Heat Runs

[Lloyd]

I was just out in the camper looking at the furnace compartment and heat run.
I taped off the furnace to stop some of the leaks. Can't get to the bottom without opening the membrane. By the looks of it that's where the heat run is tapped into. Hopefully they secured that cause I don't feel like opening it up at this time.
Now, I think Keith (Hunter11) was talking about sealing up the heat run in the back of the unit on his. I just checked mine and it looks like there is no end in it. It must be blowing right into the belly area.
Keith, did you seal yours up at the last out let?

[Hunter11]

Lloyd, our unit does have two ends on it. Ours has the ducts connected to the bottom of the unit. The biggest heat loss on ours was the blanks for more ducts were loose and one was laying on the floor when I opened the access door to the heater. After re-installing that one and taping them all up it increased the air flow. I would bet the heat duct system is not much better than the AC system if you could get to it easily. One of our AC ducts did not have an end on it and was blowing cold air into the area between the ceiling and roof.

[Lloyd]

Thanks,Keith.
Mine has an end in it now! Stuffed it with fiberglass, then foamed it. We have the rear kitchen. Now the wife is worried the pipes will freeze.

[rcflyer]

I have a 2010 Cruiser 26RK 5th wheel. I opened my belly and found a hole in the heat duct between the fresh water tank and the galley tank. This opening was at least 1 foot square. Not only that but the metal was pushed up into the duck thus bloking flow to the rear of the trailer. Remove your vents and use a mirror and flashlight. You may find something similiar. After fixing this my trailer heats up in much less time than it did before.

[ryeja]

Originally Posted by rcflyer

I have a 2010 Cruiser 26RK 5th wheel. I opened my belly and found a hole in the heat duct between the fresh water tank and the galley tank. This opening was at least 1 foot square. Not only that but the metal was pushed up into the duck thus bloking flow to the rear of the trailer. Remove your vents and use a mirror and flashlight. You may find something similiar. After fixing this my trailer heats up in much less time than it did before.

Is that part of the process of keeping heat on the tanks? If so it sounds like a cheep way of doing it or a very careless quality control effort.

[Lloyd]

rcflyer:
I will do that tomorrow morning when I go out there. Thanks for the tip.

[Hunter11]

A hole that big in the duct work dumping into the underbelly is not going to leave much warm air for the trailer.

[Dayle1]

Originally Posted by rcflyer

I have a 2010 Cruiser 26RK 5th wheel.Â* I opened my belly and found a hole in the heat duct between the fresh water tank and the galley tank.Â* This opening was at least 1 foot square.Â* Not only that but the metal was pushed up into the duck thus bloking flow to the rear of the trailer.Â* Remove your vents and use a mirror and flashlight.Â* You may find something similiar.Â* After fixing this my trailer heats up in much less time than it did before.

On mine, it was just a 1 inch diameter hole near the middle of the trailer. Since the fresh water tank is at the back, that wouldn't protect it from freezing, so I sealed it up. Besides, I almost never use the furnace anyway, using oil-filled electric radiators instead. In Jan. when we were camped, temp dropped to 14 degrees and was below freezing for several days and we had no freezing problems with the tank or water lines in the fiver. Besides this "air duct", the underbelly is heated thru radiant heat from the furnace (if you use it), there is no insulation between the bottom of the furnace duct and the underbelly, just the Darco fabric that seperates the floor joists from the I-beams, so as the duct heats up, it radiates some heat into the basement.