After another chilly night in our 32RLS I decided to dive in and see what was going on. One thing that was immediately apparent was the mess of duct work connected to the furnace. The service manuals for the furnace as well as common sense says that you want to minimize bends in the duct work. When I got to the furnace - via the pantry - I found that there was a complete mess of bent duct work. It appears that when they installed the furnace at the factory they connected the ducts to the furnace outside of the rig and then shoved the furnace in. I have attached Pic's of before and after as well as the amount of duct work that was removed. Granted if you pull the furnace in the future you would have to access the duct work and disconnect it first. Hoping for a less chilly night tonight.............
32RLS Heat - Or Lack of it
- Thread starter dwcfish
- Start date
Bryan01519
New member
I’m interested to know whether the removal of the ridiculously long duct work has improved your situation.
I’m a new 32RLS owner and near the end of my New England camping season was concerned that the furnace took way too long to bring the cabin up to a comfortable 71 degrees. The kitchen island hot air register seemed to be barely blowing out hot air.
My first-year with the 32RLS camping season ended on October 31. But I wanted to use my camper for Thanksgiving as temporary living quarters while my visiting family used all the bedrooms in the house. I cranked up the furnace early in the morning, outdoor and indoor temps at about 32 degrees. It took 7 hours to bring the cabin temp to 60 degrees and it never got any warmer. And note that I only have a 15-amp receptacle for shore power at home so there was no electric heat fireplace assist.
I have an indoor/outdoor weather station installed in the camper and have a time-temp graph of that whole day. Those graphs are attached.
I’m now in the process of troubleshooting my duct work as I suspect there is something wrong with the supply to the kitchen island register. I did crawl around into the basement to look at the duct work and did see lots of extra coils and bends. But nothing like the complete mess you have.
When things warm up later this week I’ll shorten the excess duct lengths. And with the aid of a hand-held wind velocity meter, I’ll check the before/after CFM flow to the kitchen island.
I’m hoping this duct shortening will help with the cabin heating performance of my 32RLS.
My previous camper was a Grand Design 33’ fifth wheel and was able to easily and quickly heat the camper for even very cold off-season inside upgrade day-work projects. So in comparison I know the 32RLS heating system is not performing correctly.
I’m a new 32RLS owner and near the end of my New England camping season was concerned that the furnace took way too long to bring the cabin up to a comfortable 71 degrees. The kitchen island hot air register seemed to be barely blowing out hot air.
My first-year with the 32RLS camping season ended on October 31. But I wanted to use my camper for Thanksgiving as temporary living quarters while my visiting family used all the bedrooms in the house. I cranked up the furnace early in the morning, outdoor and indoor temps at about 32 degrees. It took 7 hours to bring the cabin temp to 60 degrees and it never got any warmer. And note that I only have a 15-amp receptacle for shore power at home so there was no electric heat fireplace assist.
I have an indoor/outdoor weather station installed in the camper and have a time-temp graph of that whole day. Those graphs are attached.
I’m now in the process of troubleshooting my duct work as I suspect there is something wrong with the supply to the kitchen island register. I did crawl around into the basement to look at the duct work and did see lots of extra coils and bends. But nothing like the complete mess you have.
When things warm up later this week I’ll shorten the excess duct lengths. And with the aid of a hand-held wind velocity meter, I’ll check the before/after CFM flow to the kitchen island.
I’m hoping this duct shortening will help with the cabin heating performance of my 32RLS.
My previous camper was a Grand Design 33’ fifth wheel and was able to easily and quickly heat the camper for even very cold off-season inside upgrade day-work projects. So in comparison I know the 32RLS heating system is not performing correctly.
Attachments
I was in the same situation with the heat at the kitchen island. Before I made the changes I would hold a Kleenex in front of the vents and they would hardly move. Since I made the changes, I can be sitting in the recliner and feel the hot air from the vent - nothing like the hot air that blows out of the bathroom vent, but it is better. When I disconnected the vents and started pulling them out it was a bit shocking, had a moment when I wondered if I would ever get to the end.
I will also note that I just had the blower fail on the heater. I am not certain, but I do wonder if all the extra duct work was putting excess strain on the blower since it could not push air through the vent. When I pulled the furnace to replace the blower I noted that there are 2 additional spots where vents could be connected on top of the furnace. I have been debating connecting an additional vent from one of these and running it under the cabinet where the coffee bar is. The question I have in doing this is how would this change the flows to the rest of the rig. Currently we have too much in the bathroom and bedroom. Big concern hear would be any reduction in air flow to the tank areas. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Maybe a smaller diameter vent line?
Previously we had only had rigs from Lance and heat was never an issue. We would camp a temps near zero and never had an issue.
I will also note that I just had the blower fail on the heater. I am not certain, but I do wonder if all the extra duct work was putting excess strain on the blower since it could not push air through the vent. When I pulled the furnace to replace the blower I noted that there are 2 additional spots where vents could be connected on top of the furnace. I have been debating connecting an additional vent from one of these and running it under the cabinet where the coffee bar is. The question I have in doing this is how would this change the flows to the rest of the rig. Currently we have too much in the bathroom and bedroom. Big concern hear would be any reduction in air flow to the tank areas. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Maybe a smaller diameter vent line?
Previously we had only had rigs from Lance and heat was never an issue. We would camp a temps near zero and never had an issue.
CornPopper
Well-known member
One thing to consider ... if you put that additional vent under the coffee bar .... is to put a damper in each line. Then you could go down there and "tune" the airflow to get it to where you want it to be. Perform your own air balance.
CornPopper - I have thought about this. My concern is that when reading the service manual on the furnace you need to be careful that there is sufficient flow out of the furnace or you may have an issue with the hi limit switch going on and off. I do wonder if the duct work issue was causing some of this problem anyway and causing reduced heat output. Need an engineer to help us here...........