Bought my first pup! Now how to light the furnace?

[CheekyRunner]

Hello campers! I just bought a 1996 Starcraft Venture and have no clue on how to start the furnace. Could anyone help me out as to how to start it? I have been trying to find a owners manual for the furnace. It is an Atwood Mobile furnace, Serial No 0391754.

I added a picture of the furnace if that helps

 

[xxxapache]

Make sure battery is charged, or trailer is plugged in, turn on gas, flip switch on thermostat to "on", move temp selector to a temp higher than what it is in the trailer... The fan should come on and the furnace fire up.

 

[CheekyRunner]

xxx

Make sure battery is charged, or trailer is plugged in, turn on gas, flip switch on thermostat to "on", move temp selector to a temp higher than what it is in the trailer... The fan should come on and the furnace fire up.

Thank for the quick response! Ok so I did all of what you said. I'm not sure about the battery so I plugged the trailer into hydro and turned the thermostat to on and set the temp high and nothing happened. Do I need to light a pilot light? Does it take a while to come on? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[xxxapache]

You do not light a pilot light. The blower has to run. It blows a sail switch, aptly named because the air flow causes a sail to turn the switch on. That switch completes a circuit for the blower to run.

 

[f5moab]

I'll have to assume it works the same as a Suburban heater.
So, if the blower does not come on, it might be the thermostat. The furnace needs a signal from the thermostat to start the blower, which in turn will eventually close the sail switch to allow gas to flow.

If the blower comes on and there is no heat, it could be the sail switch, the module, or no propane flow.

Some troubleshooting info that might help...(for suburban but most likely the same info)
http://robertssales.com/articles_tutorials/the_heat_is_not_on.html

 

[BaysideJim]

The easiest way to test the Thermostat is to remove it and complete the circuit by touching the two wires. If it comes on your thermostat is bad. I would replace it with a digital one in any event. much better than the old lever types. Several threads here talk about doing this

 

[rbzbozzy]

Hello campers! I just bought a 1996 Starcraft Venture and have no clue on how to start the furnace. Could anyone help me out as to how to start it? I have been trying to find a owners manual for the furnace. It is an Atwood Mobile furnace, Serial No 0391754.

I added a picture of the furnace if that helps

Let me know what you find out as I have this Atwood furnace and I am having the same issue.

 

[MrBill12]

Hello campers! I just bought a 1996 Starcraft Venture and have no clue on how to start the furnace. Could anyone help me out as to how to start it? I have been trying to find a owners manual for the furnace. It is an Atwood Mobile furnace, Serial No 0391754.

I added a picture of the furnace if that helps

I just went on my first camping trip in 56 degree weather and had the same trouble. Then I noticed the little lever that sticks up on the top right hand corner of the thermostat.

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It was pushed to the far right, but it seemed VERY resistant to movement in any direction. I didn’t want to break it, but I kept pushing (to the left) and finally it snapped into the ON position...and the furnace magically lit up.

 

[roybraddy]

The first thing I always did before turning on the propane furnace was turn on one of the Stove Top burners. If this lights up good and is burning a good blue flame tells me I have propane connected and no air in the line coming from the propane tanks. I was never brave enough to head for the woods and not have already checked out something new to me sitting in my back yard where my POPUP trailer sets when not in use... In my case LOWES or WALMART would probably be a long distance away to go get that one thing I needed to make it work.

Roy Ken

 

[theseus]

I just went on my first camping trip in 56 degree weather and had the same trouble. Then I noticed the little lever that sticks up on the top right hand corner of the thermostat. It was pushed to the far right, but it seemed VERY resistant to movement in any direction. I didn’t want to break it, but I kept pushing (to the left) and finally it snapped into the ON position...and the furnace magically lit up.

I am not sure which brand of thermostat you might have. Commonly, most people have either a Suburban or Atwood thermostat in their camper. Depending on which brand of thermostat you have the on switch is in different locations.

Suburban thermostats have the on switch as part of the temperature selector on top. You have to push it past the off position then adjust the temp settings.

Atwood thermostats have a small on/off switch that is on the bottom of the thermostat. You have to move that to on, then you can set the temperature with the lever on top.

By the way it doesn't matter what type of furnace you have. Some manufactures (Palomino for example) have used Atwood furnaces with Suburban thermostats. They both work the exact same way.

 

[CheekyRunner]

Well I still haven't got the furnace running. I emailed Atwood and gave them my furnace number and they said it was a serial number to an awning and they couldn't help me. I asked why there would be a awning number on the furnace and got "it's not a number for the furnace'.

On a happier note I had a friend offer to walk me through how to get everything up and running on my pup! Now I just have to wait until he has some free time. Until then I think I will keep trying to figure it out. Any excuse to keep playing in the pup

 

[lquinn1]

-Check the switch on the front of the furnace to make sure it is on.
-Check the breaker / fuses for the 12v supply to the furnace.
-Use a multimeter to verify that you have power. Most furnaces will not start with low voltage.
-Most popup furnaces can be triggered by crossing the thermostat wires (therefor bypassing the thermostat to rule it out)

Let us know what happens!

 

[Karen the Clueless]

Well I still haven't got the furnace running. I emailed Atwood and gave them my furnace number and they said it was a serial number to an awning and they couldn't help me. I asked why there would be a awning number on the furnace and got "it's not a number for the furnace'.

On a happier note I had a friend offer to walk me through how to get everything up and running on my pup! Now I just have to wait until he has some free time. Until then I think I will keep trying to figure it out. Any excuse to keep playing in the pup

 

[Karen the Clueless]

Did you finally get it to work and if so what was the issue?

 

[Dback2k4]

Make sure the positive and negative aren't reversed on your battery. That will cause the furnace fan to run backwards and not open the sail switch. Lights, etc will work even if the battery is backwards. If you think you might have a bad battery you might not be getting enough juice. Test with a known good battery or disconnect completely and run on Shore Power to be sure.

 

[Spaceweaseal]

Those old school thermostats need to be cleaned . Pop the cover off and blow the lint and dust off of the coil in the thermometer.

 

[Spaceweaseal]

Another thing I found on mine was that the main gas regulator on the trailer was sticking. I changed that out with a new reg and blew out the main gas lines.
You will be surprised on the bugs and crud that gets in those lines. They are low pressure systems so you want those lines clean and in great shape.

 

[weaselguys]

You said you turned the thermostat up but you did not say you turned the thermostat on they do have a no/off switch on them on the top or bottom, you may have to lay on the floor if it is on the dinette seat and look at the bottom of the thermostat and it may be hard to move. I know this because when we bought our 93 Coleman we were told the sail switch was out on the furnace and they had never used it and they included a Coleman Blackcat heater with the trailer. We got the trailer home plugged it in and I found the on/off switch on the bottom of the thermostat turned it on and turned it up and the furnace came on and worked fine.