2017 Bighorn Traveler 39MB - Why No A/C vent in Middle Bunk Room???

Hello:

We just purchased a new 2017 Bighorn Traveler 39MB 3 weeks ago. Love the floorplan!

We had a 2nd A/C installed before we took possession and figured that would help cool the little room. After it was delivered, the dealer called us, said they had contacted Heartland, and, while there is an air return in the bunkroom, there is no a/c duct!

Is there any alternative cooling method that can be recommended or are we just out of luck? This seems like a huge design flaw!

Thanks very much!

Margot Ross
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Re: ATF: Bighorn - Bighorn - ATF - 2017 Bighorn Traveler 39MB - Why No A/C vent in Middle Bunk Room???

I would call Heartland direct and ask them about it, that doesn't sound right. Are you sure it's a return? Maybe the foam filter was put in it, and it's not supposed to have one if it's a air discharge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Shawn1257

Member
Re: ATF: Bighorn - Bighorn - ATF - 2017 Bighorn Traveler 39MB - Why No A/C vent in Middle Bunk Room???

We recently purchased a 2018 Bighorn Traveler 39MB as well and I was wondering the same thing. My daughter loves the extra bunk room but it does get awfully stuffy without any A/C duct in that room. I'm really curious what Heartland has to say.
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Re: ATF: Bighorn - Bighorn - ATF - 2017 Bighorn Traveler 39MB - Why No A/C vent in Middle Bunk Room???

Hi Cloudchaser and Shawn1257,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

I suggest you call Heartland Customer Service, 574-262-8030 or 877-262-8032, have your VIN when you call.

Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M
 
Re: ATF: Bighorn -- 2017 Bighorn Traveler 39MB - Why No A/C vent in Middle Bunk Room???

I just spoke to Heartland in the Warranty Department. He said they have had some of the middle bunk models that the production department didn't run the duct into the bunk room, which should be on the wall or ceiling on the bathroom side. He said they will work with (in our case) the dealer and we can have the duct work done and Heartland will cover it.

I have contacted the service manager where we bought the unit and will update here when we have a resolution. It is good to know that it wasn't a design flaw, but an oversight at the factory!

Thanks for all your replies!
 

bwdt

Well-known member
I have a 2018 model, the duct and return are in the mid bunk room, but no AC air comes out of the vent. The wall gets cooler.
Did they repair yours?

I have started doing most of the repairs on my unit as the dealer and heartland make promises and never get back to me to get the warranty repairs done. I mean just 1 email response would be nice.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
I mean just 1 email response would be nice.

Email is what I call an open loop process. Maybe you get a response, maybe something went wrong with the communication. Maybe the ball got dropped before you got a response.

I prefer a closed loop process, so I always call and wait for a human being to pick up.

If you haven't actually talked with Heartland Customer Service, you might keep in mind that dealers sometimes provide inaccurate information; particularly on status of parts orders.
 

bwdt

Well-known member
Has this ever been resolved?
ot

Not really.

The factory duct was never tied into the factory ducting in the ceiling. I pulled the wall in the loft area between the bathroom and loft and found that the tie in was never drilled through the ceiling. I drilled it out only to find out that the ceiling ducting did not line up where the wall ducting was located through the header plate. I had to remove a section of the header plate, and move some wall studs to line it up. I got it all hooked up only to find out that the amount of air flow through the 2" duct was worthless. (really bad design). I'm adding a new 4" duct on the wall behind the entry door where the wall curves. I have to remove the ceiling panel, along with some trim pieces in the loft area to reach the area to attach the 4" duct that will come down the wall in the corner. I'm waiting on the 4" register to show up. This should work as there are only two ceiling registers on the plenum run in the ceiling. The other plenum run has 7 registers on it. More pressure along with larger ducting should work.

I'm also going to add a triple light switch plate in the same wall in the hall before you enter the kitchen These will turn on the entry light, kitchen light and living room light. I hate having to turn them on from the panel. I'll have access to the wiring when I put in the new ducting.

I hope to do this, this coming weekend.

I should mention that if this works, Heartland may change the future models and make this a repair on the older ones.
 
