Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-27-2017, 11:50 PM   #1
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
2018 AS 242 furnace in main cabin not working

Bought a new 2018 SandStorm 242 last month. For 2 weeks I've been trying to figure out the furnace. Turned out the main (and on!y) vent/blower is under the oven and was not working. After removing the vent cover, I found two 4 inch cover plates were still attached in their openings, stopping the heat from coming out. After punching out the two cover plates, the heat poured out great and heated the room. QUESTION: what does the factory normally install on these two cover plates openings, if anything? With nothing installed to direct the heat it just flows out and disperses in a cabinet enc!osurer... With a vent cover over the large opening. I cut two 4 inch sheet metal pipes and stuffed them in the openings to direct the heat.... But still QUESTION what the factory does?
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-29-2017, 10:55 PM   #2
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
FURNACE PROBLEM UPDATE: still looking for help/comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by RLW View Post
Bought a new 2018 SandStorm 242 last month. For 2 weeks I've been trying to figure out the furnace. Turned out the main (and on!y) vent/blower is under the oven and was not working. After removing the vent cover, I found two 4 inch cover plates were still attached in their openings, stopping the heat from coming out. After punching out the two cover plates, the heat poured out great and heated the room. QUESTION: what does the factory normally install on these two cover plates openings, if anything? With nothing installed to direct the heat it just flows out and disperses in a cabinet enc!osurer... With a vent cover over the large opening. I cut two 4 inch sheet metal pipes and stuffed them in the openings to direct the heat.... But still QUESTION what the factory does?
UPDATE: I took a couple of pictures to better explain my furnace question. Really wanting to know what others have under this cover in the main cabin. I was getting no heat until I knocked out the round cover plates. Seems to work now but I'm curious what the FR normally does with this situation.... do they knock out the covers and install any type of connection to direct the heat? As illustrated in the 2nd picture, I made a couple of round pipe inserts which seem to work OK. Thanks for any comments.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	20171229_202546.jpg
Views:	104
Size:	327.4 KB
ID:	159220   Click image for larger version

Name:	20171229_202709.jpg
Views:	112
Size:	314.3 KB
ID:	159221  
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 07:59 PM   #3
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Rockvale, TN
Posts: 66
Thanks for hitting me up RLW, I have yet to do mine but one of the issues that was brought up in my post is that the vent underneath the stove is the only fresh air access for the furnace and blowing warm air out, basically stopping the fresh air from coming in, could eventually cause problems with the furnace. Kind of makes sense so I was looking at cutting out a hole in the vent and adding one of these.



Here is an Ebay link to it....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-AC-HEAT-O...-/122549960887
Glampster67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 08:31 PM   #4
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
Glampster67, the problem with installing one of those covers (off EBAY) is it would be behind the large intake vent grate and the heat would be dispersed behind and in the cabinet enclosure..... the way I did mine with the 4" tubes it takes the heat out right to the edge of the vent grate. So far I'm not seeing a problem but maybe over time it will affect the furnace. It does seem there is still a good amount of air intake "surface area" excluding those two four inch openings. If you just did one hole rather than two, maybe that would be a compromise and lesson the impact on the air intake. I was considering a 4" round flap riveted to the the face of the furnace that could rotate down and cover the hole if I wanted to - but not planning to do that yet. Will let you know if I see a problem with my set-up in the future when I get more use of it.
__________________
2018 Sandstorm 242 Toyhauler; 2011 Chevy Duramax, Suzuki DR650 (first toyhauler, previous camper 12 years: Artic Fox, L22)
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 08:40 PM   #5
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 10,907
RLW:

The black grate you removed to show us your furnace is the cold air return. Back on each side of the furnace, in your second pic, you can see a duct on each side that should be carrying hot air to your rig.

You should probably NOT have opened those two holes in the front. You will now be pumping hot air out of them and it will go out the grate and a lot of it will probably be immediately pulled back in. Basically a short circuit.

You need to investigate those two ducts in the back and see where they go and if you're getting hot air out of them. Crushed ductwork is a common problem.

