Community Forums

-BigRed- · 11-25-2019, 11:32 PM

I am prepping my Tropical for some winter camping and wondering a few things that someone else might have figured out already.

Which furnace heats the tank/plumbing compartment? The rear or the front?
Just wondering which one I should run more to keep things from freezing.

Also I am looking at getting some of those stick on heating pads for my fresh water tank which is underneath the grey/black and probably wont get as much of the heat.
Anybody have any luck with those 12v heating pads?

Granted we will probably only be in 15 degree temps at the lowest but its enough to worry me slightly about things freezing up.

Anybody else have any tips to prepare?

Kahoona · 11-26-2019, 03:23 PM

We have a 2006 National Tropical 33.5" I just took a look and on their menus front thermostat says Furnace and the rear says Heat Strip. To me that means that I use the "heat strip" when shore powered above 32f and the Furnace when at low temps or unplugged. This raises the question...Both of our A/C's say Duo-Therm. Isn't a Duo-Therm a heat pump? No sign of that function.

Ljwt330 · 11-26-2019, 04:36 PM

This may help clear things up but keep in mind, my experience was with a 2007 33.5 TropiCal as well and it may be different from the OP's.

My coach had two A/C units, both DuoTherm. According to the thermostat, the front zone could cool and circulate with just the fan but the heating option went to "furnace" on the read out. In zone 2, the rear unit, it could cool, use fan only, and the heating option was "heat pump." There was no "Furnace" selection on the thermostat read out.

My guess is that if your A/C has a heat strip, that term would appear in the thermostat, but "heat pump" would not. Both A/C units are DuoTherm because they both will heat and cool, though the heating is done through different methods--heat pump, heat strip, or in sync with a furnace.

To the OP, does your coach have two furnaces? I suspect it doesn't, but can't be sure. What does the thermostat read out indicate when you want to heat the rear zone of the coach? If it says anything other than "furnace," then that unit zone will not heat the basement area. If it says "furnace" and you don't have two furnaces, the rear unit zone will also turn on the furnace, the same one controlled by the front unit, which will heat the basement. However, I've not seen any set up where a single furnace is controlled by both zone selections (doesn't mean that set up doesn't exist though.)

-BigRed- · 11-26-2019, 10:23 PM

It does have two furnaces Both zone 1 and zone 2, Can see both from the outside too. Also has two heat pumps, no mention of heat strip on the thermostat though.

Just curious if anybody know which furnace is ducted into the wet bay, unless its both which would be great..