2009 Sabre 31RETS-6 Heating ducts

[ex-egll]

Hi, we are having a problem with heat distribution in our Sabre. The two heating ducts towards the rear of the trailer, living area and part of kitchen, have a good flow rate The ones towards the front, bedroom, bathroom and entrance area, are very poor. There is hot air getting to them but not at any great flow rate.

Looking at the position of the furnace, it appears that a duct comes from the furnace to the centre of the kitchen then branches via a "T" to the back and front of the trailer. Obvious first though was a blockage after the T towards the back of the trailer. Although I wasn't able to see through the duct work to check for a blockage, there was no apparent block when I pushed a steel tape measure from the back ducts to the front, likewise a flashlight placed in the duct-work showed no blockage.

Any thoughts?

ex-egll

[rjf7g]

Has this been the case since 2009 or is this a new problem? I had a similar issue with my Gulf Stream and the dealer installed another duct in the front bedroom.

Even with the new duct, we were still getting too much heat in the rear bedroom, so I bought a vent that had a damper on it. The air will take the path of least resistance, so this helped with that issue.

[ex-egll]

Thanks for the response! I must admit I have never checked this out before, for all I know it could have been like it from day 1.

What really confuses me is the fact that both vent 1 and vent 2 are equidistant (about 18") from the T with no apparent blockage any where, yet the airflow at vent 1 is about 10 times greater than at vent 2. All I can think of now is that there is a massive leak towards the front of the trailer.





ex-egll

[amxpress]

Seems to be a common concern with 5th wheels. At nite, I placed 2 magnetic register covers over the registers in the living room and kitchen which increased the volume coming out in the bathroom and bedroom.
I ended up replacing the registers with ones that I could close the louvers, purchased at Lowe's.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by ex-egll

Hi, we are having a problem with heat distribution in our Sabre. The two heating ducts towards the rear of the trailer, living area and part of kitchen, have a good flow rate The ones towards the front, bedroom, bathroom and entrance area, are very poor. There is hot air getting to them but not at any great flow rate.

Looking at the position of the furnace, it appears that a duct comes from the furnace to the centre of the kitchen then branches via a "T" to the back and front of the trailer. Obvious first though was a blockage after the T towards the back of the trailer. Although I wasn't able to see through the duct work to check for a blockage, there was no apparent block when I pushed a steel tape measure from the back ducts to the front, likewise a flashlight placed in the duct-work showed no blockage.

Any thoughts?

ex-egll

Ex-eg
My sabre has the same issue.
We "sabre factory" and I think we have a solution.

Blocking vents does not solve the issue.

I'll send you a pm with my contact info.



TURBS

golf cart safety instructor

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by rjf7g

Has this been the case since 2009 or is this a new problem? I had a similar issue with my Gulf Stream and the dealer installed another duct in the front bedroom.

Even with the new duct, we were still getting too much heat in the rear bedroom, so I bought a vent that had a damper on it. The air will take the path of least resistance, so this helped with that issue.

My 11' has the same issue.
At the goshen rally I found that a 10' did not have the issue and a 12' that also did not have an issue.

The factory tech's and I discussed the problem and think we've found the problem and a cure.

TURBS

golf cart safety instructor

[ex-egll]

Again, thanks for the comments, and to f1100turbo for the call. Have got a couple of ideas to work on now. I'll update after I've played around a little

[Woodchuck88]

Let us know what may be the fix of this problem because I don't get much heat up in our bedroom either. Thanks

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Woodchuck88

Let us know what may be the fix of this problem because I don't get much heat up in our bedroom either. Thanks

Pm sent.

TURBS

dog wisperer

[TURBS]

To let everyone know were going to be doing the modification soon with pictures to fix this issue.

TURBS

dog wisperer

[canmannc]

Don't forget...on my 2006 Sandpiper 335RLT 5er there is also a duct going to the basement (storage compartment). It does well to keep the water filter, tanks and pipes and other stuff I keep down there from freezing. However, it does reduce the flow in the bedroom register. My fix is a small ceramic 750/1500 watt electric heater from Lowes.

