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Old 04-25-2015, 09:50 AM   #1
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Model: Challenger 37GT
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THOR #1032
Challenger GT furnace

I am trying to figure out the furnace on our coach. Where are the registers for the heat in the front area. In the bathroom and bedroom, it gets very warm. But in the front, I can't find heat coming out of any vents. The one on the floor by the drivers seat I only feel cool air so I was thinking this may be the cool air return. There are multiple ceiling vents but nothing comes out of them and I don't recall right now that cool air comes from them for the AC and I don't think it should then.

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Old 04-25-2015, 11:01 AM   #2
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THOR #1469
The heat comes through the floor registers and AC through the ceiling. I noticed on my ND that at least one of the floor registers (in the bedroom) had a piece of the foil backed insulation blocking the airflow coming out of the register when running the heat. You may also want to check in the storage compartments and make sure a heater duct did not pop loose. This reminds me that I need to go through and check all of the registers before my next trip out.

As a note, I believe the airflow through the registers is not what I would expect. This is for both the heat and AC and is throughout the coach except for the vents at the AC air returns. Not sure if my expectations are high or if something is amiss. I will add however, that the furnace does warm the coach and the AC units cools as well. Both of the systems were run more than once during my shakedown.

If I'm not mistaken the GT is the 37 footer that does not have the fireplace, so the furnace would be your major source of heat.
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Old 04-25-2015, 09:13 PM   #3
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THOR #1032
I don't remember AC coming from the ceiling vents. I will have to check again. We will probably run it now as we are in Georgia now. I will have to check the one floor register upfront. It looks like there could be foil there. I will look at the bay's too.
And no it does not have the fireplace. AC does appear to work great the one day I looked at it.

As an aside, I found out today in the rain that Safford did NOT fix the wiper with a new part. It appears like they just tightened it more. I even left them the part.
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Old 04-25-2015, 10:32 PM   #4
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THOR #1469
I had a few rainy days during my shake down and had no issues with the wipers.

Nice to know about Safford. Reines is opening a location in Ashland so I may drive up there and talk to them about their service department. Them and McGeorge (Thor TT and 5ver dealer) are about 45 miles closer than Safford.
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Old 04-25-2015, 11:13 PM   #5
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THOR #1032
We bought our first RV from Reines in Manassas. Salesman was great but even he said their service wasn't great. We didn't need any service in it since we only had it for 6 months. (Long story)
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Old 04-27-2015, 01:28 PM   #6
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THOR #1469
Quote:
Originally Posted by wanewton View Post
I don't remember AC coming from the ceiling vents. I will have to check again. We will probably run it now as we are in Georgia now. I will have to check the one floor register upfront. It looks like there could be foil there. I will look at the bay's too.
And no it does not have the fireplace. AC does appear to work great the one day I looked at it.

As an aside, I found out today in the rain that Safford did NOT fix the wiper with a new part. It appears like they just tightened it more. I even left them the part.
Willis,

Did you get the heat and AC figured out?
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Old 04-27-2015, 02:46 PM   #7
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Not yet. I have the AC pretty much figured out. I looked at the register you mentioned with the foil. I started to pull up the foil and there is something solid under it and sticky. I'm not sure what that is. I am going to look at it some more today including in the bay's since the wife is out visiting a friend and the niece is at work.
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Old 04-27-2015, 03:32 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wanewton View Post
Not yet. I have the AC pretty much figured out. I looked at the register you mentioned with the foil. I started to pull up the foil and there is something solid under it and sticky. I'm not sure what that is. I am going to look at it some more today including in the bay's since the wife is out visiting a friend and the niece is at work.
Generally if you have floor registers they build a C channel and staple it to the bottom of the floor and seal it with aluminum tape. Sometimes on the inside when they seal for the registers they goof it up and it hangs free. It is possible they may have damaged one of the ducts. If you have a small mirror, stick it down in the vent and shine a flashlight down the vent and see if you notice anything.
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Old 11-30-2015, 05:50 PM   #9
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THOR #2171
Most of our heat in this new Palazzo 36' goes to the large basement compartment. Has anyone tried partially blocking those vents?
Our front coach vent doesn't deliver much heat either, I'm going to try the mirror & flashlight suggestion now.
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Old 11-30-2015, 06:11 PM   #10
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THOR #1469
My bedroom vents were not delivering much heat earlier this year. During the summer I removed the access panel by my fireplace and inside that area was also the back of the furnace and the plenum where all the ducts connect. I noticed that one of the duct hoses was torn and that hose happened to run to the back of the coach. After using man's second best friend (duct tape) and then trying the furnace again I noticed a substantial increase in the air flowing out the bedroom register.
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Old 11-30-2015, 11:54 PM   #11
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Our furnace heats the bedroom and bathroom very well but not the front living room. We use our fireplace to add more heat if needed.

