Furnace Question

[bigray]

Okay All you Northerners,

If my coach battery is too week to operate my furnace fan, is there an automatic shut off to stop the flow of propane so that they flame shuts off.

I have a real concern with sleeping with my furnace running not knowing how much juice is in my battery.

I have one the low volt indicator lights that came with the Clipper but I don't know how it works. My guess is that it is illuminated when the battery is dangerously low (which is too late in my opinion).

I'm planning to install a more acurate multimeter that I can hard wire. That way I can tell what stage my batter is at all times.  It's on my list of things to get but keeps getting bumped back as other things take priority.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[Andy Illes]

Hi Ray,

I dug out my instruction sheet and it says there's a little air-flow actuated "flapper" in the blower duct that controls the gas valve.  It only allows the burner to be lit if there's a certain volume of air-flow.

Best regards & happy camping, Andy

PS...  While on the subject, has anyone run a duct forward?  Mine (21' rear kitchen) has 2 outlets... one toward the staircase and another right under the fridge.... and I'd sure like to run a duct all the way forward.  If anyone has done this, I'd sure love to hear how you did it and how it turned out.  Thanx

[bigray]

Thanks for the reply Andy. I don't know how I missed it. I was thinking that I didn't get a response so I was going to repost the question but saw that you have already responded. Thanks fella!

[HPotter]

Big Ray, that little "low voltage" indicator you refer to sounds like the LED on the panel that warns you of low electrolyte level in the coach battery. There was a probe with a wire attached that extended thru the cap into one of the cells and touched the fluid. If the level was high enough to reach the probe, the LED stayed off.

Harold, #886

[handyman]

Andy if you don't have a gen then all you have to do is tee off the duct that goes into the couch and drill a hole into the box that the chairs mount to and run anther duct if you do have a gen you can still run it about mid way up

[Andy Illes]

Ray... it basically means, if your battery gets too low or goes dead.... you're just gonna freeze your ass off inna morning -- not risk getting... ummmmm.... toasty  :lol:    

On my Colorado trip last winter, I kept my furnace going on the road once I got into cold country since the van heater couldn't keep the coach warm, and did run the coach batteries down.... no heat.   That stupid little fan wants a LOT of juice!!!   I hadn't replaced the selenoid yet, so they weren't getting a charge from the alternator.  I guess the point is my instruction sheet is right... no battery... no fan... no air flow... flapper down... no gas....  no heat.... frostbite.

Harold's right about the light, it's just a battery-level indicator.  Mine has a battery charge meter that works off a rocker switch just to the right of the pump switch.... your's doesn't?


Next:

Thanks Al, but what would you use for a "duct"?  And I've read stuff about the blower needing a certain amount of back pressure... any problem with that if you add another duct, ya think?  I don't have a genny, btw, just a ton of junk, so I guess I can make the room if I keep my scuba tanks in the shower instead, huh?

[bigray]

Thank guys.

Andy, mine does have the battery indicator but it's just all or nothing (edit: It has low medium and full. I lied). I hate the indicator lights. By the time that puppy comes on it's probably too late. Instead of having an oil light, I like to know what my oil pressure is. Know what I mean. Same for my coach battery. I  have a multimeter however I wanted to hard wire one to by battery with a swich. That way I could check the voltage with ease.

I didn't know that the coach heaater would stay lit on the road. That's a new one on me. We are planning a x-mas trip to see some snow somewhere. The only cold trip we took so far was up to Atlanta last January. To my recollection the coach heat kept it nice and toasty. Of course that was in the 40 to 50 degree range. I'm sure it was much colder in Colorado. Where there lots of hills/moutains. On that trip. What route did you take?

[Conrad]

The danger with leaving the coach heater on is that the propane lines are charged up.  If you have a rear tire blowout your propane line could be parted.  Add a spark from any accidental metal-to-road contact and you could have a fire.  Now imagine trying to put out a fire while the propane tank is supplying the fuel for the fire.  

