Community Forums

sahzam · 11-13-2014, 12:40 PM

I have a Fleetwwood Excursion 2013 and just recently took it out for the weekend. The heat and AC was working the day before but totally cut out the next day. I made sure there was no air in the gas line, the breakers even disconnected from shore power all to no avail. I turned it all off for awhile and tried to turn back on no good. I have had the batteries and the inverter checked. Is there anything else I could check?

okcnewbie · 11-13-2014, 01:15 PM

Thermostat maybe? Can you turn the blower on?

msturtz · 11-13-2014, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sahzam

I have a Fleetwwood Excursion 2013 and just recently took it out for the weekend. The heat and AC was working the day before but totally cut out the next day. I made sure there was no air in the gas line, the breakers even disconnected from shore power all to no avail. I turned it all off for awhile and tried to turn back on no good. I have had the batteries and the inverter checked. Is there anything else I could check?

Try the heat thermostat and listen for a blower to come on. It the external blower does not come on and stay on then that is a problem. The main furnace blower may or may not come on right away depending on the model. If the external blower fan comes on and then shortly goes off then there could be an obstruction in the outside air intake or in the exhaust line. You can blow high pressure air into the lines to get debris out. Spiders and other critters like to make homes in the flue. Bottom line the furnace control board must see airflow past the burner and out the flue before the burner will be lit.

sahzam · 11-13-2014, 01:56 PM

Thanks for the advice but the AC and heat were working great the day before and that am but all of a sudden it wouldn't kick on. One time later in the day the lights got brighter and you could hear the blower try to come but stopped. It seems like something electrical but I don't know what. That night we left everything off and try to tun back on and it did kick on for about an hour but shut off again.

TeJay · 11-13-2014, 02:07 PM

When trying to diagnose something like you have it's best to use a step by step careful approach. Think about it.

If heat and AC worked the day before it's highly unlikely that all of a sudden you'd have an obstruction. Not saying it's not possible but highly unlikely. Something like that might happen after a long storage but not in one day.

Your Inverter changes 12-volts DC to 120 Volts AC. That's a non issue. Your furnace uses 12-Volts DC to operate if you are not plugged into shore power. Once powered into shore power you are using coach battery power being re-charged by the Converter.

To determine if you have battery power all you have to do is turn on some lights which you would have done once you walked into the coach the morning you determined that you had no heat or AC.

Now your AC does use either shore power or your generator. Your Inverter would have to be a very big unit to give you enough 12-Volt dc power inverted to 120-Volt AC to operate an A/C. Don't know why that needed to be checked. It's not used.

Also heat and A/C are two different items. One uses 12-volts DC the other uses 120Volts AC . Technically when having problems they require almost two different approaches to trouble shooting.

HEAT You need propane and 12-volts DC. Check your propane level at the tank. It's possible one day you had enough propane to run the furnace and not enough the next day. We don't know how much you used it the previous day because you didn't tell us. Lets assume you don't know and lets check the level at the tank. It's always possible that your internal propane gauge is bad.

Now check your battery voltage at the coach batteries. First test it not plugged in and engine not running. It should be 12.6 volts. Now test it engine running, then plugged in. In both cases it should rear around 13.6 volts. If it passed those tests you know you have propane and your engine alternator is charging the batteries and your converter is also charging the coach batteries. Now you can trouble shoot the furnace.

Check all circuit breakers. Both 12-volt and 120 volt. When you check them turn each one off then back on. Just last weekend one of the guys on our camp out said when he plugged two heaters into his coach he lost power. He checked all CB's. We thought about it for a while then went to his CB box. I checked the breaker and they all seemed OK. Then another guy went back and flipped each one off then back on. One of the breakers trpped and was not re-set by turning it completely off then back on again. That little mistake took about 2 hours of discussion and searching.

If nothing works as already stated your blower should respond to the thermostat asking for heat. It should click on and run the blower until the gas begins to flow then the igniter will light the gas. If the igniter does not ignite then the gas will shut down and eventually the bower will turn off.

With the A/C it has to be plugged into shore power or have the genny running. The same thing. Turn on the A/C you should get immediate blower action and eventually cooling. If no blower action then it's not getting the AC power. Now we are back to checking for power and the most likely place to start would be the CB's.

Get some results to those TS steps and get back here with some results.

From your post 4 above which you just wrote you may have some battery connection issues. Again since you had everything a day ago and nobody has worked on your unit it seems like you have some ground or positive connection issues. I'd start with the batteries. Make sure all connections are tight and clean. I'd just start at the egine battery then each coach battery. Take off each terminal, clean, reconnect and tighten. Most times if you have a connection that is loose they will get warm/hot. Sometimes they will also spark. Carefully check for loose connections at your solenoids which switch power from coach to genny etc.

TeJay

Blaster · 11-14-2014, 04:23 PM

Mine quit, the only thing that would work was the front AC, Heat pump. Than it quit. The dealer replaced the thermostat, and all is well.

Clayobx · 11-14-2014, 07:22 PM

I don't know if this applies to your thermostat? I experienced the same issue in my past coach. There was a buss fuse in the thermostat, it was blown. Might check.

Gary RVRoamer · 11-15-2014, 10:22 AM

The thermostat is common to those two systems, and if you have tow or more heat/cool zones there will also be a zone controller (usually at the a/c). If the thermostat doesn't signal a/c or furnace to provide heating or cooling, nothing works. Thus the advice from others to test to see if the thermostat will trigger the propane furnace fan to come on - an easy first check of that system.

Please follow the steps that Tejay suggested to isolate the problem. Conjecturing about mostly unrelated components like the inverter is a waste of effort.