Running Atwood furnace outside of camper

[Jamesiam]

Take one warm air blowing heater out of camper to evaluate smell, check and success; wasp nest.

Since I have new parts and heater out, why not replace limit, igniter and new motor. Sail switch was replaced already. Check

Put heater back in and no warm air! Furnace not igniting!

I will be pulling heater back out and going through all wiring schematics but was wondering if their is a way to run furnace on outside of camper? Taking heater in and out is half of the battle, attaching the heater to the gas line is the other half!

PS. If anyone is in the Reno area and is a whiz at heaters, I travel and have homebrew!

 

[Desert Rancher]

You can run it. Needs to have 12v connected, obviously. Jumper the T/stat wires.
I don't remember if gas pressure is needed for igniter to start.

You should be able to hear the igniter click when it tries to light. There is a bit of a time delay built in before the igniter kicks in.

Hopefully you kept the old parts just to swap back in if needed.

By chance, did you try the reset button?

 

[natjwest]

Make sure you wire it up positive to positive, negative to negative otherwise the fan will spin but never ignite.

 

[Jamesiam]

Desert Rancher I did keep old parts. I ran heater for over 5 minutes never heard the clicking, but am familiar with that sound; that's how it ran before I took it out! LOL. reset button is an on/off and is set to on but will try to turn on|off to maybe reset

Jump Thermostat wires = connect together? I will also pull out tank and hook up gas with regulator.

Natjwest, I will check the + to + and - to -

 

[DLN]

All you need is gas line adapter to propane tank, jumper cables for 12v, and jump stat wires for bench testing.

 

[Jamesiam]

Okay shes back in and running like a champ. It seems that Black is + and White is - at under bench battery. I thought I had read the opposite somewhere.

 

[Desert Rancher]

You figured this out at 2:00AM in the morning??

 

[pods8]

Okay shes back in and running like a champ. It seems that Black is + and White is - at under bench battery. I thought I had read the opposite somewhere.


Yeah Stan usually points that out because usually most people think of red(+) and black(-) in most systems, however FWC has historically used a black/white cable with the black on + (correction black goes to -, as stan points out in a couple posts, my error in memory) which could screw up someone unfamiliar.

 

[Jamesiam]

It seems that's when I do all my pondering, when I should be sleeping. I go to sleep and suddenly my brain wants to go into overdrive. Another reason I love to fish and camp, I get a chance to catch up on my well needed rest. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Jamesiam]

which could screw up someone unfamiliar.


Indeed, I just assumed black is ground

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

IMPORTANT !!!

I don't know what wires you have under your couch ?

But when you are dealing with 12v wiring, connecting up to a deep cycle battery under the couch, on a Four Wheel Pop-up Camper ...


WHITE WIRE IS + POSITIVE.

BLACK WIRE IS - NEGATIVE.



(on the newest FWC's we are using red & black wires under the couch to hook up to the battery. This is a bit easier for most customers to understand. Usually with 12v wires, red wires are positive, and black wires are negative).


If you bought the camper used and the owner before you screwed around with the wiring and changed stuff, then who knows what is going on.

But if there is a black wire and a white wire hooked up to a battery under the couch on a four wheel campers, more often than not, the WHITE WIRE WILL GO TO THE POSITIVE TERMINAL ON THE BATTERY + AND THE BLACK WIRE WILL GO TO THE NEGATIVE - POST ON THE BATTERY.


If you are dealing with 110/120v electricity, it will be TOTALLY different.


Hope this helps.


.


.

 

[Jamesiam]

Okay Stan, looks like I have some wiring to go through. I'm learning as I go so it's all good.

 

[pods8]

Okay Stan, looks like I have some wiring to go through. I'm learning as I go so it's all good.


Buying and learning how to use a $10 multimeter is a good thing if you're shaking down wiring. When set on DC reading you'll get a positive or negative voltage depending on if the measuring probe (red) is one the positive or negative line and the common probe (black) is on the other.

 

[Jamesiam]

Buying and learning how to use a $10 multimeter is a good thing if you're shaking down wiring. When set on DC reading you'll get a positive or negative voltage depending on if the measuring probe (red) is one the positive or negative line and the common probe (black) is on the other.

Thanks pods8, I will pick one up today

 

[Desert Rancher]

Harbor Freight has a cheap one for a few dollars. All of the cheapies are made in China anyways.

I keep one in each vehicle.