Crew Cab Heating Damon Tuscany (Freightliner)

[buckeyeduffer]

Damn guys I feel like a virgin asking for all this help. We have been RV'ing for 20 years but this new experience is challenging us.

We just completed a 4.5k mile shakedown trip to east coast (N. Carolina) and back thru Kansas, Colarado, and New Mexico. Ran into freezing weather in Colby, KS and froze up water system. It stayed froze until we reached Deming, NM this afternoon.

Big problem was yesterday afternoon as we were coming through Colorado Springs, Raton, NM, and Santa Fe, NM., in addition to the water system being frozen, we damn near froze as the crew cab heating system was completely inadequate and even when supplemented with the propane furnace the temperature was intolerable. (we finally started the generator and operated a ceramic heater to temper the temperature slightly).

Fortunately, the snow was cold and dry and defrosters were not required as I doubt that the heating system was producing enough BTU's to defrost and defend the windscreen to a good slushy snowfall.

We finally thawed out and got home to Tucson this evening and obviously my first step was to look at the Aqua-Hot hydronic heating system as a potential retrofi for our coach (probably should have bougfht the Newmar with the Aqua-Hot already installed !!!!!!!!!

Before we go down this road would like to know if any of you have had like problems with your Damon's, and if so what has corrected the problem?

Thanks in advance - your feed back will be appreciated.

[DBOL]

Well another problem to address!I started my T up and ran awhile and then turned on the A/C & Heater dash just a sound huming sound and the a click,but no turn on and no fan!Well think goodness for Gennies and the moving in cold weather made it even colder.I will learn from your trip to stay away from Northern route in Winter.Once had a VW van heat from motor in 20degree weather"burrrrrr"We had friend left Tucson.
Night before left they where 3 hours Texas side of El Paso and seeing snow!What happened to globle warming? What you say Gore!

[The Woodieboys]

Guys, we took our Tuscany to DC in January for the inauguration this year in 9 degree weather and did not have any of the issues you mention. In fact we were there 10 days and it never got above freezing.

One thing we did do while driving was to keep the furnace on to keep the basement warm and keep the water lines from freezing up (great advice from a friend of ours). That is overlooked by a lot of people. The dash heater is designed to put out just enough heat to keep the windshield clean and maybe your feet a little toasty. When traveling you really need to keep the furnace on to keep the whole coach warm. There is just too much air space for the dash heater to keep up. You run the rooftop a/c in summer when it gets too warm because the dash a/c can't cool the whole coach. Same concept here with the furnace and cold air.

Another thing we did was to buy a just above freezing electric heater ($20 at Target) and put it in the water - sewer bay. While we were parked it kept the water from freezing up. We used electric space heaters while parked as well and almost never used the furnace so we didn't burn all the propane up. We had to keep the wet bay warm somehow since we didn’t run the furnace that much.

Keeping the basement and the wet compartment warm is a must in cold at all times. The water lines are very small and are not insulated and can freeze up quickly.


I am surprised that once you were parked for the night running the furnace for a while did not thaw the water lines. And if you feel the dash heat a/c isn't working correctly let Freightliner look at it. We had the dash a/c looked at about 6 months after we had it (did not cool very well) and it ended up being a crimped o-ring. Once the o-ring was replaced it made a huge difference in the performance of the system. And it is covered under the chassis warranty.

[doc]

Sorry you had such a cold trip! The windshields in these coaches are huge and they let expose a lot of cold surface to the cab area of the coach. I am not sure the heaters are close to doing any real warming of that area. We had a trip last winter, the coldest day of the year in middle Georgia and ended up running the furnace - and nearly ran out of propane! Thank goodness we found a truck filling a tank in some small S Georgia town! The genset will run the heat pump, but there is very little heat available when the temps are in the 20's.

