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Originally Posted by Tooth Ferry
2014 Montana High Country 305 RL. We don't use the furnace often as we can usually get by with the fireplace and a space heater when on electric hook-up but we just spent a week in GSMNP with no hook-ups and temps in lower 30s at night. There is a 4 or 5" opening in the bath floor behind the toilet that does not have a duct attached to it but must be right in the furnace heat chamber area as it blows very hot air and probably blows out at least 75% if not more of the total furnace output. It is very uncomfortable to be in the bathroom over a minute or two with the door shut if the furnace is on. I tried placing a book over the vent and in a couple of minutes the furnace shut off and the book felt like it was close to catching on fire. Has anyone modified any thing in this area to get more of this super hot air distributed to the living room or bed room? I don't know if there is a sensor that shut the furnace down when I tried covering this vent,don't want to cause a fire. Is this supposed to be attached to a duct or vented into basement?
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If you poke around here, you'll find several threads where folks have modified or repaired the ducting and distribution system of their furnace.
If you're getting 75% of the total output into the bathroom, it's pretty certain that there is a blockage or disconnected duct somewhere. If it's at the furnace, the fix is pretty easy. First, get to Home Depot or Lowes (or similar) and pick yourself up a roll of the
silver foil HVAC tape (NOT duct tape!) It is designed to withstand the heat of your furnace and can safely be applied to the body of the furnace where the ducts connect.
If the furnace is directly below the bathroom, then it's highly likely that it is right behind the rear wall of the basement area. That wall is usually held in place with just a few screws. Remove them, and the whole thing comes out. On my Cougar, it's just a piece of 1/4" masonite. Once you've accessed the furnace, any loose or crushed ducting in that area should be pretty obvious and is easily repaired. On most Keystones, the flexible ducting is just 4" diameter foil flex hose which is exactly the same stuff that is used for home clothes dryer installations. Keystone generally uses too much of this ducting so you may find long sections of it where there should just be a short one. As several others have reported, chopping out some of the excess flex hose improves air flow.
My Cougar has a long, straight hard duct running from the middle to the rear of trailer with floor vents every 6 feet or so. That can be easily clogged so removing the vents and cleaning out that duct is a good idea. Others have reported finding all kinds of objects in there that do not belong. Most were odd pieces of material from the construction of the trailer. You can also tape up any leaks you find in there.
When I first accessed my furnace, I found several loose connections of the duct hose to the furnace plenum (air distribution box.) There was a lot of warm air escaping into the space around the furnace. Air distribution systems lose pressure when there are leaks. Fixing the leaks restores needed air pressure so that warm air is distributed out to the far reaches of the system. Using the HVAC tape, I fixed those. The plenum has a number of 4" knock-out holes in it so that any number of ducts can be attached to it. Unused holes are either not knocked out or a cover is screwed in place. A loose, missing, or partially bent cover leaks a lot of air. All of these problems are easily fixed with the HVAC tape and maybe a screwdriver.
One other point, before you apply any tape, make sure the surfaces are clean and dry. If there is dust, dirt, grease, etc. where you want to apply the tape, it won't stick well. Also, the tape tears easily so don't be afraid to apply more than one layer. It is incredibly sticky, too. If you don't put it down quite right, leave it and apply another layer.