Did you ever yank a furnace?

[Radio]

Looks like the controller board in our Suburban furnace (Rockwood 5th wheel) has a problem. In order for the furnace to come on, you have to cycle the switch on the side of the unit. It will not operate by just setting the thermostat controls.

Anybody ever pull the furnace/and or controller board out of the trailer?

:fire:

[W5DOK]

I replaced one of my controller boards last winter. I didn't have to take the furnace out to get to it. I think it had the little plastic stand off mounts that you have to compress to unlatch. Don't remember it being too difficult. Couple of months ago, I had to replace the electric element in my hot water heater and it had to come out. A real PITA. Next time I'll remember to turn the hw heater off when I drain it. The thermal shut off, shuts off after the element burns up. I think the furnace mounts like the hw heater. Dozens of screws and a gas line to disconnect.
Good luck.

[Radio]

Well, I went out to the trailer and stuck my head up under the counter and had a look. A dealer worked on the furnace once, and there are wire nuts he installed when the furnace was removed. He had to cut/disconnect wiring to get it out.

Some of the wire nuts were loose. I'm going to replace them with a good crimped on solution. After tinkering around I thought I'd give it a try.

I'll have to wait until it's cooler. It's hard to get the thermostat to kick in when it's 95 deg in the trailer. :hot:

[W9WLS]

Try a smaller size Wire nut , at least until you know you have to pull the furnace .

[KE5ZRT]

I got tired of trying to repair my 1987 suburban furnace in our class a motorhome. I removed it entirely and made room for more storage space. We installed a vent free furnace that performs much more efficiently. There are many models available. Last winter during sub 0 temperatures we never had to turn the furnace up above the low setting.

[NN5I]

I've replaced the controller boards in Atwood and Suburban furnaces and water heaters. It's very easy and I never had to remove the W/H or furnace. I recommend the Dinosaur Electronics replacement boards, which have worked well for me. They're available on eBay and other places, usually much less expensive than the originals from Atwood or Suburban. On the Dinosaur web site, if I remember, there's a big chart that tells you which of their boards fits which W/H or furnace.

All of this assumes that your furnace has direct spark ignition. If it's got a pilot light instead, I have no idea whether Dinosaur makes replacement controller boards.

Me, now, I'm going to have to pull the furnace out of my m/h soon, because the blower motor bearings are totally worn out and I'll have to replace at least the bearings and probably the whole darned thing.

[wa8yxm]

No need to yank the furnace..

Step one, check the T-stat, do this by manually connecting the furnace control leads (Just 2 wires in most cases) if it works properly it's the stat NOT the furnace.

On my Attwood (I am assuming Surburan is similar) to replace the control board all I had to "yank" was the outside cover, then I loosened one wing nut, removed the board and it's backer, disconnected some wires, Got a DINOSAUR board from American RV parts and slipped it in place.. The Dino board I got replaces several Attwood boards as well as several Suburban boards depending on the position of a single jumper (Computer configuration type jumper) on the board. NOTE there are 2 or 3 different "universal" boards and I'm not sure which one you use.

I will say the following about the Dino board.

Though I never worked in the field, I am a certified electronics technician, I have designed and built some of my own hardware for Ham Radio and the like. The "Look and feel" of the dino board was first rate.. (the OEM, not so much) Looked to be very well built. Second.. I have a theory as to what killed my OEM board (I won't go into it here) and though I can not prove the theory. It appears the folks at Dinosaur boards share my theory. as there is a protection device on the board that did not exist on the OEM.. and from it's nature and position I suspect it is there to prevent just exactly what I think happened to my OEM board.

That said, the DIno board was dropped in in Jan, so it will be a few years before I can say for sure it's better... But what I said above applies.. It sure gave me a warm feeling, in more ways than degrees F/C.

[KF5BET]

I replaced the control board in our fridge with a Dino Board. Quality was first rate and the tech service guy was awesome. I had a few questions when I was installing it and he walked me through the whole process without any complaints.

Can't go wrong with Dino

[wa8yxm]

As I said, I too replaced my OEM Attwood Furnace board with a Dino board.

OEM board 250 bucks, Dino, in my hand 108.

Plus installation of course, about 5 minutes start to finish, did it myself (Plug and play) About as hard as changing a light bulb.. IN fact, easier than some light bulbs.