Update:
Looking at pics of your unit on-line, I'd bet the duct on the left runs to the end of your kitchen cabinet and discharges into the toy hauler space. The one on the right runs into the bathroom and/or the bedroom. The expectation would be that air from each end of the rig would then flow back towards the kitchen area and go back to the furnace through the black grate as "cold air return."
__________________
1988 Coleman Sequoia - popup (1987-2009) - outlasted 3 Dodge Grand Caravans!
2012 Roo19 - hybrid (2012-2015)

2016 Mini Lite 2503S - tt (2015 - ???)
2011 Traverse LT, 3.6L, FWD
2009 Silverado 1500 Ext Cab, 5.3L, 4x4, 3.73
2016 Silverado 2500HD Dbl Cab, 6.0L 4x4, 4.10
rockfordroo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 08:45 PM   #6
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Rockvale, TN
Posts: 66
Quote:
Originally Posted by RLW View Post
Glampster67, the problem with installing one of those covers (off EBAY) is it would be behind the large intake vent grate and the heat would be dispersed behind and in the cabinet enclosure..... the way I did mine with the 4" tubes it takes the heat out right to the edge of the vent grate.
Basically my plan is to do exactly what you did, but one instead of two, and cut out a hole in the vent to mount the cover to that would line up with the 4" tube so when the vent was put back on the cover would slide in the tube.
Very similar to this....

Glampster67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 09:22 PM   #7
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Rockvale, TN
Posts: 66
rockfordroo.... I think you warned me of this also, so my "fix" is that I am only going to do one, probably on the right side with the cover mounted in the fresh air intake vent lining up with the 4" duct coming out of the furnace so it would blow the warm air away from the vent and surely allow plenty of fresh air in. What do you think?
Glampster67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 09:27 PM   #8
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 10,907
Yeah, if you can get the hot air blowing away from the grate, that will help. They don't always do this very well themselves. Below is a pic of my old 2012 Roo 19. You can see they put one of the hot air vents (round) right next to the cold air intake (grated door) under the dinette. I guess a year or two later they wised up and moved the hot air vent to the end of the dinette bench, blowing out into the aisle.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	dinette cold air rtrn.JPG
Views:	97
Size:	179.1 KB
ID:	160605  
__________________
1988 Coleman Sequoia - popup (1987-2009) - outlasted 3 Dodge Grand Caravans!
2012 Roo19 - hybrid (2012-2015)

2016 Mini Lite 2503S - tt (2015 - ???)
2011 Traverse LT, 3.6L, FWD
2009 Silverado 1500 Ext Cab, 5.3L, 4x4, 3.73
2016 Silverado 2500HD Dbl Cab, 6.0L 4x4, 4.10
rockfordroo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 10:16 PM   #9
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockfordroo View Post
RLW:

The black grate you removed to show us your furnace is the cold air return. Back on each side of the furnace, in your second pic, you can see a duct on each side that should be carrying hot air to your rig.

You should probably NOT have opened those two holes in the front. You will now be pumping hot air out of them and it will go out the grate and a lot of it will probably be immediately pulled back in. Basically a short circuit.

You need to investigate those two ducts in the back and see where they go and if you're getting hot air out of them. Crushed ductwork is a common problem.

Update:
Looking at pics of your unit on-line, I'd bet the duct on the left runs to the end of your kitchen cabinet and discharges into the toy hauler space. The one on the right runs into the bathroom and/or the bedroom. The expectation would be that air from each end of the rig would then flow back towards the kitchen area and go back to the furnace through the black grate as "cold air return."
Rockfordroo: What will be symptom/problem, if the air intake IS affected by my opening those two vents.... I'm not seeing anything. But there is definitely a lot of heat coming out of the two I opened up and it heats my camper up up in 15 minutes when its 0 degrees outside. No way I could get that from the one vent FR placed at the end of the kitchen cabinet facing underneath the bench seat. That bench seat vent is open and blows heated air but not near enough to warm up the room. The vent in the bedroom works fine. The vent in the bathroom never has worked since I brought the camper home 2 months ago, I will check it out when the snow melts and I can climb under the camper and remove the under floor covers. Not really concerned with the bathroom heat at this time.
__________________
2018 Sandstorm 242 Toyhauler; 2011 Chevy Duramax, Suzuki DR650 (first toyhauler, previous camper 12 years: Artic Fox, L22)
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2018, 11:47 PM   #10
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 10,907
Quote:
Originally Posted by RLW View Post
Rockfordroo: What will be symptom/problem, if the air intake IS affected by my opening those two vents.... I'm not seeing anything. But there is definitely a lot of heat coming out of the two I opened up and it heats my camper up up in 15 minutes when its 0 degrees outside. No way I could get that from the one vent FR placed at the end of the kitchen cabinet facing underneath the bench seat. That bench seat vent is open and blows heated air but not near enough to warm up the room. The vent in the bedroom works fine. The vent in the bathroom never has worked since I brought the camper home 2 months ago, I will check it out when the snow melts and I can climb under the camper and remove the under floor covers. Not really concerned with the bathroom heat at this time.
In theory, since you're short circuiting the furnace, you're drawing in "already heated" air, so it's possible you could overheat the furnace. There is a high temperature shutdown switch on it. But if you haven't tripped that switch at this point, you're probably OK.

