Suburban furnace not working

Hello, I am new at this and am hoping someone can help me out w/ my furnace. I have a 2010 north trail 28bhs w/ a furnace that isn't working. I tried it out at home before our trip and it worked fine ( I was hooked up to 110 if that matters). We get to the campground and start the heater and it was working well for half the day then decided it didn't want to turn on. I checked the propane and both tanks were full and the fuse was fine ( I still replaced it though). When my wife was playing w/ out carrier thermostat she could get it to light but it would quickly go out. I tried to get it to run this morning at home and it didn't even try to light. Any thoughts?
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi jlightning1,

You may have run the battery down to the point where the voltage is too low for the furnace control board to operate. The furnace fan does suck up a lot of battery power.

You might want to take a look at our Heating and Cooling Guide for other possibilities.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Hello Jlightning1 and welcome to the forum. There is a lot of great information here and a lot of great people willing to help out.
There are a couple of things that could contribute to your furnace problem.
You stated that it worked at home when you were plugged in to 120. And that it worked for a while at your campground. Were you plugged in there as well?
If your battery was not fully charged, and you were not plugged in, the furnace will not run on low voltage.
Were you plugged in when you tried it at home?
There will be more suggestions coming.
When you do get it running, come back and let us know what you found.
There may also be an obstruction in the burner outlet.

Peace
Dave
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
Its also possible that the propane tanks have their leak protection enabled. Try closing the propane valves and then very very slowly open each one up. It should reset the leak protection and then the furnace should stay light. You can also check to see if the propane is working well by lighting one of the stove burners. However, this would not be totally foolproof as the furnace uses quite a bit more propane than a stove burner.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Its also possible that the propane tanks have their leak protection enabled. Try closing the propane valves and then very very slowly open each one up. It should reset the leak protection and then the furnace should stay light. You can also check to see if the propane is working well by lighting one of the stove burners. However, this would not be totally foolproof as the furnace uses quite a bit more propane than a stove burner.
This may be the case but you need to disconnect the tanks from the pigtail to reset the leak protection valve. You mentioned you were plugged into 110 at home. Were you plugged in at the campground as well? As the others have said, your battery won't last long on it's own using the furnace. Let us now what you find. Thanks.
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
Thanks for clarifying that the propane pigtails need to be disconnected, I knew I was forgetting a step. Although, really only one of the pigtails would need to be removed and reconnected.
 

Willym

Well-known member
Our furnace misbehaved on our way north. It just stopped working one day. After verifying the the fuse was OK, I removed the outer cover and started checking wire connections. As I was doing this the furnace started, so i suspect that road vibration loosened on of the connections. All has been well since - apart from the lousy April weather that we've had since arriving home.
 
Thanks for all the info everyone! When I was at the campground we were hooked up to 30amp service so power should not have been the issue. When I tried to light the furnace this morning at home the battery was dead before I plugged the camper in so I will try again in a min and see if it tries to light after charging all day. I will also check the exhaust for obstructions and disconnect and reconnect the propane before I give the furnace a go.
 
I read up on both the 12v and heating and cooling guides and feel the problem lies somewhere in the heater itself or the thermostat. When I used the 12v troubleshooting guide it came down to a failing device w/ the symptoms my heater/ camper is having. At this point w/ the camper hooked up to a 110 extension cord and the battery reading almost fully charged shouldn't the furnace at least try to start? The blower doesn't even run before it would normally light....absolutely nothing happens now. Should I check the 20amp fuse again? Tomorrow I will check for the reset on the 12v breaker near the battery for the power converter which should be fine if the battery is charging but can hurt and if that doesn't do it I guess I will crack open the furnace and poke around a bit and look for issues
 
I was just reading an older thread about a surburban furnace w/ the same issues as mine and it turned out to be a fried board. Other members on the thread chimed in that they had suburban furnaces that had issues also and had replaced their boards and it solved the problem. I was also going to check the connections to the thermostat and the relay going from the thermostat to the furnace.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
If you're plugged in to shore power, the Power Converter should be providing power to the fuse box even if the 12V circuit breaker is tripped or if the battery is dead. Are other 12V appliances working? Overhead lights, scare lights, refrigerator?

Inside the fusebox, check the furnace's 12V fuse.

You might be in a safety lockout that requires a thermostat reset to get things going again. Turn the thermostat off and set the temp low enough that there's no call for heat. Wait 10 seconds and then switch back to heat and set the temp high enough to activate the furnace.

The thermostat signals a relay that's usually located with the Air Conditioner. So you may hear a click from that relay, after which the furnace blower should start. If you've reset the thermostat, and you still get no blower and no relay click, pull the cover off the thermostat to check that the wires are in place.

If the thermostat looks ok, although it's unlikely, you could have a loose connector in the relay box. To get to it, you'd remove the A/C cover on the ceiling, where the filter is located. There should be a gray box with connectors plugged in. Check the connector seating. Don't open the box unless you're very experienced working with 110V systems.

You could also have a loose wire at the furnace. But if you don't see anything obvious, at this point you'll probably have to get a service tech to look at the problem.
 

recumbent615

Founding MA Chapter Leader-retired
I just had a similar issue - and I ended up giving up and taking it to the service department. In the end it ended up being my LP regulator - it was toast, it was only putting out 3 "in of water" normally your rig will run on "11 In Water". I was getting a good flame on the stove and the heater would kick in but then would go out...
 

jdfishing

Well-known member
I had the same symptoms on my Suburban furnace as you are describing. Turns out it was something called a "fan relay switch" located on the back of the furnace. The tech did a couple simple checks and found the problem quickly. After you've ruled out the obvious, you may want to let a service tech handle it. They are more complicated than I realized.
 
The only reason I'm thinking its not the propane is that the per ignition fan won't even turn on anymore. I have a feeling its a gremlin reeking havoc in the furnace that a tech may need to look at. May bee I'll get lucky and find the issue. I'm going to try a couple of things today and if no luck I'm going to call a repair shop. Will any shop be OK or should I take it to one that services heartland specifically?
 

danemayer

Well-known member
If the trailer is still in warranty, best to find a service location authorized by Heartland. If you want to use a Certified RV Tech not currently authorized by Heartland, call Heartland first to see if they'll authorize warranty service by that provider. 877-262-8032. Have your VIN # ready.

The warranty on the furnace is probably longer than that on the trailer. IF the problem is in the furnace, the warranty will be fulfilled by Suburban or Atwood anyway, so any tech with authorization by those companies can do warranty work on the furnace. BUT, if it turns out to be a problem with something else that would be covered by Heartland, it needs to be a service tech authorized by Heartland or you'll have to pay for it yourself.

If you want to call mobile service, Heartland may authorize the warranty work (ask in advance), but you'll have to pay the travel time charges. Sometimes when you count the cost of towing to a service location, the travel time charges aren't too bad. But keep in mind that if a part is needed, you might pay travel time twice.
 
I forgot to mention that all of my 12v items work normally when on shore power and when disconnected. Another tidbit of info is that the camper was not used last year at all. The heat has prob been used a total of 4 times from new.
 
I can hear the relay "click" when I turn on the furnace so I'm guessing it is not the thermostat or relay which leads back to the furnace. I also tried to find the reset for the converter near the battery and could not find one?
 
OK I think Its time to throw in the towel. I opened up the furnace and didn't see anything wrong, unhooked and reattached the propane, looked for loose wires on the relay, checked the 20amp fuse.....I've still got nothing. Time to call Heartland and find out where to take it...may wait till after we are done camping this year to get it fixed.
 
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