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Old 04-19-2010, 05:48 PM   #1
brulaz
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Default Elkmont furnace ducting

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I've added some new photos to the end of our Elkmont album showing changes made to the furnace ducting. The Suburban NT-20SE furnace is supposed to have a large rectangular main vent into the living area. There is one 4" round cut out that can additionally be used. For some reason, Trailmanor capped the end where the main vent is supposed to be and forced all heated air out the 4" vent on the side. They then forked this small duct to the living room and bathroom.

One of the first things we noticed about our Elkmont was that it wasn't heating the living area very well. So I added a regular household floor vent to the front of the furnace. There was some Al sheet metal screwed in and taped with Al duct tape around the front of the furnace so that the ~4"x9" vent fit well with no hot air loss. We could have used a larger vent but we wanted a balance between air going to the bathroom and the living area. A little testing indicated that a ~4"x9" was about right. All the 4" round corrugated ducting was replaced with smooth Al tubing and angles, insulated. The tee was removed so the furnace's 4" side port now only feeds the bathroom, and the original 4" round living room port is just ornamental.

And I put a 1/2" piece of plywood under the furnace and screwed it to the floor. Originally I thought the furnace had been screwed in, but it had just been jammed up tightly against the front partition.

There's a lot more hot air coming out into the living area now. The balance between the bathroom and living area is about right, but we can adjust the living area vent to force more air into the bathroom if wanted. And we can now see the flames in the inspection window and remove the 4x9 vent to have access to the burner.

The air circulation in the trailer was improved (I think) by increasing the return flow from the bedroom by replacing the small 4" round duct there with a much larger household return vent. But there's still big gaps under the setee through which hot air can return. I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe some baffles can be installed, but the setee does have to pull out so it can be made into a bed. We'll see.

That's about it for now. My ToDo list has shrunk to just a couple minor items. All the major stuff has been done ... hopefully. I'm really looking forward to taking this thing out on the road again. Our next big trip will be to the Gaspe Pennisula, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia early June. With maybe a couple of short trips before just to make sure things are working as they should.
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