If the bathroom vent isn't working and the kitchen cabinet one isn't doing much, I'd bet you've got crushed vent hoses or some other type of obstruction. Keep in mind, however, that with the 2 new holes you created, you're now robbing potential flow from those two pathways.

Should be fairly easy to follow the one to the left; you can probably see it by pulling out all the drawers/opening doors on your kitchen cabinet. Looking at your rig on-line, the vent MIGHT run under whatever floor may be behind the double doors on the far left end OR it may run across in the very back, and they usually put up some kind of partition so your pots and pans don't hit it. If it's under the cabinets floor, you'll have to figure out how to remove the floor for access. For the other side, you may have to pull out your converter/power center to see it. If you have a vent coming out under your shower, you can usually remove some screws and see in under the shower pan.

Or you can just live with it if what you've done is enough for you.



Good luck.
__________________
1988 Coleman Sequoia - popup (1987-2009) - outlasted 3 Dodge Grand Caravans!
2012 Roo19 - hybrid (2012-2015)

2016 Mini Lite 2503S - tt (2015 - ???)
2011 Traverse LT, 3.6L, FWD
2009 Silverado 1500 Ext Cab, 5.3L, 4x4, 3.73
2016 Silverado 2500HD Dbl Cab, 6.0L 4x4, 4.10
rockfordroo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2018, 11:02 PM   #11
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
Rockfordroo, thanks for the tips. I pulled the drawers and inspection plates. Everything looked good til I got to the bathroom shower heater vent. There's a 12" section of vent pipe totally missing, like it was torn out of the middle where it crosses over a white pressure tank. Found it when I pulled the inspection cover right below the refrigerator, see two pictures attached. Hard to believe how it could have passed inspection by FR during assembly. My plan now is to plug the broken vent pipe on the furnace side, until I can replace the whole line (which is a tight fit... maybe a summer job).

I'll let you know if I have any issues with the two knock-out plates I opened up. As far as the air flow in the bedroom and the garage space - they are good. Thanks again for the advice. Sure nice to have this forum available to us.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	vent 1.jpg
Views:	104
Size:	281.8 KB
ID:	160710   Click image for larger version

Name:	vent 2.jpg
Views:	102
Size:	386.2 KB
ID:	160711  
__________________
2018 Sandstorm 242 Toyhauler; 2011 Chevy Duramax, Suzuki DR650 (first toyhauler, previous camper 12 years: Artic Fox, L22)
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2018, 11:29 PM   #12
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Port Richey Florida
Posts: 640
Quote:
Originally Posted by RLW View Post
Rockfordroo, thanks for the tips. I pulled the drawers and inspection plates. Everything looked good til I got to the bathroom shower heater vent. There's a 12" section of vent pipe totally missing, like it was torn out of the middle where it crosses over a white pressure tank. Found it when I pulled the inspection cover right below the refrigerator, see two pictures attached. Hard to believe how it could have passed inspection by FR during assembly. My plan now is to plug the broken vent pipe on the furnace side, until I can replace the whole line (which is a tight fit... maybe a summer job).

I'll let you know if I have any issues with the two knock-out plates I opened up. As far as the air flow in the bedroom and the garage space - they are good. Thanks again for the advice. Sure nice to have this forum available to us.
White pressure tank ??, you mean water heater. And what’s this inspection you speak of by FR. 😂😂😂
Decon Blue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2018, 11:46 PM   #13
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
Quote:
Originally Posted by Decon Blue View Post
White pressure tank ??, you mean water heater. And what’s this inspection you speak of by FR. 😂😂😂
Ok. We'll call it a water tank.
Just plugged the broken vent hose and got it back together.... working good!
__________________
2018 Sandstorm 242 Toyhauler; 2011 Chevy Duramax, Suzuki DR650 (first toyhauler, previous camper 12 years: Artic Fox, L22)
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2018, 11:54 PM   #14
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Rockvale, TN
Posts: 66
If by "inspection" you mean, "watching as it comes off the line and in to the parking lot"......then I would say they did a fabulous job! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Glampster67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2018, 01:48 AM   #15
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 10,907
Glad you found the problem. As Deacon Blue said, not much QC done on these rigs, and that "pressure tank" is your water heater. It is covered with white foam for insulation purposes.

There are 3 valves shown in your second pic. In their current position, it appears that they are in the "winterize" position. When the valve handle is "in line" with the piping, it is open; when it is perpendicular to the piping, it is closed.

