Furnace fun

[austinado16]

Okay, here's how stupid I am:-()

My really cool 1980's thermostat failed last fall, so I bought one of the white Atwoods and installed it.  Buttoned up the camper and put it away for the winter.

Just pulled it out today to prep for a trip this weekend, and the front was off the furnace, reminding me that I hadn't fully finished the job or tested the operation.  

So I drop in the battery, move the on/off switch on the t-stat to "on" and the furnace blower comes on.  Comes on and stays on, and runs non-stop.  Not only, but the t-stat tempurature setting lever works in reverse.  In otherwords, it's turning off the burner flame with the temp set for a high room temp, and turning the flame on with a low room temp set.

Close inspection of the t-stat showed that the lever that's supposed to be set on the little "reostat" type wire (I don't know what it's called or what it does) was off the wire and pushed onto a metal contact.  Fixed that and cured the "blower fan on all the time" problem.  

But still, the backwards t-stat was killing me....that is until I pulled out the installation:book: and discovered I had mounted the t-stat upside down and then put the cover on right side up.  Real nice work:mad:

[JohnandLeann]

Well Todd,
Better to find out at home than up in the mountains, freezing to pieces.

[austinado16]

We would have been okay because I've got that Wave 6 Catalytic Heater.  But I sort of hate having stuff not working, so I decided to dig in.

There have been a few surprises this set up.
1) The furnace t-stat issue
2) The tire size issue (see my seperate thread in the General forum)
3) The propane regulator failed and because I left the tank "on" it emptied the tank of propane.

The good news though, is that the Super Bright LED's that I installed in my ceiling and porch lights are outstanding.  This will be our first trip with them, and I had just a pair fired up while I was working on the furnace tonight.  The were plenty bright for reading the furnace manual, t-stat instruction page, and looking at the guts of the t-stat.

[JohnandLeann]

Yah I read your post on the tire size issue.

Have a good time this weekend.

[austinado16]

Yah I read your post on the tire size issue.

Was just reading about Duro's and sizes.  I think the funny sized ones might be mis-marked and that they are really 4.80x12, which would give them 20.5" diameter. That's about what they are.

Have a good time this weekend.

Thanks, we're really looking forward to it.

[austinado16]

A little update after the trip:
The furnace burner wouldn't always light, eventhough the pilot was on, and there was plenty of battery voltage.  Assumed it was a bad sail switch because I could reach in and trip it by hand and the burner would fire up.

Pulled the furnace out today and discovered the bracket that the sail switch mounts to was bent slightly downward and keeping the sail/lever on the switch from moving freely.  Bent it back to horizontal and all seems to be working correctly now.

[PattieAM]

Doesn't it feel good to be smarter than the average bear (Yogi)!  Glad you've fixed your furnace issues.  Happy Camping!

[austinado16]

Well, I enjoy doing my own work, so little brain teasers are kinda fun.