Canada Heat when Boondocking

[Keith S]

Hello folks,
We purchased a 2019 Flying Cloud 23’FB. We are replacing an older 25’ Safari. We are on our maiden voyage
Surprisingly we are not able to heat the trailer. We are not connected to any shore power.
I need some advice as the literature is sparse.
When we took delivery the dealership said the unit had a furnace and the AC worked as a heat pump.
As we are now only on 12v battery power the thermostat In the bedroom is void of anything except it lights up when I power it on.
Is there a way to run the furnace on 12v?
Is 110vac power source required?
Our old 1997 Safari had heat even when we boondocked however it ran the battery down fast.
Thanks
Keith Stamper . .

[Dennis C]

You should be able to run the gas furnace when you’re boondocking without any external power source. Sometimes my thermostat is finicky and I need to push the “mode” button a few times to cycle through the options and select the furnace. The heat pump will not work unless you are on shore power or a generator.

[Hans627]

Hi Keith. Greetings from PA and welcome to the forum. It's great to have you with us.

The furnace is designed to run on DC current and should do so, provided you have propane and enough DC power. Do you have these necessary items?

As mentioned make sure the thermostat is set to furnace (not heat pump).

Let us know what's happening and maybe more help can be provided.

[Dennis C]

Make sure your propane tank valve is open too!

[majorairhead]

What's your battery voltage?

Check the breakers. Look in the outside compartment for possible loose wires, etc.

Make sure thermostat is in furnace mode.

[Wayne&Sam]

Put the thermostat in FURN mode, set fan to AUTO. Be patient, some times it take a few seconds to kick in. ten if the gas was out or off, the furnace fan should come on.

[abqdor]

We like to Boondock a lot and seldom have to use the furnace on our FC. But last month on a camping trip, we encountered a 40 degree temperature drop and dusting of snow overnight. The heater will warm the trailer, but the fan will drain your batteries in no time.

We carry a 9000btu Mr. Heater, portable radiant heater. It takes the small bottles of propane that only give you about 5 hours of heat, but it saved our batteries and kept us warm during the cold weather for a couple days. Initially, I was worried about carbon monoxide build up and reluctant to run the heater in the trailer, but it has a safety shut off if it detects low oxygen levels. I even found a YouTube video where a guy placed a digital carbon monoxide detector in an enclosed trailer, with no ventilation for four hours and never got any reading level increase. Here's a link to that pretty convincing video.

https://youtu.be/5vqyfOq0D-8

[waninae39]

We use a lasko electric quartz heater as our main source
It supplements the as oem gas furnace. It was way too loud, so I added a DC motor speed control. At night ,we dial it down to 30-50 % speed

We have battle born lion battery and many victron products

[Ultraclassic]

Originally Posted by Dennis C

You should be able to run the gas furnace when you’re boondocking without any external power source. Sometimes my thermostat is finicky and I need to push the “mode” button a few times to cycle through the options and select the furnace. The heat pump will not work unless you are on shore power or a generator.

This /\ is my understanding too.

Having just replaced my 20 year old thermostat and motherboard on the rooftop unit, it maybe not configured from the factory to function, I had to set the dip switched on the motherboard and do a thermostat reset and it functions great

But having typed this I'm sure when you did the walk through training it all worked then so this is not accurate for your situation

[Dubaigsry]

Originally Posted by abqdor

We like to Boondock a lot and seldom have to use the furnace on our FC. But last month on a camping trip, we encountered a 40 degree temperature drop and dusting of snow overnight. The heater will warm the trailer, but the fan will drain your batteries in no time.

We carry a 9000btu Mr. Heater, portable radiant heater. It takes the small bottles of propane that only give you about 5 hours of heat, but it saved our batteries and kept us warm during the cold weather for a couple days. Initially, I was worried about carbon monoxide build up and reluctant to run the heater in the trailer, but it has a safety shut off if it detects low oxygen levels. I even found a YouTube video where a guy placed a digital carbon monoxide detector in an enclosed trailer, with no ventilation for four hours and never got any reading level increase. Here's a link to that pretty convincing video.

https://youtu.be/5vqyfOq0D-8

Mr Heater is the way to go - preserves your battery and the radiant heat is much more efficient than the forced air from the furnace for our 22’ sport. Thinking about getting a 5 lb propane tank, or figuring out some way to run a propane hose in through a window so we don’t have to use up the expensive and wasteful 1 lb canisters.

[gator.bigfoot]

Originally Posted by Keith S

Hello folks,
We purchased a 2019 Flying Cloud 23’FB. We are replacing an older 25’ Safari. We are on our maiden voyage
Surprisingly we are not able to heat the trailer. We are not connected to any shore power.
I need some advice as the literature is sparse.
When we took delivery the dealership said the unit had a furnace and the AC worked as a heat pump.
As we are now only on 12v battery power the thermostat In the bedroom is void of anything except it lights up when I power it on.
Is there a way to run the furnace on 12v?
Is 110vac power source required?
Our old 1997 Safari had heat even when we boondocked however it ran the battery down fast.
Thanks
Keith Stamper . .

Furnace should work on 12V no issues. Make sure you have furnace selected and not the heat pump. The heat pump I find makes too much noise anyway and takes too long so it's my last option even when plugged in. Most of the time I'm boondocking so I use the furnace set to 56 overnight and use a hot water bottle. The 56 is just so that the trailer isn't a complete icebox. Still makes for a comfortable nights rest. When I'm plugged in a typically just use a micro-furnace and move it to where I located in the trailer.

[mythbuster88]

Originally Posted by Keith S

Hello folks,
We purchased a 2019 Flying Cloud 23’FB. We are replacing an older 25’ Safari. We are on our maiden voyage
Surprisingly we are not able to heat the trailer. We are not connected to any shore power.
I need some advice as the literature is sparse.
When we took delivery the dealership said the unit had a furnace and the AC worked as a heat pump.
As we are now only on 12v battery power the thermostat In the bedroom is void of anything except it lights up when I power it on.
Is there a way to run the furnace on 12v?
Is 110vac power source required?
Our old 1997 Safari had heat even when we boondocked however it ran the battery down fast.
Thanks
Keith Stamper . .

Mr. Keith,

So what happened?

Thanks,

Forum People.

[waninae39]

we use a 1200W quartz heater . the furnace is far too loud
this one allows Hi/low, temp setting and time limit.

thus we heat up the trailer before we go to sleep. then we ask it to maintain at least 16C over night

[bweybright]

The op is boondocking...so using that heater is not likely an option?

[Gearheart]

Mr. Heater portable Buddy or Big buddy uses no electricity. Get the adapter for 5# bulk tanks. A fill costs less than 2 of the 1# disposables.