Propane Furnace and Power Converter
- Thread starter Cucina
- Start date
Ray LeTourneau
Senior Member - Past Moderator
I don't feel you have anything to worry about. The converter has it's own cooling fan. The downside is being under the bed it could be annoying at night when the little fan kicks in. The furnace usually has mounting specs with clearance requirements that manufacturers have to adhere to.
It sounds like the concern is that the hot air from the furnace is blowing directly toward the converter. Since they are so far apart, though, I doubt that there will be much of an issue. A bigger concern is that the heat is not going out into the main living space of the camper, which is also true of our 181. I've thought about making some sort of deflector that would help move that heat out toward the rear of the camper. On the other hand, we don't camp much when we need the heat, so maybe I can postpone that project for a while.
jmgratz
Original Owners Club Member
It seems to me that if this was an issue the design engineers would have taken that into consideration when they designed the unit. I would use the RV as it was built to be used and not worry about it. In other words "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Have fun and "Happy camping".
ptarthur2
Member
Has anyone that has actually used their propane furnace noticed that there is no Off swtich? The first time I used the furnace in my 181 I noticed that it's fuse was not in the socket in the fuse panel. Instead the fuse was taped to the inside of the fuse panel door. I installed the fuse and the furnace seemed to work just fine (other than being very noisey under the bed). Later when we left the campground that we were staying in I didn't remove the furnace fuse from it's socket but I did turn the thermostat all the way down. When we arrived at our next destination and opened the door to the camper, I found the heater running. I don't like the idea of the heater running while I am towing the trailer down the road so I removed the fuse from the panel but it seems like there should be an off switch to prevent the furnace from turning on.
We had our 181 winterized at the dealership as part of the final warranty check, so whether they did anything to the furnace or not I don't know. I suspect that they made sure that the propane was turned off, though. I just went out to check, though, since the temperature here is cold enough that the furnace should come on. The furnace wasn't running, but I did hear a chirp from inside. Since I had already pulled the batteries from the rear smoke detector, I was a bit surprised. Turns out that the front smoke detector is also battery-operated. Somehow I always thought it was hard-wired in. I've now removed the (original) battery from it, and the next time we take the mpg out I'll put new batteries in both units.