Don't drive with the propane tank on.

[bigray]

Opppppps...........I certainly didn't mean to open that can of worms.

But Andy if you are one of those who chooses to run your propane while driving, wouldn't one of the large 12 volt fan work better at moving the air around versus trying to run another duct.

[Andy Illes]

Good and valid point, Conrad, thank you.  I know the main gas line runs right above the inner tire, and yeah, it's a very vulnerable area... never mind very stupid engineering.  Another genius idea I've gotta wonder about is locating the gas filler right above the exhaust pipe...  :roll:

At any rate, the guy I bought mine from - a retired plumber -made a selling point outta the fact that he'd made up a shield (looks like about 1/8" steel) that covers the gas line through the whole wheel-well. It's welded to the frame on the inside and screwed to the stairs.  It's pretty solid, though I can't understand while he was at it, why he didn't bend a "lip" down to sortta shield the gas tank and lines too... it looks easily doable.  It's definitely something everyone should do.

At any rate, I'm comfortable leaving my gas on.  I leave my water heater and fridge on all the time on the road, and that trip, also the furnace while I was in "cold country".  I don't know about anyone else's, Ray, but my furnace runs off the coach batteries, so yeah, it works on the road.

As to a fan instead of a duct, I just think it would be a neater thing.  I manage to clutter this thing up well enough without something else, lol.

[HPotter]

You run your WATER HEATER on the road?? Mine would blow out on the second revolution of the wheels. if I tried that! Of course, I'm talking past tense--sold our beloved Clipper a couple weeks ago to a couple gals in Portland, so after 22 years we are Clipperless. But I just can't seem to wean myself away from this website.!

Harold,  #886

[bigray]

Harold I didn't know that you were Clipperless. I'm glad you are still on the forum. Your thoughts and feedback is very much appreciated. At least I'm not the only one addicted  :wink:

Andy, I know that they furnace fan is operated by the coach battery; however, I figured the pilot and flame would be extinguished by the wind produced when the coach was in motion.

[Andy Illes]

Oh, ok... gottcha.   I thought I had posted this once.  Yeah, mine would blow out all the time too... even from the draft of a small cat slinking past, it seemed.  Irritating.  Oddly enough, it actually seemed to stay lit better driving around than parked though.  Go figure.

Anyway, I cut a flat 6"x8" "baffle" out of aluminum roof flashing held in front of the burner bay by 3 of those cabinet latches with the 2 little spring-loaded rollers.. 2 on the bottom and 1 on the side so I can pop it right out to relight.  It hardly ever goes out parked now.  On the trip, I did have to relight it 5-6 times (not counting gas stops when I shut the propane off).  It might have gone off more that I didn't notice, but I did always have hot water.  I kept it lit cuz I thought showers would be a great way to stay refreshed and alert (they were), and didn't want to wait for the thing to heat up each time.

I was gonna replace it cuz it has a slow leak, and thought about an electric one cuz I don't wanna spend the money on new gas one... but I thought without a genny, how could I take showers on the road?  So the old one's still in there until the leak gets worse or something else goes wrong with it.

Gotta figure out how to use my phone camera... and then get the VCR to stop flashing noon.

[Andy Illes]

Sorry Ray, I was answering the wrong question.  I haven't done anything to my heater.  The times the furnace did blow out parked, it just relit (as soon as the fan turned off) as long as the thermostat was calling for heat, so it may have gone out/relit on the road too, but I wouldn't have noticed wile driving.  The fridge is the only thing that's never blown out.

Btw, I finally replaced the selenoid so now the alternator can help.  

I didn't answer your question about mountains either.  The only really hard pull was over the pass between I-80 and Winter Park.  That's all switchbacks at mostly 30-35 in 2nd gear both up and down, I didn't wanna strain it.  No probs in D any of the rest of it.

You never did say where you're heading, or when.  I'm toying with the idea of heading back up to NY for the winter and staying with friends.  I haven't skiied New England since I was in HS.

Good luck... Andy