[powerboatr]

we had a cold drive the other day
and keeping my feet warm was about all it could do, plenty of hot air, just to much airspace to keep warm...
I have seen a few folks hang a thick curtain across the coach behind the driver and pass seats to help control the HUGE airspace thermal break. That may help keep you warmer, but the coach would get chilllllly

i had the propane heater on but it never cycled on.

last night it was 27F.
tank heaters on, a small ceramic heater on the dash to keep the moisture at bay on the BIG winder I took down our thermal mat that blocked the summer heat, it was trapping moisture during the cold weather.
the small ceramic heater is set low enough to keep the glass area warm with the night shade down

I did notice while in the basement that the metal floor/ceiling gets HOT and the basement actually was pretty cozy, in case i get in trouble

i have to say we are a lot warmer in the damon than the fiver was last winter.
need to insulate the entry step a bit better.

[DDinCincy]

I travel to Colorado for three weeks each February and use the coach for other trips throughout the Winter. First thing, the furnace absolutely MUST be run to keep the coach and compartments as warm as possible; when driving, the effects of wind pressure keep the compartment temps down in the 30's, but still just above freezing.

My dash heat is plenty warm if you hold your hand in front of any of the outlets, but as others have said, with all that air volume, it just doesn't keep up. My feet are generally quite chilly while driving! Unfortunately, the firewall is just uninsulated metal, so no thermal protection there and I have not found a good way to try to insulate this area.

[teacher]

We are going through our first winter with the Tuscany and have the problem as described. We had the same problem on the Ultrasport we owned before the Tuscany. The unit that is actually the culprit in most cases is installed by Damon and made by Acme Air (not Freightliner). It is the unit that turning the knob on the heat/ac controller is supposed to make something happen. This unit is installed on the firewall and has a pass through connection to the inside dash air fans. The outside of the unit has two oval slots in the unit that let in outside air. I simply taped these over on my Ultrasport and voila, hot and cold air. I am giving Damon a chance to review this issue on my Tuscany before I get out the role of duct tape and do self repair. Problem is my dealer doing the warranty work thought this was a Freightliner issue and doesn't have a clue that Damon really needs to spearhead the repair to this item. (probably by referring them to the contractor they buy these things from)

[DBOL]

so you are saying find the holes and duck tape them? My Heat and A/C wouldn't come on some seem to think freight liner and I see you said Damon.Well we found problem to day ground wire was loose bolt was striped.Take out drawers to get to blower and wires.Went to my Ford dealer Machanic help for free,but I gave him tour of coach and Merry Christmas $20 took him 10 min to find.
Good to live in small town in "TEXAS"

[teacher]

thank goodness for small town folks.

Yeah, except for the connections to the engine block and
A/C compresor the whole Heat-A/C thing is Damon's installation. Duct tape solves lots of problems. greatest stuff ever invented.

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by teacher We are going through our first winter with the Tuscany and have the problem as described. We had the same problem on the Ultrasport we owned before the Tuscany. The unit that is actually the culprit in most cases is installed by Damon and made by Acme Air (not Freightliner). It is the unit that turning the knob on the heat/ac controller is supposed to make something happen. This unit is installed on the firewall and has a pass through connection to the inside dash air fans. The outside of the unit has two oval slots in the unit that let in outside air. I simply taped these over on my Ultrasport and voila, hot and cold air. I am giving Damon a chance to review this issue on my Tuscany before I get out the role of duct tape and do self repair. Problem is my dealer doing the warranty work thought this was a Freightliner issue and doesn't have a clue that Damon really needs to spearhead the repair to this item. (probably by referring them to the contractor they buy these things from)

Teacher
i just had my return a/c line repaired and it took a bit of doing to determine ownership
I called freightliner and toalked the folks there and they were very HELPFUL
they ran all my numbers and determined who had installed each componet. then i gave that to our dealer and then damon stepped up to fix it.
I couldnt say more about freightliners 800 number folks, This guy did above and beyond to get ti settled, he never tried to wiggle out, and even arranged a service call at the freightliner place near me along with parts, just in case Damon wiggled out of it

I am curious as to what exactly you duct taped up?
I have been loking at insulating the firewall and the flex hose that delivers air up to the window for defrosting.
any guidance would be most apreciative

[DBOL]

Me too what did you duct tape?