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Old 12-01-2015, 02:44 AM   #12
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THOR #1020
Changed out floor vent

We had the same sort of issue with the anemic heated air flow in the front of our coach.

Easy answer - we put vents with dampers to adjust air flow in our coach. I've attached a pic of them. Bought them online for about $13.50 each. They fit directly into the current cutouts for standard floor vents. Pulled out screws in originals and dropped the other in without screws. Very snug fit.

Still need to put a different vent into front bath - presently I've simply blocked it off - not a very elegant solution but it works.

Hope this helps. As you can tell from our signature we have a Challenger 37TB.

PS: we use a small personal size heater and fireplace heater to keep warm most nights.

(Note: AC in roof vents, Heat in floor vents)
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Old 12-04-2015, 03:16 AM   #13
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THOR #2538
We did like BigBen, and put adjustable vents in the bedroom and bath (round vent on wall). Helps to balance the heat in coach. Also found front vent was to deap in floor, replace with shalower vent and that also helped alot. We didn't put those nice vents like BB, just plain old registers like what was already installed. Best of luck...
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Old 12-04-2015, 06:24 PM   #14
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nmver - I wouldn't have put them either until I priced them AND DW really liked them. So DW happy and wallet VERY happy.
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Old 12-10-2015, 08:51 AM   #15
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THOR #1052
The likelyhood of my situation applying to you may be slim but I would suggest inspection of your furnace squirrel cage blower. On my last trip a few weeks ago I was reliant on heat because temps were in the low 40's. I noticed several times through the night that I could hear random squeeling noises and some clicking from the furnace and air output was low. I pulled the cover to the blower wheel when we returned home and this is what I found. The sail switch that detects airflow became detached and shredded 1/2 of the fan blade. I have a blower wheel sail switch and new cover as tabs were broken on it to replace before our christmas trip...kind of crazy, still works but very little airflow..in the second picture you are only seeing 1/2 of the full blower wheel in tact. The other half was completed shredded of it's blades
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Old 12-10-2015, 12:17 PM   #16
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THOR #2222
We have the same situation in our 37GT also. There are only two floor registers in the front area and they have very little air flow. Since the air is going to take the path of least resistance, due to the length the one by the cockpit delivers the least heat and flow. Even though the front does heat up, its just much slower then the bedroom and bathroom. Like a couple of other posts, I also replaced the two round vents with ones that have dampers. With them shut off about 50% there still isn't great flow to the front, but it helped some. We also leave the bedroom and bathroom doors open as much as we can. The coldest temp we've used it was in the mid 30's, but everything easily came up to about 72 and felt comfortable.
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Old 12-10-2015, 01:15 PM   #17
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THOR #1020
Yep we installed the vents with dampers and when it is way cold below 30 degrees we use the furnace or to simply warm the whole up in the morning. But I gotta say that the electric fireplace does great most times and just to be sure our grandkids are a kept toasty warm we bought a small Walmart space heater (cost about $10). The little heater stores easily in the basement.

Just our thought when we are connected to 50 amp service much cheaper than running our LP.
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Old 01-02-2016, 07:22 AM   #18
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THOR #625
Where did you get the round dampers for the bedroom and bathroom? Unfortunately, we have a 37GT and have the very same problem.....It's so hot in the bathroom and bedroom but the front of the coach is freezing. It's a terrible design flaw. We thought closing the dampers in the back would force more hot air to the living room.....We have to bring a small space heater to heat the front part of the coach.
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Old 01-02-2016, 04:54 PM   #19
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Bought it from Amazon. A little over $10. The walnut color matched what was installed from the factory.
[URL="http://www.amazon.com/RV-Designer-H805-Rotaire-Register/dp/B00CXBF2QQ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_263_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=41Q8H2U7Z4L&dpSr c=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1EX94E8 XA497EQPS7E0B"]
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