Bighorn 3260EL no airflow out of the rear vent

JanAndBill · Dec 30, 2012

First trip out in our 2013. barely any airflow out of the rear floor vent. Tried blocking off some of the bathroom vent, which still didn't help much. The bedroom, bath and center vent in the lounge all have good airflow, it's only the last vent. Any ideas? Crawled underneath, and you can't access any of it without dropping the cover. Factory says bring it back to the dealer and they will look at it, but we are'nt planning to return for awhile yet, and with the cold spell it's getting pretty cold in the rear of the coach.

danemayer · Dec 30, 2012

You could remove the mounting screws for the register and see if the duct is attached to the register. Apart from that, you might take down the basement wall by the UDC and see if you can find a disconnected duct at the furnace.

If you can't get back to the dealer soon, a ceramic disc heater will provide supplemental heat for the rear of the coach. We have a couple of Pelonis B-6A1 heaters.

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JanAndBill · Dec 30, 2012

We have the electric fireplace and a ceramic heater that so far are working. We just don't like to leave them on during the night. We get heat out of the center vent in the lounge, and I assumed that the rear vent was fed off the same duct. Do each of the vents have their own duct???

danemayer · Dec 30, 2012

Not 100% certain, but I think they're separate.

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jbeletti · Dec 30, 2012

Yes - with the laminated floor system in your coach, each heat duct is its own separate run off the furnace.

Guessing the run (hose) is pinched somewhere or only partially connected at the furnace.

JanAndBill · Dec 31, 2012

jbeletti said:
Yes - with the laminated floor system in your coach, each heat duct is its own separate run off the furnace.

Guessing the run (hose) is pinched somewhere or only partially connected at the furnace.

I'm getting just a little bit of air out of the vent, is there a way to access where it attaches to the furnace without dropping all that bottom cover??

Bob&Patty · Dec 31, 2012

The furnace plenum should be behind the return air grill. Remove the grill and you should see the all the duct work.

JohnDar · Dec 31, 2012

JanAndBill said:
I'm getting just a little bit of air out of the vent, is there a way to access where it attaches to the furnace without dropping all that bottom cover??

Most likely, dropping the bottom covering won't gain access to the furnace. You may have to remove the basement walls to get to it. Depending on your floorplan, the air return may not be anywhere near the furnace itself. Mine is at the ceiling, over the kitchen cabinets. The furnace is several feet below it, in the Basement 'o' Doom.
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sengli · Dec 31, 2012

We also have the 3260, and we too have the same issue. Almost all the heat when it is on, comes out the registers in the bathroom. We saw ours, on the line... when it was being built, and the heat runs in the basement, wrangle around tanks, and steel beams etc. I don't doubt these runs won't be all that great due to the flex vent being crushed, and restricted. I was going to look in the basement of doom, when it gets warm again, to see if there is anything there that could be done to help.
Our fireplace helps, but yes it doesn't fix the chill. We recently noticed that the fireplace when set on "auto" stopped heating. it still ran, but no heat. Again another issue to look at in the spring.

JohnDar · Dec 31, 2012

Unfortunately, gaining access to the ductwork towards the rear will require dropping the belly covering.

But, contrary to the furnace instructions and naysayers, we did install adjustable floor registers in our rig. With those, we can direct more air flow to the rear of the rig and not have the bedroom serve as an alternate oven. Without them, the majority of the furnace output went next to the bed and then the bathroom (two registers nearest the furnace). Sitting on the "throne" gave new meaning to being on the hot seat since the output blows up between the toilet and the shower wall.

Bob&Patty · Jan 1, 2013

I agree with Jon, install registers you can shut of some air flow. You can buy them at most RV stores or the big box stores. Get the metal ones not the plastic.

danemayer · Jan 1, 2013

contrary to the furnace instructions and naysayers, we did install adjustable floor registers in our rig.

There are people doing this with good results, BUT you should be aware that the furnace manufacturer's website says:

[h=3]Can I close off a register so more heat goes to another part of the vehicle?[/h] No, this is not recommended. Doing so will cause improper furnace operation and possible overheating of the furnace.

lwmcguir · Jan 2, 2013

We had to install adjustable registers in the Bed/Bath due to the poor heat distribution. They have never been opened since and it is still to hot in the upper level when the furnace operates. I contacted Suburban about this with no results. Really need to look at the ducting off the heater and see if we can redistribute the heat better. Almost no heat in the farthest register and we can still fry eggs on the two that are closed.

JohnDar · Jan 2, 2013

lwmcguir said:
We had to install adjustable registers in the Bed/Bath due to the poor heat distribution. They have never been opened since and it is still to hot in the upper level when the furnace operates. I contacted Suburban about this with no results. Really need to look at the ducting off the heater and see if we can redistribute the heat better. Almost no heat in the farthest register and we can still fry eggs on the two that are closed.

Your floorplan is almost identical to ours, so we have the same furnace/duct layout. Using the adjustable registers hasn't seemed to annoy my furnace the four seasons we've had them in. Even though we don't use the rig in the winter and run the furnace continuously, it does get used quite a bit in May and September.

Their warning is more of a CTA (cover their axes), methinks. Although a bit bulkier, I wonder if it might be possible to use wooden framed registers instead of the metal ones. The size might be the problem. I have replaced metal ones in our house with the oak ones when I removed carpet and installed hardwood.

Bighorn 3260EL no airflow out of the rear vent

JanAndBill

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JanAndBill

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