdr]

I wonder if you could get in there with a crevice attachment, maybe a computer vacuum attachment set?

[carboncow]

Originally Posted by 2thdr

I wonder if you could get in there with a crevice attachment, maybe a computer vacuum attachment set?

Thanks. I had a pretty good, small and focused vac but it didn't have the pull. But I have seen those smaller computer ones...but I doubt it would have the suction to pull that far away. It really seems to need opened up.

I won't be using the furnace any time soon but I was concern about that sawdust and anyones expertise.

When we get back from our vacation next week I'll see about how to remove that unit. I'm sure the dealer will be reluctant todo it!

[2thdr]

Originally Posted by carboncow

Thanks. I had a pretty good, small and focused vac but it didn't have the pull. But I have seen those smaller computer ones...but I doubt it would have the suction to pull that far away. It really seems to need opened up.

I won't be using the furnace any time soon but I was concern about that sawdust and anyones expertise.

When we get back from our vacation next week I'll see about how to remove that unit. I'm sure the dealer will be reluctant todo it!

The computer vac attachments that I had actually connected to a conventional vacuum hose and suction was pretty good. Don't know if you thought I was speaking about a small vacuum unit...
This one exactly...
https://smile.amazon.com/Schneider-I...s%2C557&sr=8-3

[myredracer]

Doesn't matter what brand, model, where or time of day it was made. Sawdust all over is standard. Maybe it's a RVIA requirement...

Furnaces have an air intake and combustion exhaust on the exterior so there's no way sawdust can get inside the combustion chamber. No worries but regardless, I'd suck it all outta there. Looks like that round thing on the right in the photo is a block-off plate. They just rotate off/on.

On the brakes, on our first TT, a Coachmen Catalina, the brakes never worked properly from day one. Kept sending emails to the dealer and all they did was blame our brake controller. We bought a nice Prodigy P3 and it made no difference. After many, many emails to the dealer and numerous phone calls and several in person discussions at the dealer, they finally agreed to take the drums off and see what was going on. They found blown seals on all 4 wheels, warped drums, and shoes soaked in grease. After rebuilding it all, the brakes worked great.

You might consider pulling one or more drums off yourself and seeing if something isn't right. You also want to ensure all 4 wheels are braking and if maybe a wire is severed.

FWIW, I'm old enough to remember when many house here (Vancouver BC) had furnaces that ran on sawdust. A great big truck with a blower would go to your house and fill a big bin in the basement. Sawdust was readily available because there were a lot of sawmills along the waterfront complete with beehive burners. Eventually they realized burning all that sawdust was the cause of the pea soup fogs we used to get and they banned the burners. Today the waterfront is full of ultra high-priced condos.

[D W]

If you have to do all that with a brand new rig that speaks volumes about your "dealer".

My dealer has two teenage daughters that do all the inside cleaning. He calls them the sawdust patrol!

[carboncow]

Originally Posted by myredracer

Doesn't matter what brand, model, where or time of day it was made. Sawdust all over is standard. Maybe it's a RVIA requirement...

Furnaces have an air intake and combustion exhaust on the exterior so there's no way sawdust can get inside the combustion chamber. No worries but regardless, I'd suck it all outta there. Looks like that round thing on the right in the photo is a block-off plate. They just rotate off/on.

On the brakes, on our first TT, a Coachmen Catalina, the brakes never worked properly from day one. Kept sending emails to the dealer and all they did was blame our brake controller. We bought a nice Prodigy P3 and it made no difference. After many, many emails to the dealer and numerous phone calls and several in person discussions at the dealer, they finally agreed to take the drums off and see what was going on. They found blown seals on all 4 wheels, warped drums, and shoes soaked in grease. After rebuilding it all, the brakes worked great.

You might consider pulling one or more drums off yourself and seeing if something isn't right. You also want to ensure all 4 wheels are braking and if maybe a wire is severed.

FWIW, I'm old enough to remember when many house here (Vancouver BC) had furnaces that ran on sawdust. A great big truck with a blower would go to your house and fill a big bin in the basement. Sawdust was readily available because there were a lot of sawmills along the waterfront complete with beehive burners. Eventually they realized burning all that sawdust was the cause of the pea soup fogs we used to get and they banned the burners. Today the waterfront is full of ultra high-priced condos.

Saw dust furnace...I guess that was the grandaddy of my pellet stove at home....which I love!

