New to us 183-Furnace didn't want to start up... not sure why??

FoxHunt

Member
My wife and I decided to go ahead with the purchase of a 2012 MPG 183 on Saturday. We did the walk through and everything seemed to be working fine, including the furnace.

I was told that to operate the furnace, I just slide the thermostat to the right (with the gas on of course).

I got home, plugged the trailer in and started to go through the set-up process in the driveway. Everything worked great until I hit the thermostat and nothing happened. The fan didn't kick on, there was no noise at all... just silence. I checked all breakers (flipped each one to ensure none were tripped). I moved the thermostat back and forth a number of times and nothing changed.

I lifted the cushion and board that covers the furnace compartment, and didn't see any reset switches to flip. I put the board and cushion back, pushed the thermostat to the right one last time, and low and behold, the furnace fired up and within a minute was pumping out hot air.

I am baffled... Has anyone else experienced this?? I have no idea what prevented it from kicking on or what changed that made it kick on when it did.

The temp inside was certainly cold enough to cause it to kick on with the temp setting on the thermostat.

Any info is appreciated.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
First of all, congratulations on your new camper. It should provide you with a lot of fun.
It sounds like you could have a loose wire........well on your trailer.
I would pull the thermostat and check those wires. Then I would re-visit the furnace end.

Peace
Dave
 

RAZORBILL

Member
There may have been too much air in the line that prevented it from firing the first time around. I think it is set up to try and lite then take a few minute break before it will try again. Use the stove to purge the line of the oxygen so that it's all propane before you try and lite it off next time. Just my uneducated thought on it anyway. We have only used our furnace once so my memory is weak on the subject.

Congrats on the new trailer, we love our 183!!
 

MountainTop

Active Member
Glad to hear the furnace is working but I can't offer any helpful explanations. We found that the furnace in our 181 was so noisy it disturbed our sleep and made the well under the bed too hot to use for storing much. So we switched to a small ceramic heater that was quite adequate even on nights when the outside temps were in the high 20s. I doubt we'll have much use for the furnace.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
I reread your initial post today, and have to say that what I posted about the problem you had mostly doesn't apply. Sorry!

It sounds like you had an intermittent electrical connection that was resolved simply by moving wires or reconnecting connectors. I know that doesn't leave you with a good feeling that it won't happen again. All I can say is make sure all the screws connected to wires in the thermostat base are tight, pull a bit on the wires themselves away from the screws to see if there is a broken solid wire inside the wire insulation, and use electrical contact cleaner on any connecting contacts you can find.
 
Last edited:

PhotoPete

Well-known member
I agree with Cookie (dave), sounds like loose wire in the thermostat. If there was air in the line, i believe the fan would still fire up, just no heat. If not loose wires, perhaps bad contacts in the thermostat itself. to test that just touch the two wires together and see if she fires up.

Pete
 

FoxHunt

Member
I've done some wire "tugging" and connection checking and so far there is no interuption in power. Once it kicked on, I haven't had an issue with it. I would almost rather it not work at this point so I can trouble-shoot it in the driveway and not the campground.

I apprecate the responses, I was hoping there was a weak-link somewhere that I could go straight to and fix.... no such luck!
 

ryanman

Member
I have had this happen and ended up pulling the fuse for the furnace, waiting 20 seconds and putting it back in, then it works just fine. It only happened 2 times since March and it was after extended sitting periods with no use.
 

ryanman

Member
Glad to hear the furnace is working but I can't offer any helpful explanations. We found that the furnace in our 181 was so noisy it disturbed our sleep and made the well under the bed too hot to use for storing much. So we switched to a small ceramic heater that was quite adequate even on nights when the outside temps were in the high 20s. I doubt we'll have much use for the furnace.

We are currently hating our furnace as well. The **** thing is so loud it wakes us up all the time. The problem is we dry camp almost all the time and I dont want to run a gen all the time. Any suggestions?
 

crennpage

Member
Ryanman, since I've done a lot of backpacking in the past I've no problem throwing on some extra blankets at night or even enlisting the service of one of my good ole trusty down sleeping bags if need be. As such, I never use the heater at night so it's not a problem for me when I'm camping solo. When my better half camps with me, however, it's a different matter as extra blankets are not an option for her ... she has a big problem using the bath in the middle of the night if the temp isn't just so! :). She wants the heater on at night but the noise also drives her crazy. I'd sure like to know what kind of dry camping (safe) alternatives there might be to create some additional heat as well.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
We are currently hating our furnace as well. The **** thing is so loud it wakes us up all the time.
Ryanman, If you're hearing a screeching sound, or a rattling sound, something obviously needs to be fixed. Wasps/Mud Daubers like to build nests in the air intake - that can cause a lot of noise. You might be able to resolve this yourself.

Air mixture at the burner can also cause a lot of noise; it can be described as sounding like a jet engine. If you're hearing something like that you'll need to take the unit to your dealer for them to troubleshoot the problem.

On the other hand, different people have different opinions of when loud becomes objectionable. If it's just plain loud, it might be helpful to listen to another unit's furnace at the dealer to decide whether yours is operating normally, even though it's louder than you'd like.

In any case, your best bet might be to get to your dealer, or a nearby authorized repair shop to have it evaluated.
 
Top