New Owner! 2017 RW425

Hi Everyone,

I just purchased a 2017 Road Warrior 425. I did the PDI this morning. This unit seemed to be in way better shape than most I've walked through (and that's a lot). Just a few minor things, cleaning, etc. One more serious concern was the heat distribution. I know this has been discussed on this forum before. The heat blows like crazy in the Master Bedroom and Bathroom, and somewhat weak in the (3) Living Room registers, and almost non-existent in the wall mounted duct in the Garage. I had the idea first, but then the Tech actually recommended I buy a couple adjustable registers from Home Depot for the Master & Bathroom, to restrict it down and force more heat to the aft of the coach.

Do you guys have thoughts on this?
I hope it's not a kinked/obstructed duct. I'm kind of scared to have these guys start opening things up, if you know what I mean.

Hi SparkyD,

Congratulations on the new Road Warrior.

Suburban, on their website FAQs says:

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

Click to expand...

The combustion chamber has an overtemp sensor that shuts the furnace off if the temperature in the furnace reaches too high a level. If you restrict airflow, you could trigger this switch and cause erratic operation of the furnace.

That said, many people do use this approach to try and improve distribution of the hot air.

If you do this, you should make a note for yourself that in the future, if your furnace starts acting up, you can remove the restrictors.

That is great info, thank you. I may try restricting that a little bit to see if it helps, keeping that recommendation in mind. Is it safe to say this is fairly common in these rigs, and not a unique issue I need to have addressed at the dealer? We will be sleeping in it tomorrow night, and will see how it does.

In general, the longer the duct, the less heat arriving at the vent, so lots of people turn to supplemental heating devices for the back of the RV. We have the fireplace option in our Landmark and find it very helpful.

But if you're not getting air through the vents, there could be a problem underneath, such as a pinched/crushed duct. If there's zero airflow, it's possible that the duct is not connected at the furnace end, but that's pretty rare.

Congratulations on your purchase!

We have a 2017 Cyclone 3611JS and we found a similar issue due to the location of the register and the thermostat in the master bedroom.

We went to Lowes and for $1.98 purchased an expandable, magnetic vent diverter that directs the heat away from the Master Bedroom. This has worked very well for us.

I have attached a picture of the diverter in place.

We do not use the furnace to heat the garage at all.

When the furnace is off we just pick up the diverter and put it away. The magnets are strong enough to "stick" to the screws in the vent cover in the floor.

Susan

Also you should have a heat strip in your garage ac to supplement the rear heat and keep it comfy...

That said, yeah...it seems like all the units have that same problem....

sent from space via an invisible beam from a flying metal dish

The magnetic diverter is a great idea, unfortunately, our supply register is along side our bed in the interior of the room. I could look at using one in the bathroom possibly. Would it be possible to install a duct booster fan somewhere in line? Something to pull the heat towards the rear? Just a thought. We are looking forward to moving in to our rig tomorrow, full timing for a year or two!

pull up your registers and check the gap between the duct and the floor. I had a fairly large gap between the duct and the floor . Duct taped the gaps and now I have a lot better airflow to living room registers.