Thanks for the clarification on the dust in there. I felt it was in a mostly safe area but as you said...it needs cleaned. I'll see about getting a more pointed suction tip like the computer option mentioned that attaches to my larger shop vac. Could have 101 uses for that.

My brakes are engaging and the server admin was helpful. He took it for a spin and eventually he agreed with me when pressed. I think he was trying to feel out if he could BS me on it. They couldn't get me in the day of delivery (boo!) and I didn't want to wait around for 4 hours even knowing an inspection would have taken 30 minutes...so he wrote a ticket for them to pull them apart for review. He said he's seen them not all working on many occasions or the auto adjustment not working. You could hear them engage and make nosie/drag when trying to hold at idle. But as stated when at 10 on the gain it felt like a 2 (barely grabbing) on my last RV...something is very much off. I'd say they are working 50% which is good enough for me as my F150 has new rotors/pads all around and some safety brake checks on the right how showed them to be more then powerful enough.

[carboncow]

Originally Posted by D W

If you have to do all that with a brand new rig that speaks volumes about your "dealer".

My dealer has two teenage daughters that do all the inside cleaning. He calls them the sawdust patrol!

So far I like this dealer and drove an hour for a better deal because the two dealers in my back yard were garbage post sale. It was washed and detailed very well but yea...nobody was crawling in cabinets. They did replace decorative terminations that were bad/dented w/o my prodding so that was a minor win!

The service manager who reviewed my brake concern said..."well you obviously be back for warranty work...so let's address it when you make your appoint for other issues". That is not encouraging to any buyer of anything but at least he's realistic!

[5picker]

Tape a large McDonald's straw to a crevice tool.
Use vacuum.

[tyler811]

A good shop vac should do it. I have a 6 hp 16 gallon shopvac that will suck a basketball through a garden hose.


I really need to check mine as every time I haul somewhere I have a tiny pile of saw dust

[Wifshowfur]

You might just be too picky for camping. Dont worry about it and just have fun. Lol

[rlh1957]

You can make up a slim hose, pipe, straw with some duct tape or similar over the end of a good vacuum hose. I used a conical reducer (an old small funnel) and then taped the end of a length of clear 1/4" vacuum hose over the end. It will suck a marble from across the room I think! If you need wider access, just clip a few of the metal vent ribs and slightly bend them for easier maneuvering.

I have yet to remove any panel, look under any cabinet or on top of anything that I didn't find sawdust. Me, I have come to expect it... my wife, she was ready to take it back to the dealer!

[Gi Jet]

If you just want to clean it up take a piece of rubber hose and duct tape into your vacuum tool/hose. Or just use a drinking straw ( that may be too flimsy and collapse)

[jkoenig24]

"Since this is NOT our first camper from FR I had no illusions of quality and craftsmanship."

Your second sentence answers your own question.

[MNtraveler]

If you can't vacuum it out, reverse the shop vac and blow the sawdust out of the furnace box then vacuum it up from outside the box.

[MR.M]

Originally Posted by carboncow

Hello,

Took delivery of our Grey Wold 23DBH this week. Since this is NOT our first camper from FR I had no illusions of quality and craftsmanship. I spent the better part of two days correcting wiring, tightening fittings, reattached graphics and the usually fun stuff.

I noted while crawling around under the sink there was A LOT of saw dust everywhere so I did some vacuuming...then I noted they did much cutting AFTER the heater went in. See the attached photo of the rear of the heater with the cooling vents and all the saw dust in there.

Thoughts?

Is this area not much a concern to have combustable world product around the outlet pipes or is this in direct contact with the exchanger/flames...or is that all sealed for safety?

It wouldn't be easy for me to get it out and I'll be taking the trailer back in a month (1 hour away) for brake adjustments as they are basically useless at +10 on the gain.

Thanks for any real world experience/expertise I what I'm looking at.

Those slats are basically the cold air return for the furnace . saw dust should not be an issue but i would clean up just because

[D W]

Left over sawdust and "stuff" is nothing proprietary to RV's. If you didn't build your own house you'd be surprised what you can find inside the walls and floors. Sawdust, tools, wire, nails, screws, pop cans and Styrofoam cups are common. Framers, electricians and dry-wallers all do there own thing and nothing else.

[campers302]

Originally Posted by carboncow

Hello,

Took delivery of our Grey Wold 23DBH this week. Since this is NOT our first camper from FR I had no illusions of quality and craftsmanship. I spent the better part of two days correcting wiring, tightening fittings, reattached graphics and the usually fun stuff.

