Thor Challenger Owners Unite!

[tkleist]

We have a 2010 damon challenger 38' and interested to see if anyone has a similar experience. While driving a lot of cold air comes into only the drivers side foot area. Have tried adjusting all of the different vent options with no luck.
Would like to ask if anyone has this issue and corrected it what you did.
Congrats on the new coach!! We love ours
We just turned full timers this summer and so far so good.

Bill Leist

[ctpres]

Originally Posted by tkleist

We have a 2010 damon challenger 38' and interested to see if anyone has a similar experience. While driving a lot of cold air comes into only the drivers side foot area. Have tried adjusting all of the different vent options with no luck.
Would like to ask if anyone has this issue and corrected it what you did.
Congrats on the new coach!! We love ours
We just turned full timers this summer and so far so good.

Bill Leist

Try recirculate position on dash air controls.

[sbleiweiss]

We had the cold air under the driver side on a brand new from the factory '13 Challenger (since traded). Thor filled the openings that shouldn't have been there in the first place with expandable foam and problem solved. Has this been happening as long as you have owned the MH?

[fluffybunny]

With this cold weather I haven't figured out one thing, does the propane furnace send heat directly to the wet bay? I know it doesn't to my front grey tank the valve froze up the other day. Every night it has been below freezing I have had a small space heater in the wet bay and have had no problems. Now I am putting a 2nd space heater in the front grey bay. I am going to be wallydocking while traveling over the next couple of days and concerned about freezing up since we wont have the small space haters, but would feel more comfortable knowing if there is for sure venting into the wet bay.

Thanks for your help and info.

[sbleiweiss]

Originally Posted by fluffybunny

With this cold weather I haven't figured out one thing, does the propane furnace send heat directly to the wet bay? I know it doesn't to my front grey tank the valve froze up the other day. Every night it has been below freezing I have had a small space heater in the wet bay and have had no problems. Now I am putting a 2nd space heater in the front grey bay. I am going to be wallydocking while traveling over the next couple of days and concerned about freezing up since we wont have the small space haters, but would feel more comfortable knowing if there is for sure venting into the wet bay.

Thanks for your help and info.

I believe the Challengers do put furnace heat into the wetbay, but haven't personally confirmed it. I would say if you are going to be in below freezing temps just camp with electric instead of the wally docking. And maybe keep the front grey tank empty during the cold nights.

[Glenn2]

Originally Posted by fluffybunny

With this cold weather I haven't figured out one thing, does the propane furnace send heat directly to the wet bay? I know it doesn't to my front grey tank the valve froze up the other day. Every night it has been below freezing I have had a small space heater in the wet bay and have had no problems. Now I am putting a 2nd space heater in the front grey bay. I am going to be wallydocking while traveling over the next couple of days and concerned about freezing up since we wont have the small space haters, but would feel more comfortable knowing if there is for sure venting into the wet bay.

Thanks for your help and info.

My 2017 Challenger 37YT wet bay does not get any heat from the furnace. Called Thor Tech Support and there should be two ducts in to the wet bay area.
I am using a ceramic heater and a thermocube until I can figure out how to see ducting into the wet bays. Thor said there are probably 2" duct holes.

[RV Pirate]

I was told during our PDI that our 37 LX has heat ducts in the wet bays. Of course this comes from the same person who told me that we don't have autogen start ( which we do) and that the outside speakers won't play with the outside TV ( which they will), so I'd suggest putting a little digital thermometer in the bays, run the heat for a while and see if the temp changes. Amazing how these dealers sell a product that they have little to no experience with...

[BradnKaren]

Originally Posted by RV Pirate

I was told during our PDI that our 37 LX has heat ducts in the wet bays. Of course this comes from the same person who told me that we don't have autogen start ( which we do) and that the outside speakers won't play with the outside TV ( which they will), so I'd suggest putting a little digital thermometer in the bays, run the heat for a while and see if the temp changes. Amazing how these dealers sell a product that they have little to no experience with...

Our furnace has been running in our 37LX all night. I just checked all the bays and all are cold. If there's ducts in there I'll be shocked. Sending hubby out there to look for them later when it warms up a bit. Let me know if you find some in your 37LX and where, please? Our warranty expired yesterday.

On another topic, how does the outside TV play through the outside speakers? Ours does not that we can see. Only the bedroom radio plays through those speakers.

If I remember correctly, your 2017 37LX was produced after ours and has a few more bells and whistles than we do.