Turbs, I am looking fwd to see your mod...Thanks for sharing

[ex-egll]

Partial Update

I emptied out the storage area and found the outlet for the hot air. It had been damaged by pushing stuff into the area repeatedly. Effectively the vent was wide open. In addition I looked at the vent fitting and it protruded almost 2" into the duct work. The duct work itself was only about 2" deep; this effectively blocked of a great amount of the air flow. As Turbs pointed out, the routing of the duct work is pretty haphazard, it comes out of the kitchen area, under the storage area with one vent in it, then across the rest of the storage area up a flexible tube to more duct-work that goes back across the top of the storage area to the bedroom vent and finally the bathroom.

I plan to move the vertical pipe from the front of the storage area, back to where the vent is, and block off the unused duct-work.

Closing off the vent in the storage area restored some of the airflow in the bedroom / bathroom, but I think there is room for improvement.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by ex-egll

Partial Update

I emptied out the storage area and found the outlet for the hot air. It had been damaged by pushing stuff into the area repeatedly. Effectively the vent was wide open. In addition I looked at the vent fitting and it protruded almost 2" into the duct work. The duct work itself was only about 2" deep; this effectively blocked of a great amount of the air flow. As Turbs pointed out, the routing of the duct work is pretty haphazard, it comes out of the kitchen area, under the storage area with one vent in it, then across the rest of the storage area up a flexible tube to more duct-work that goes back across the top of the storage area to the bedroom vent and finally the bathroom.

I plan to move the vertical pipe from the front of the storage area, back to where the vent is, and block off the unused duct-work.

Closing off the vent in the storage area restored some of the airflow in the bedroom / bathroom, but I think there is room for improvement.

Dont forget pictures!

Sounds good!

TURBS

dog wisperer

[ex-egll]

Thanks for the reminder, I would probably totally forgotten to take any.

Just need to make up a shopping list now. The plan is to run flexi-pipe straight up from the storage floor vent to the overhead ducting, block off both the floor and overhead ducting where the current flexi-pipe runs and maybe put an additional, adjustable vent in the overhead duct work for the storage area. We very rarely camp anywhere we'd need to use heat in that area so I will probably not bother.

Once I start I will look at the feasibility of removing the rear wall in the storage area, and if it is simple I will try to put the vertical flexi pipe there so as not to reduce space.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by ex-egll

Thanks for the reminder, I would probably totally forgotten to take any.

Just need to make up a shopping list now. The plan is to run flexi-pipe straight up from the storage floor vent to the overhead ducting, block off both the floor and overhead ducting where the current flexi-pipe runs and maybe put an additional, adjustable vent in the overhead duct work for the storage area. We very rarely camp anywhere we'd need to use heat in that area so I will probably not bother.

Once I start I will look at the feasibility of removing the rear wall in the storage area, and if it is simple I will try to put the vertical flexi pipe there so as not to reduce space.

Can wait to see !

TURBS

dog wisperer

[okietom]

I had a problem with my Sabre furnace not heating well and short cycling the burner. Had the dealer check it out and they removed over 20 feet of extra flexible duct work. When it was built if there was a fairly straight 3 foot run they would have 6 or more feet of duct work snaked around instead of cutting to fit. Furnace now works 100% better, as it should.

[ex-egll]

Today I decided to do some further investigating into the heating issue, specifically the ductwork around the furnace area. I decided on the hi-tech approach, and stuck my digital camera into the ductwork. The results were a little surprising. They are shown below in a plan sketch of the ducting.



So it now seems that other than taking the base off the rig and mosifying the ductwork, the best solution is to:

1> Put adjustable registers into the living area and close them down at night,
and;
2> Clean up the ductwork in the storage area to give a smoother airflow.


ex-egll