I noted while crawling around under the sink there was A LOT of saw dust everywhere so I did some vacuuming...then I noted they did much cutting AFTER the heater went in. See the attached photo of the rear of the heater with the cooling vents and all the saw dust in there.

Thoughts?

Is this area not much a concern to have combustable world product around the outlet pipes or is this in direct contact with the exchanger/flames...or is that all sealed for safety?

It wouldn't be easy for me to get it out and I'll be taking the trailer back in a month (1 hour away) for brake adjustments as they are basically useless at +10 on the gain.

Thanks for any real world experience/expertise I what I'm looking at.

If it is worrying you that much. Cut the grill with tin snips in a fashion that once clean you can bend it right back in place and put some good ole duct tape on it to hold it in place.



Or you can tell the service department about it and have them clean it. As to weather it is a fire hazard that remains to be a ? in my mind.


Good luck!

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by carboncow

Hello,

Took delivery of our Grey Wold 23DBH this week. Since this is NOT our first camper from FR I had no illusions of quality and craftsmanship. I spent the better part of two days correcting wiring, tightening fittings, reattached graphics and the usually fun stuff.

I noted while crawling around under the sink there was A LOT of saw dust everywhere so I did some vacuuming...then I noted they did much cutting AFTER the heater went in. See the attached photo of the rear of the heater with the cooling vents and all the saw dust in there.

Thoughts?

Is this area not much a concern to have combustable world product around the outlet pipes or is this in direct contact with the exchanger/flames...or is that all sealed for safety?

It wouldn't be easy for me to get it out and I'll be taking the trailer back in a month (1 hour away) for brake adjustments as they are basically useless at +10 on the gain.

Thanks for any real world experience/expertise I what I'm looking at.

Real world experience follows (as requested)

First of all, if the sawdust were "inhaled", it would not come in contact with open flame. The flame is completely contained within the heat exchanger. The sawdust (and anything else sucked in the return air) would go outside the heat exchanger, but within the plenum. That's not to say that it wouldn't scorch upon contact and smell pretty bad.

Think of the furnace as a box (the heat exchanger) within a box (the plenum).

Here is how you get complete access. It's actually quite easy (real world experience):
Removal

1. Turn off propane tanks.
2. Take off return air grille.
3. Disconnect the propane line at the flare fitting. Sometimes it's easiest to use a crowfoot socket, but often an open-end or flare-nut wrench is sufficient.
4. The front of the plenum will be right in front of you. Usually it is held on with just one or two sheet metal screws. Remove the screws and cover.
5. The heat exchanger is held in place by one anchor screw, right in front at the bottom. Remove it.
6. Look at the wires. There are four (+12 volts, ground, and two for the thermostat. There should be either enough slack that you can pull the furnace out and clean the plenum, or there could be a plug/jack that you can disconnect. In the worst case, you could have to cut the wires and add a plug/jack. See below for hints on this. Figure this out.
7. Pull the furnace out.
8. The plenum is now completely open and can be vacuumed with standard pickup tools, or even just a damp towel.

Reassembly
Reassembly is the reverse of the steps above. The hardest part is getting the two tubes on the back of the heat exchanger to fit inside the two tubes on the vent going to the outside. You might fiddle with this for a while. If you absolutely cannot get it, you can take the outside vent off, install the furnace, and put the outside vent back on. Removal and replacement of the outside vent are a little messy because it's mounted with that sticky butyl tape. Avoid removal if you can.

TIghten the flare joint tight. After you have reconnected it and turned the tanks on, put some suds on the flare joint and make sure there are no bubbles.

Adding a plug/jack
You probably won't have to do this.

You have a four-wire connection. The easiest way to quickly get a four-wire plug/jack is to buy one of these four-wire trailer extensions and cut it in half in the middle.

You can plug the two halves together. Then, cut a single wire to the furnace and connect the two parts to opposing wires on the paired connector.

It's best to make sure that +12 volts from the battery is connected to a jack (female) part of the connector, so there's not an open 12v that could touch the plenum when the plug/jack are disconnected.

Larry

[BigRockr]

Originally Posted by Wifshowfur

You might just be too picky for camping. Dont worry about it and just have fun. Lol

You bought an FR. They believe it is to expensive to blow sawdust out of their product even when the assembly guys are carrying air tools. C'mon don't be so picky. Have fun. Those screws that were driven in at a 45 degree angle instead of straight are the new normal. And remember, they put pipe glue on MOST of the sewer plumbing. You'll find the bad one!