How did your repairs work out?


ot

Not really.

The factory duct was never tied into the factory ducting in the ceiling. I pulled the wall in the loft area between the bathroom and loft and found that the tie in was never drilled through the ceiling. I drilled it out only to find out that the ceiling ducting did not line up where the wall ducting was located through the header plate. I had to remove a section of the header plate, and move some wall studs to line it up. I got it all hooked up only to find out that the amount of air flow through the 2" duct was worthless. (really bad design). I'm adding a new 4" duct on the wall behind the entry door where the wall curves. I have to remove the ceiling panel, along with some trim pieces in the loft area to reach the area to attach the 4" duct that will come down the wall in the corner. I'm waiting on the 4" register to show up. This should work as there are only two ceiling registers on the plenum run in the ceiling. The other plenum run has 7 registers on it. More pressure along with larger ducting should work.

I'm also going to add a triple light switch plate in the same wall in the hall before you enter the kitchen These will turn on the entry light, kitchen light and living room light. I hate having to turn them on from the panel. I'll have access to the wiring when I put in the new ducting.

I hope to do this, this coming weekend.

I should mention that if this works, Heartland may change the future models and make this a repair on the older ones.
 

bwdt

Well-known member
I'm almost done with the modification and have figured out a simple way to do it. The ceiling duct was changed from the original plans, and my unit did not match them. I extended the living room duct near the door to the corner of the wall (from the inside so that I wouldn't have to drop the ceiling ) pulled the wall from the corner of the loft and mid bunk room, drilled two 4.24 inch holes, attached a metal duct through the top, along with a small booster fan that I tied into the AC fan wiring that I ran down the duct with a register. Room now cools. I am in the process of fine tuning, due to a couple of issues which are. The AC only has 350 cfms of air flow, and if the booster fan is to big it loses air flow in the living space, if the fan is two small it doesn't cool the room adequately. The room will heat up faster then the rest of the camper AC cycles back on. I have two possible fixes for this and will be testing them when a couple of parts get here. I am also sharing this with Heartland who might be putting together a fix to install. The mod will probably take about 2-3 hours to do. I will share the details with pics when done.
 
Thank you. While we did get ours "fixed", the air flow out that little vent is not adequate to cool the room. Having another solution would be great, even if we have to pay someone to do it. Shame on Heartland for releasing the units units with such a flaw!


I'm almost done with the modification and have figured out a simple way to do it. The ceiling duct was changed from the original plans, and my unit did not match them. I extended the living room duct near the door to the corner of the wall (from the inside so that I wouldn't have to drop the ceiling ) pulled the wall from the corner of the loft and mid bunk room, drilled two 4.24 inch holes, attached a metal duct through the top, along with a small booster fan that I tied into the AC fan wiring that I ran down the duct with a register. Room now cools. I am in the process of fine tuning, due to a couple of issues which are. The AC only has 350 cfms of air flow, and if the booster fan is to big it loses air flow in the living space, if the fan is two small it doesn't cool the room adequately. The room will heat up faster then the rest of the camper AC cycles back on. I have two possible fixes for this and will be testing them when a couple of parts get here. I am also sharing this with Heartland who might be putting together a fix to install. The mod will probably take about 2-3 hours to do. I will share the details with pics when done.
 
Well all of this sucks. I was thinking about talking to Heartland and then taking into the dealer. I would love to come up with a solution to get adequate air into the bunk room.
 

bwdt

Well-known member
Mine has been fixed with adequate flow to the mid-bunk room. Heartland is in the process of testing it on a unit at this time, I talked to them last Thursday and will do a,follow up tomorrow or Tuesday. The repair is not that complicated and I'm hoping they come out with a kit. The total cost is about sixty bucks in parts and about four hours of work. If Heartland can get approval from Dometic, the whole thing will be automatic with out a x switch. As soon as I know what they are doing I'll post everything with pics. So please be patient, Heartland doesn't move very quickly but they do move.
 
I am very interested in this fix as our unit 2017 39MB has a vent behind the door in the bunk room. However as another poster mentions it is pretty useless and it gets really warm in that room. We are in TX and that room is not usable in summer even with a fan.
 

bwdt

Well-known member
I'm working up in NC on hurricane repairs right now. If I ha e time on Sunday, I'll post the repairs.

