Heater

[mo11]

OK, went camping in cold weather for the first time. Noticed batteries were dead when I picked up the trailer from storage took it home plugged into power and everything seemed fine the next day. However after running the heater off battery power for about 8 hours it would not come on again. The next day I found a toggle on/off switch on the furnace itself and after switching this on and off the motor would start but no ignition, well after doing this a few times it started running again. Found a camp site with electric hook up and plugged in. Heater worked fine for about another 10 hours then the same drill again. Then heater ran for the rest of the time we were there about another 48 hrs? Any comments would be great.

Thanks, Mo

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

I'm not too familiar with the switch you are mentioning on the furnace itself but I can tell you it will take quite a few hours of being plugged in to 110 to completely recharge your batteries. The charging system on the converter is mainly disigned to maintain a fully charged battery as it has a lower rate of charge. That said, the furnace should run normally as long as you are plugged into 110.
I'm guessing you may have a low voltage problem with your house battery. Possibly a weak cell. I hate to suggest it but your dealer may be more help than I am.
Give the forum guys a while longer to reply. Maybe someone has the right answer.

 

[branson4020]

Can you post a picture of this switch? Also, how do you access the furnace? I'm not familiar with the North Trail.

 

[irvin56]

Bad battery or drained it completely

First ?, did you leave the battery hooked up in storage??

The propane sensor, oven panel lights, radio ETC, will draw power even if not used. Maybe even the fridge panel as it uses 12 volt to operate.
You need to have battery disconnected, by cutoff switch or remove cables from battery.
It will kill a battery over time sitting.

Did you have it fully charged before storage.
Is it the battery from dealer? was it fully charged by them ??
I always have a battery charger with me, if it's the end of season. I charge it with charger before I leave in storage and disconnect cables

Furance ignitor is an electrical heating element(rod) that needs power to heat up. Glows and ignites propane. or sparks across to metal shoud
Which ever one they need stong 12 volt for ignition

sounds like while you had it plugged in it worked okay because of converter. But battery needs to be fully charged for furance to work properly for a longer period of time

 

[mo11]

Thanks for the repplies. I did not have the battery hooked up in storage and I'm sure that is why they were dead. I talked to the dealer and they explained thet it takes quite a long time to fully charge the batteries plugged into the house 110v. They said if the batteries are not suffeciently charged the furnace motor will adventually not spin fast enough to trip some sort of switch to ignite the furnance. So when I was finally plugged back into 110v for a period of time the batteries finally had enough time to chrage and run everything adequatly. Seems to make sense.

Thanks again

 

[boatto5er]

Thanks for the repplies. I did not have the battery hooked up in storage and I'm sure that is why they were dead. I talked to the dealer and they explained thet it takes quite a long time to fully charge the batteries plugged into the house 110v. They said if the batteries are not suffeciently charged the furnace motor will adventually not spin fast enough to trip some sort of switch to ignite the furnance. So when I was finally plugged back into 110v for a period of time the batteries finally had enough time to chrage and run everything adequatly. Seems to make sense.

Thanks again

The fan causes a "sail" switch to activate. It's a safety mechanism built into the furnace. It is literally a sail type mechanism that is opened by the moveing air. If the fan is turning too slowly or slows down during operation, the sail switch will disengage, causing the furnace to shut down.

 

[branson4020]

I thought the OP said he still had problems when plugged into shore power?

 

[boatto5er]

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I believe the battery still has to be in a good state of charge. If it's low, many of the 12V functions will be impaired. The shore power charges up the battery and then keeps it charged.