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Old 05-26-2013, 02:48 PM   #1
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Cold Air Return Mod???

I have a 2012 Roo19. The furnace is under the rear dinette seat. There are two hot air discharges. One goes to the bathroom, no problem. But the other comes right out of the dinette seat under the table. About two inches away from it is basically a drawer front with a mesh insert in it for the cold air return. This seems like a direct short circuit of the hot air it's blowing under the dinette table, since the cold air return is also under the table 2 inches away.

I'm seriously considering moving the cold air return drawer front/mesh to either the end of the dinette seat (i.e., pulling cold air from the "aisle") or the back of the dinette seat, pulling cold air from the area in front of the converter/battery switch/refrigerator. I'd then cover the old hole with either another drawer front w/o the mesh or something else.

Anyone else thought of this or done a similar mod?
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Old 05-26-2013, 03:03 PM   #2
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Here's a pic:
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Old 05-26-2013, 03:41 PM   #3
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Furnace duct mod.

This is just a suggestion but would it be easier to leave the cold air return where it is and buy another round heat vent and possibly more vent hose and route the heat vent to the side of the dinette or to the back side of the dinette.
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Old 05-26-2013, 03:59 PM   #4
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To get to the other seat of the dinette, you'd have to box in the vent hose like the box you can see along the floor against the wall between the seats in the pic. (I think the propane line and the water line run through it.) That would still put both the heat vent and cold air return under the table so I don't see an improvement. There's a drawer at the end of the other dinette seat, but there isn't enough room around it to come out into the "aisle" with the heat vent (although that would get it closer to the front bunk, which would be nice). I'd have to around the water heater and all the way into the front storage area and come in right under the electric box by the front bunk. That might be doable; I'll have to think about it.
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Old 05-26-2013, 04:34 PM   #5
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To get to the other seat of the dinette, you'd have to box in the vent hose like the box you can see along the floor against the wall between the seats in the pic. (I think the propane line and the water line run through it.) That would still put both the heat vent and cold air return under the table so I don't see an improvement. There's a drawer at the end of the other dinette seat, but there isn't enough room around it to come out into the "aisle" with the heat vent (although that would get it closer to the front bunk, which would be nice). I'd have to around the water heater and all the way into the front storage area and come in right under the electric box by the front bunk. That might be doable; I'll have to think about it.
Modify(shorten) an elbow and come out the end of the booth with the furnace in it.
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Old 05-26-2013, 05:06 PM   #6
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Furnace mod

I think I was misunderstood. I was referring to the dinette seat in the picture not the opposite. Put heat vent in the side of the dinette or out the back facing the garbage can
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Old 05-26-2013, 05:06 PM   #7
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That's an idea. But then all "cold air" return is from the front, while all the hot air is in the back. I think if I go with moving the cold air return, I'll flow in both directions.

(I did go out and took a look at taking the hot air vent all the way to the front. I estimate it would add about 10 ft of vent duct including the equivalent of about 6 elbows. That's a pretty big pressure drop.)
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Old 05-26-2013, 05:13 PM   #8
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I just checked my 2014 Roo and the supply has been moved to the side of the bench blowing towards the aisle.
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Old 05-26-2013, 05:20 PM   #9
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Pictures from a dealer site show the hot air outlet on the end of the bench with the same mesh door as yours.
IMHO, you are way over thinking this. The heat loss and gain from the bunk ends is exponential to this little bit of ...?
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Old 05-26-2013, 05:32 PM   #10
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Modify(shorten) an elbow and come out the end of the booth with the furnace in it.
What I was suggesting is what is shown in the pictures in this website:
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Old 05-26-2013, 06:09 PM   #11
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Hey Rockford....
we did this to our Roo 19 to prevent "cooking" our legs at the dinette table...
Evened out the heat in the trailer quite a bit....


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Old 05-26-2013, 07:10 PM   #12
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Hey Rockford....
we did this to our Roo 19 to prevent "cooking" our legs at the dinette table...
Evened out the heat in the trailer quite a bit....


Who took credit for HVAC engineering on this project?????
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Old 05-26-2013, 07:16 PM   #13
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4Jeeperz - Your mod looks almost like 2014's as on the website OldCoot added. Looks like FR has already figured out either the cooking concern or the short circuit concern, or both.

Funny, but my cold air return doesn't open up. It has two hinges on the outboard side and one hinge that's screwed into the wall of the dinette (where you have a knob) on the inboard side. You can see it on my initial pic. I see the 2014 on OldCoots website also has the extra hinge. I don't think FR wants you storing stuff in there with the furnace.

I think I'll be going with your vent mod, and I'm also going to remove the oddball hinge and add a knob.
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Old 05-26-2013, 07:33 PM   #14
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I think I'll be going with your vent mod, and I'm also going to remove the oddball hinge and add a knob.
Rather than add a knob, that will end up being bent by someone putting a foot on it, why not cut an oblong notch on the back side of the door to get your fingers in? You can do it with the end of a belt sander if you are very careful.
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Old 05-26-2013, 08:42 PM   #15
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rockford,
Our "air return door" was also screwed shut. You can see the colored putty beside the knob. We added the little partition near the furnace to keep stuff from getting too close to the heat.
We need all the storage we can get in our 19's!!!
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Old 05-26-2013, 10:13 PM   #16
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Both are good ideas. Thanks.
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