Ductwork routing and outputs

[f6bits]

(question at end)

Today was my day to drop the coroplast and reroute my ductwork. Originally, both floor vents had no airflow, but the vent on the furnace panel worked great. A while back, I dropped the back half of my coroplast just to get the rear duct by my bunks working, and that helped. My bedroom vent still had no flow.

I was able to drop most of the coroplast, but chose not to open it up where my propane pipe is since the other side was free to drop. The rear coloplast went full down draped over the axles, and my front coroplast bowed low enough on the street side to do what I needed to do with the help of one of those two-fingered trash picker-uppers.

I removed a total of 15’ of small ducting because my rear duct wound all over the place, and my front duct wound around and didn’t take a straight path to my front vent. Aside from my holding tanks at the far back of the trailer, there’s *nothing* in the belly, aside from some PEX tubing and wiring.

I discovered that my furnace has three outputs: a four-inch to the vent at the furnace, a four-inch that splits into two ducts (bedroom and bunk ends), and a 2.5” that vents straight into the underbelly.

Is the underbelly duct/vent necessary? I really doubt there’s enough heat blasting out of that duct to do any good against the cold air on the coroplast and seeping into the cracks. It’s pointing near my holding tanks, but it sure looks ineffective to me.

[geo]

Oh, Scott! Scott! Call on me! Call on me!

Now that comedy bit is over ... Scott, welcome to The Royal Order Of UnderBelly Crawlers! If you have read any of my posts, you know I've probably spent more time under my Alpine than in it since the beginning of October!

Which do you have? The Polar Tank Package? The Glacier Tank Package? Or some other cold sounding name? Did you see a thin white sheet of R-7 fiberglass insulation under your tanks? That measely piece of insulation and that aluminium heat duct are the cold weather package. If it is cold, and if you run the furnace, you can probably cold camp down to around 25F (-4C) if the days warm up! So, the quick answer is! No, it's really not effective. Marketing? Yes. Disappointing? Very.

If you are thinking about really doing some cold camping, I would like to suggest looking at installing tank heaters and wrapping the tank area with unfaced fiberglass insulation. You can see some of my pictures on my posts. One of our members, Wolfwalker, is a distributor for UltraHeat. You could PM him. Or look at the UltraHeat website.

If you are cold camping and do add tank heaters, then you could put one of the rear ducts in place of the aluminum duct that goes to the tanks. Pipe more heat to the interior.

Now! Think we could get Festus2, with his connections with the Commonwealth, to set us up as The Royal Order Of UnderBelly Crawlers? I think we could probably add Alaskalife and Travelbugger as members too! Hmmm, who else?

Ron

[SAD]

You guys are making me wonder. My avalanche has some cold sounding name on the door. Wonder what I might find if I pulled it back? lol.

[f6bits]

geo, I’ve seen your underbelly obsession, and it’s worrisome. If I had an Alpine, I’d learn how to enjoy the inside of it.

I have no type of cold-weather package. It’s a Passport, and I don’t even think that’s an option. There is *no* insulation in the belly. Just the thin coroplast. The tanks are bare plastic. And this is why I wonder what the point is of running a heating pipe into the underbelly. For now, I’ve blocked that outlet on my furnace in the hope that it’ll pump more warm air to the sleeping ends of my trailer.

[geo]

SAD - As one Okie to another, what you would find is the same thing I found.

Sdayman - Yup, that's me! OCD to the max. Anyway, I would guess the furnace is vented back there to not necessarily warm the tanks but to warm the air to carry out more of the condensation. When you loosened the coroplast, did you get a cup or two of water rolling out? What you could do is rig a bilge fan like I did to force air into the duct you plugged. It wasn't that expensive, only about $50. It would help move the air in the underbelly to reduce water vapor condensation. That was my first attempt at a "warm air circulation". You could utilize the plugged furnace vent for heating the interior and the fan to force air into the underbelly to reduce condensation.

Now as far as my obsession, well you are correct. However, I'm only left with installing a Sirius antenna and WiFi Ranger Booster and the wires through the rear underbelly, tighten a couple of hydralic fittings and clean up some ATF, throw some unfaced fiberglass around, and I will be "out of there"! With my estimates, I believe we could easily handle temps to -20F, so that would easily mean skiing in Wolf Creek and camping at Pagosa Springs! I do believe the "learning to enjoy the inside" will be coming in the next few months, and in a couple of years (two years, eight months, xx days - but who is counting?) it will be full-timing in the Alpine! Yes, I'm counting on the underbelly on paying me back!

Ron

[f6bits]

I did get some water from the rear area when I dropped the coroplast. I figured it was from the rain. The front end was mostly dry.

I hadn’t heard of a bilge fan before. I’ll keep that in mind as a way to circulate underbelly air without tapping into the furnace.

[SAD]

Originally Posted by geo

SAD - As one Okie to another, what you would find is the same thing I found.

Feel free to stop by next time you're up near Bartlesville. Just don't try and take any pictures while you're over at the research center. BTW, you should see what we're doing to the data center.

At the house I'll give you a tour of the shop and you can plug in to the 50 amp while we tear into the bottom of my camper.

[SAD]

Originally Posted by geo

SAD - As one Okie to another, what you would find is the same thing I found. ..

Forgot to mention... You're an Okie living in TX.... I'm a Texan living in Oklahoma. lol

[geo]

Sdayman -

Bilge fan are used on inboard/outboard boats to remove gas fumes from the bilge before starting the engine. Bulge fans are 12 VDC and usually cost around $20 - $25. They are loud, so I put some short ducts on it, stuck it in a shoe box with holes cut for the ducts and lead wires attached. Then I foamed everything! I used some rubber vibration isolation to mount it. The aluminum ducts or dryer ducts work fine to send the air where you want. I posted with pictures my first set up in mods about a year and half ago. Hey, if you were any closer than SoCal, I would give you my first set-up.

Ron