[BradnKaren]

Originally Posted by Glenn2

My 2017 Challenger 37YT wet bay does not get any heat from the furnace. Called Thor Tech Support and there should be two ducts in to the wet bay area.
I am using a ceramic heater and a thermocube until I can figure out how to see ducting into the wet bays. Thor said there are probably 2" duct holes.

I looked and could not find a single duct anywhere in any of the basement compartments of our 37LX. No heat elements on the tanks either. I kept the window sticker and it specifically states "Heated/Enclosed Holding tanks". We will be contacting Thor warranty or no warranty.

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Originally Posted by BradnKaren

I looked and could not find a single duct anywhere in any of the basement compartments of our 37LX. No heat elements on the tanks either. I kept the window sticker and it specifically states "Heated/Enclosed Holding tanks". We will be contacting Thor warranty or no warranty.

Might the window sticker be referring to heating pads under the tanks instead of headed lower bays? Heat pads are designed to prevent the tanks themselves from freezing, but may not do anything to prevent drain lines, water filters (if equipped) etc from freezing.

[fluffybunny]

well, I didn't ever find any actual vents in my 37KT but I do have a remote themomoter in the bay, and it never went below freezing the other night. It stayed in the 40 degree range all the time that I saw it, and that was with the propane heat on.

[sbleiweiss]

Originally Posted by fluffybunny

well, I didn't ever find any actual vents in my 37KT but I do have a remote themomoter in the bay, and it never went below freezing the other night. It stayed in the 40 degree range all the time that I saw it, and that was with the propane heat on.

Then I bet you have the ducts but just can't see them. Otherwise, why would it have stayed warm?

[BradnKaren]

Well, we're about to go below freezing temps again tonight here in FL. We still have not found any heat ducts/vents in any basement areas. An email to Thor asking where to find them was returned with the response that yes we should have them. I know that already. I need to know where to find them. I don't believe we have any as no heat has been detected in any of the bays. Can someone with a 37LX post a picture or pictures of theirs, please?? Thanks for the help!

[fluffybunny]

Originally Posted by sbleiweiss

Then I bet you have the ducts but just can't see them. Otherwise, why would it have stayed warm?

yep I agree 100% they have to be there somewhere, as long as they stay warm enough I don't really need to see them.


On another note I looked at the 2018 challengers here at the tampa RV show and saw a few changes.(I have a 2017)

1. Multiplex wiring and digital central control panel. This was very nice you could control pretty much anything from that main central panel, the nicest part was the AC and heat controls for both units were in one place. Now that said I prefer the older style control center and switches in the rooms, the one switch does one thing, I don't have to read it to figure out what does what. Its also somewhat handy man repairable. If something goes wrong with the other panels I imagine its replacing the whole panel. Replacing just a switch is a lot easier and cheaper.
2. all of the vent covers seemed to be automatic or at least controlled from the multiplex wiring to open the covers. My wife is short and can't reach the knobs for the vents. We will be installing the upgrade parts for the fantastic fan soon so we can get that feature. I already added a remote power switch for the bathroom vent so if we leave it open its fine.
3. Induction cooktop, very nice.
4. all of the 2018 thors that we saw had a new microwave that looks smaller than our whirpool microwave, which I didn't like at all. It was also a brand I didn't recognize.
5. Bigger axxera stereo screen, looked to be nice but didn't get to play with it at all. But if its the same quality stereo probably not good.
6. All of the TVs seemed to be axxera, we have Seiki in ours and happy with them. We haven't had any trouble with park cable or OTA on any of the TVs.
7. night shade switch was moved to the right of the steering wheel. That is SOOO NICE. We adjust our night shade multiple times a day and having to reach over to the other side of the steering wheel sucks. I will be moving it to the other side of the dash when I get a chance, I think I saw someone in this thread that did that and it seemed pretty simple.
8. There was a 3 bar towel rod on the back of the bathroom doors. I like that idea a lot, works better than the command hooks in the bathroom like we have done.
9. Fit and finish on the show units seemed to be the same. Same wood same everything else.

Overall seems to be a nice upgrade.

I will say we have looked at a lot of different RVs while we have been here and honestly we havent had any coach envy, sure we have had some that we liked certain features, but our 37KT floor plan just works amazing for us. We have seen some things that we are going to change and getting ideas on other things, but we love our challenger and not planning on getting rid of it anytime soon.