The valve in the blue line is the cold water inlet to the water heater and is currently closed. The valve in the red line is the hot water outlet from the water heater and is currently closed. The valve with the red line on one side and the blue line on the other is the bypass valve and it is currently open. In this condition, your water heater is isolated from the rest of your plumbing, and if you were to use either your water pump or city water supply and opened a hot water faucet, you would get cold water that would come from the cold water line and through the bypass valve to the hot water line.

So when you "winterize" your camper, you put the valves in the winterize position (as you have them now), then drain your plumbing and water heater, blow out the lines, and pump in RV antifreeze. There are many threads here that describe the process.

I'm assuming you are dealing with the furnace problems in your driveway and not actually using the trailer and it's plumbing, or you would be complaining of no hot water. In the spring, you will need to "de-winterize" by changing the position of all 3 valves (inlet and outlet open, bypass closed). Then fill your water heater before you use it.

I've attached a generic RV plumbing pic that probably covers 95% of RV's. You can ignore the 2nd page, as your water heater bypass setup is shown on page #1.
Attached Files
File Type: pdf RV Plumbing pic.pdf (362.7 KB, 23 views)
__________________
1988 Coleman Sequoia - popup (1987-2009) - outlasted 3 Dodge Grand Caravans!
2012 Roo19 - hybrid (2012-2015)

2016 Mini Lite 2503S - tt (2015 - ???)
2011 Traverse LT, 3.6L, FWD
2009 Silverado 1500 Ext Cab, 5.3L, 4x4, 3.73
2016 Silverado 2500HD Dbl Cab, 6.0L 4x4, 4.10
rockfordroo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2018, 07:12 PM   #16
RLW
Junior Member
 
RLW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 25
Thanks Rockfordroo! My last camper only had one or two valves on the water heater, so good to read your explanation behind 3 valves. Definitely a learning curve for me still. My camper is in my yard right now, surrounded in snow and cold, that's why I've been messing with the heater. I bought it in November and the dealer winterized it, so I didn't get any training. Appreciate all the comments and suggestions from everyone.
__________________
2018 Sandstorm 242 Toyhauler; 2011 Chevy Duramax, Suzuki DR650 (first toyhauler, previous camper 12 years: Artic Fox, L22)
RLW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-2018, 11:04 PM   #17
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 34
2018 AS 242 furnace in main cabin not working

Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_1592.jpg
Views:	97
Size:	258.9 KB
ID:	161160
The main room vent is the hose off the left going to the following vent
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_1594.jpg
Views:	101
Size:	411.8 KB
ID:	161161
That is the only vent in the main room. We have camped in the low 30’s and is enough. I have to agree with the earlier reply, I don’t think you should have opened those covers, I would think you will have to put pipes on them now and not leave them wide open. I’m pretty sure those are for other install situations where more ducting is run to other areas.
USMC2010 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-28-2018, 11:33 PM   #18
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Port Charlotte Fl/Hinsdale Ma
Posts: 4,823
Quote:
Originally Posted by RLW View Post
UPDATE: I took a couple of pictures to better explain my furnace question. Really wanting to know what others have under this cover in the main cabin. I was getting no heat until I knocked out the round cover plates. Seems to work now but I'm curious what the FR normally does with this situation.... do they knock out the covers and install any type of connection to direct the heat? As illustrated in the 2nd picture, I made a couple of round pipe inserts which seem to work OK. Thanks for any comments.
RV furnaces are built to be universal. Yours is designed to blow heat down into a floor duct system. The plugs you took out are used to hook to a duct system for a different install. I'm thinking that with those ducts open you have reduced the air flow into the floor duct system.

When I remove the return air grill under my fridge as you did. I see the same furnace in the same place with the plugs in place. If you are blowing hot air out that vent with your plugs out, Where is your return air going air in air out. That's how it works.
cavie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-31-2018, 07:36 AM   #19
Senior Member
 
Trobec's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Auburn,wa
Posts: 240
On my 2015 f285 I don't think that grate is for cold air return like a house furnace. On the outside where the furnace exhaust is there is another tube just above the exhaust tube that draws fresh air into the furnace. I believe the grate is just a cover to access the furnace. I could be wrong but I have had my furnace out to replace the board and that how it appeared to function to me.
Trobec is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-31-2018, 07:43 AM   #20
Senior Member
 
Trobec's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Auburn,wa
Posts: 240
Just wanted to add that the outside fresh air tube does connect directly to the blower motor.
Trobec is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
furnace

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Forest River, Inc. or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:23 AM.