[teacher]

I had a talk today with Damon about the Acme Air unit in my coach and all coaches until late 2009 models. Much to my dismay I learned that Acme went the way of many others lately and is no longer available for anything. So while we try to diagnose the vacuum line problem which seems to be at the root of all the insufficiency issues I am ready for the quick and easy duct tape solution. When you open up the hood on the front of the coach and look straight to the firewall you will see a black box sticking out from the wall that is about (this is memory speaking now and I don't trust it a lot) 12-15" wide and 8-10" high and 4-5"deep. On the front of this thing are two oval shaped openings maybe 2" high and 5"long. These openings let fresh air into the heat exchanger/condenser area for the dash unit plenum. If you tape over these outside intake ducts the unit will draw 100% inside air and heat the heck out of it. A diesel you know operates at a pretty high temp compared to gassers, hence the extra efficieency, so lots of hot coolant for the heater.

What is actually supposed to happeen inside this unit is a damper opening and closing the outside intake as we twist the little temperature dial on the dash. This thing is driven by a vacuum system that relies on an electric vacuum pump a reservoir to retain the vacuum and hoses carrying the vacuum to and from the dash control unit. Apparently it is common for these hoses to fall off, get kinks or just fail. When this happens the damper door does not open/close enough and when traveling the moving air overwhelms the recirculatiing air.

One of the issues I have found is that not many places (Damon or Freightliner) no what to do with this thing without tech support. So back to the duct tape I go. I go pick up my coach thursday (12/24) in time for our Holiday trip and it is cold out. I hope the duct tape holds again.

Good Luck guys

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by teacher I had a talk today with Damon about the Acme Air unit in my coach and all coaches until late 2009 models. Much to my dismay I learned that Acme went the way of many others lately and is no longer available for anything. So while we try to diagnose the vacuum line problem which seems to be at the root of all the insufficiency issues I am ready for the quick and easy duct tape solution. When you open up the hood on the front of the coach and look straight to the firewall you will see a black box sticking out from the wall that is about (this is memory speaking now and I don't trust it a lot) 12-15" wide and 8-10" high and 4-5"deep. On the front of this thing are two oval shaped openings maybe 2" high and 5"long. These openings let fresh air into the heat exchanger/condenser area for the dash unit plenum. If you tape over these outside intake ducts the unit will draw 100% inside air and heat the heck out of it. A diesel you know operates at a pretty high temp compared to gassers, hence the extra efficieency, so lots of hot coolant for the heater. What is actually supposed to happeen inside this unit is a damper opening and closing the outside intake as we twist the little temperature dial on the dash. This thing is driven by a vacuum system that relies on an electric vacuum pump a reservoir to retain the vacuum and hoses carrying the vacuum to and from the dash control unit. Apparently it is common for these hoses to fall off, get kinks or just fail. When this happens the damper door does not open/close enough and when traveling the moving air overwhelms the recirculatiing air. One of the issues I have found is that not many places (Damon or Freightliner) no what to do with this thing without tech support. So back to the duct tape I go. I go pick up my coach thursday (12/24) in time for our Holiday trip and it is cold out. I hope the duct tape holds again. Good Luck guys

thanks I am familiar with the two openings.....i sucked up a bee ths summer after that i glued on a screen to prevent anymore critters from being ejected into the cabin
mine does close off for now
however it may get paneled up it does cause huge amounts of dust to be injested , maybe an airfilter of sorts

[DBOL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerboatr thanks I am familiar with the two openings.....i sucked up a bee ths summer after that i glued on a screen to prevent anymore critters from being ejected into the cabin mine does close off for now however it may get paneled up it does cause huge amounts of dust to be injested , maybe an airfilter of sorts

Powerboatr and Teacher did you use the Duct tape?if so how did it work?
We just did a small trip Christmas eve and back yesterday.Going down I use genny and the heat was better from dash,but needed help with elect heater,but when genny was turned off I noticed the heat from dash wasn't as hot and reafirmed this on trip backbecause I didnt use genny or extra heat
So my conclusion is with genny on it help air coming from dash heat to be warmer so Teacher I hope you slove the problem and report back this dash heater needs help?

I didnt run the dash coming back because when I turned on the air was hot at dash,but by time it got to your body it was cold?

Hope ya'll stay warm.