Furnace problem

[WyoJim]

Furnace quit on a trip home from Portland OR..... It lites and burns for a few seconds and then clicks off. It repeats this a couple of more times and then shuts down until I turn it off and then turn it back on.



Pierce RV in Billings MT said to plug it into 110 volts to see if it was the battery voltage being down... . that didn't help.



They said if that didn't fix it to change the propane regulator and that would probably cure the problem. I haven't got to do that yet because we are having a winter storm.



Maybe someone will have some comments that will help..... Thanks

 

[Oasis-3]

Look 4 spiders

My furnace did the same thing and I found a spider nest in front of the gas nozzle.



Good Luck

Cliff

 

[CPittman]

I hate to even mention this, but you do have propane in the tanks?



Mine would cycle the fan but never kick off the burner. I bought a new circuit board from this fella http://www.rg-electrospec.com/ and haven't had any problems since. My Suburban furnace was a 1998 year-model though.

 

[BSmalley]

I'll second the spider web theory. I've had that happen several times to mine and my in-laws campers over the years. All I've ever had to do was open the access panel outside and blow out the gas pipe after opening the venturi all the way. Good luck.

 

[JFaughn]

There are half a dozen or so things that could do this , so the best is to take to an RV repair to find problem .
How do you know that its lighting ? Some have a little window to see if the flame is on .
There is a curcuit board that if a few things are not as they should be the unit will not work , as an example , there is a flaper in the exhaust that if the sensor does not see it open it will not open the electric gas valves [ a hornets nest in there can keep the flaper from moving ] I always put metal screen under the outside crome cover .
If it does require a new curcuit board , get the after market board [ dynosor or something like that nome ] , it will spark 3 times trying to light the furnace .

 

[HighRanger]

There should also be a flame sensor that detects the flame. Will look like just a metal rod in the path of the flame. If that is dirty it doesen't recognize that there is a flame even though it is lit. Pull and gently clean with a piece of steel wool and reinstall. Might be the only problem. We see this alot with gas furnaces in residential houses. Ten minute fix and your on your way.

 

[DavidC]

While hooked up to city water at a campground mine would act just like yours. It turned out that the city water connection was leaking on the inside (an engineering miracle to have a water fitting above the furnace) and the board was wet. After it dried out all was well.



Dave

 

[WyoJim]

Thanks you guys for your comments... . I might get to work on the problem a little while tomorrow and now I have some places to start.

 

[Slow Six]

I had a similar problem 2 years ago. It was the regulator by the tanks. When I had the problem the burners on the stove would light but burned quite low. When I had all three going you could barely see any flame thus indicating a lack of gas. What is the age and make of furnace?

 

[duckcarvr]

mine would run awile and then shut off. while it did run it put out very little heat. it was the cumbustion chamber. it is a flat funnel shaped thing. it has a lot of holes in it, like a sieve. if these holes are cloged [ mine by rust ] it will not stay lite. the repair person said it was very common from sitting. robert

 

[LandShark]

I've had similar problems in past years. Usually when first using the camper for the first time in the season. It has always been an electrical contact problem. Pull apart and reinsert all spade connectors. Be sure they are tight.

 

[WyoJim]

I finally took this problem to an RV dealer. I had tried every thing mentioned here except HighRanger's flame sensor suggestion which I figured was too deep for me to tackle.



This ended up being the problem. Soot. the man said it was probably caused by oil in the propane. He said I should have the propane tanks purged when I get them filled. He is probably right because the furnace quit working when the tank was pretty near empty. That tank ran out of propane the next morning while we were frying breakfast.



38 years I have been using truck campers and this is the first I have heard about purging the oil out of the bottom of the propane tank. But then it was only a couple of years ago that I learned that propane valves have to be either all the way open or all the way shut. After that revelation I quit smelling propane when I walked past the propane compartment... . Duh!!!

 

[TowPro]

I had a camper from the early 90's. I used to wake up in the middle of the night with the heater fan running, but no heat. I discovered that when you first have a demand for heat, the blower turns on, then the gas is allowed through and let. If the gas does not light, the blower will turn on but the gas valve will get turned off.

My dealer put a new electronic board in from dinosaur electronics
It can be set to try to light the gas 3 times before it turns off the gas and leaves the blower running. solved the problem.

 

[cwsoules]

Our problem was the solenoid operated gas cut off valve. It would not open fully, it let enough gas in to run the refrigerator or stove but not the furnace. I replaced it and the problem went away.

 

[rweis]

I had a problem getting refers to start reliably. I redid all the grounds, dielectric greased all connections, and GROUNDED the gas tube with a small hose clamp to ground, also made a common ground (some of the grounds went through connectors, I wired them straight to ground bypassing the connector). The igniter that sparks to the gas tube depends on a good ground to get a good spark.



I have a ignition problem with the furnace as well, but I am going to do the same grounding thing I did with the refers before I start changing parts.



Bob Weis

 

[happenin-dad]

As the other posts said, check the spider web possiblity. A bad regulator was the culprit on our brand new travel trailer. That was after the dealership removed the entire heat system and replaced the wall thermostat. A new service manager with the right experience diagnosed the regualator issue over the phone.