Check the inside slide roof in the mid-bunk room and compar it to make sure it's about the same temperature as your other slides. Let me know, because you may have to repair that as well, mine is missing the insulation.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

bwdt

Well-known member
Sorry this is late, I got called out to work on hurricane Florence up in NC.

Here's the update and repair that was done on my camper.

First thing you should check is that the insullation in your slide is good. Mine was missing on the ceiling on half of the slide which was letting a lot of heat into the midbunk room.

I removed the panel (flat section) from the loft area and room area just inside the door on the left. This wall is curved on the outside by the kitchen but has about five inches of space.
20180831_140432.jpg 20180831_140544.jpg20180831_140446.jpgCurved section of wall with ceiling duct, loft area flat panel removed, room area down stairs with panel removed.
I drilled a 4 1/4" hole in the ceiling and in the floor area inside the wall between the bunk room and the loft area.
Then I removed the ceiling vent register in the kitchen area just in front of the curved wall to install the duct extension.

20180831_141416.jpg20180831_141438.jpg20180831_141617.jpg Pics of it folded to slide in and folded to tape when inside the duct.
I bought some corplas, (basically plastic material that is used for signs and looks like cardboard.) I made two pieces about 20" long and folded them up as pictured ( this is so that they will slip inside the vent where the register was pulled and you unfold it. (all of the lines in the pic are where the plastic was cut (not all the way through) so that it could be folded.) When you slip it in, it will fit inside the vent and you are able to tape the top half first and then slide it down while taping and then tape the bottom half. I used aluminum tape. (its a tight fit. you will also need to push the tape out at then end of the vent in the ceiling when you install this.) BE PATIENT, IT WILL FIT.
When you get it all in place, you will slide it down to reach the end and tape up the end, I put plastic on the end of mine and taped the plastic in place, then slide the whole assembly down over some of the framing until it covers the four and a quarter inch hole you drilled in the ceiling.

When the hole is covered and centered on the duct, tape the duct with the aluminum tape from inside so that it is sealed and won't move. Use a utility knife to cut a round hole in the plastic through the four and a quarter inch hole you cut in the ceiling inside the wall. I picked up an aluminum dryer vent metal duct and hose. The round aluminum metal is installed up through the hole in the ceiling into the new vent. I cut small tabs on the metal tube to fold over into the new plastic vent and taped the whole assembly from the inside with you guessed it, the aluminum tape.

Optional:
I installed the 4" duct fan motor, use the 100 cfm fan, ( not the 85 cfm fan) and you can get power to switch it from the vacuum cleaner outlet at the bottom, pull the vacuum and ad a switch to the wall when you put it back together to turn the fan on and off, when the days get extra warm. It will work with out the fan running but the fan will boost the cooling when needed.

The factory is now putting this in the newer units ( what I've been told)

I hope this helps.:)
 

NYSUPstater

Well-known member
COMPLETEY off topic here, but I hope someone who watches/manages this site corrects an issue that plagues it and that is of viewing pics and when backspacing to look at other (like above post), screen goes dark or back to main page/previous page. In order to look at the rest of the pics you must start all over again. Very annoying.

I will say, tho, that was quite the undertaking and solution that was done above which shouldn't have had to be done in the 1st place if the factory designed it right.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
COMPLETEY off topic here, but I hope someone who watches/manages this site corrects an issue that plagues it and that is of viewing pics and when backspacing to look at other (like above post), screen goes dark or back to main page/previous page. In order to look at the rest of the pics you must start all over again. Very annoying.

I will say, tho, that was quite the undertaking and solution that was done above which shouldn't have had to be done in the 1st place if the factory designed it right.

What device and browser are you having this picture viewing issue on? I'm able to click on a picture and use the Next and Last buttons to move from picture to picture. I'm using a Macbook Pro laptop and a Google Chrome browser.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
I'm using Windows 10 with Google Chrome and have no issues viewing. And like Jim using the Next or Last button scrolls through the pics.

Peace
Dave
 
Top