1988 Excella Suburban Furnace Replacement

[Dickandvicki]

Does anyone know of a replacement for a 1988 Excella Suburan furnace? An RV service man came out and said the exhaust on a new furnace doesn’t line up and they would have to drill new holes in the exterior?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AlinCal]

I ran into the same thing with my 91 I refurbished, not wanting to alter the exterior I cleaned and serviced the original (and still working) unit and reinstalled it.
Can yours be saved? unless its's been run do death or rusted out they can be rebuilt or repaired with donor parts.

[nvestysly]

We have a 1992 Excella and it has three holes for the furnace. I suspect yours is the same/similar. If so, everything I found regarding replacement indicates your repair guy is correct - the holes for the new furnaces do not align with the old holes.

What you didn't say is... what's wrong with your existing furnace? Many if not most (maybe all) problems on old furnaces can be fixed. I fixed my problem and I suspect your issue can be fixed too. If necessary, do some legwork and find an old-fashioned RV shop that actually does repairs and not just remove and replace.

For example, I contacted several RV dealers and was told each and every time that my furnace was not worth fixing and I needed to get in line to have new holes drilled and old holes covered on the exterior of our trailer. I finally found somebody who said if I brought the furnace to them they could probably repair it. That ultimately led to me doing the removal, repair and reinstallation myself. You may not be able/willing to do the repair yourself but it's certainly worth doing some more legwork before you sign up for a new furnace that requires body panel changes.

[perryg114]

I replaced the furnace in my 81 Excella II and it was a drop in replacement. There are two holes on mine, an intake and exhaust. Is there an oddball out there with three holes? What is the model of the furnace in question? I think mine was an NT30SP.

Perry

[Dickandvicki]

The fan and motor completely welded shut. It totally burned up I’m told it can’t be repaired

[nvestysly]

We may be going on a bit of a tangent from what the OP had in mind but here's a picture of the exterior of our trailer showing three holes for the furnace. I don't recall why it has three holes compared to the usual two holes but that feature was the main reason I decided to fix mine rather than replace it with a new unit. I didn't record my model number but I think it might have been NT-30K but I'm not certain.

[pvfjr]

Can another fan motor be sourced? Surely it can't be that unique. You may have to pull the fan off the shaft.

And is it really the motor that went bad and burned up, or is it just the bearings? Did the commutator melt down or something?

[nvestysly]

Originally Posted by Dickandvicki

The fan and motor completely welded shut. It totally burned up I’m told it can’t be repaired

Definitely sounds bad. But I'll encourage you to do some additional legwork as I mentioned previously. When I disassembled my unit it was a bit tricky but I was able to access the motor, blower wheel, switch and blower housing. There are several threads on Air Forums related to furnaces so be sure to do some searching. I also sound some useful videos on You Tube. Be sure to call RV salvage yards such as Colaw RV Salvage.

[bibbs]

I removed my working furnace ( I don't plan on needing one) I did save the fan and motor, and some other parts, if it fits you can have it.

[perryg114]

You have a closer photo. That third hole can be patched so it looks normal. You are going to have a third hole patch or not. I don't think one looks worse than the other. Also no reason that third fitting could not stay there as a dummy. The vent on the right looks like the normal one.

We really need a model number in order to find a drop in replacement. You sure it is an Suburban?

Perry

[nvestysly]

Originally Posted by perryg114

You have a closer photo. That third hole can be patched so it looks normal. You are going to have a third hole patch or not. I don't think one looks worse than the other. Also no reason that third fitting could not stay there as a dummy. The vent on the right looks like the normal one.

We really need a model number in order to find a drop in replacement. You sure it is an Suburban?

Perry

I'm not the OP but I posted the photo of our trailer showing three holes for the furnace. I don't know if the OP has the same situation or not but I thought the picture of our trailer might help explain the situation to others watching this thread.

When I considered installing a new furnace I found that none of the existing holes lined up with the new holes. So not only did the third hole need to be blocked (not a bad idea, just leave it there) but the other two holes had to be moved.

Moving the other two was not going to be easy. It wasn't simply a matter of moving them a 1/4" where the flange might cover the elongated hole. Instead, the new holes would have been right in line with other components on the inside of the trailer.

I was on the phone with Suburban a number of times to see what my options were. I was surprised that somehow I had a furnace that was not forward/backward compatible with other Suburban furnaces.

All that led me to repair my furnace. It was not as difficult as I thought. The solenoid valve was available, the "sail" switch was available. I did have to make some new gaskets for the burner area but I was able to locate similar gaskets and modify them to fit. By the way, Suburban did not have the parts I had too look them up online and find alternate suppliers.

The OP may not have quite that many issues to deal with. Maybe they can make use of a donor furnace and get theirs working again.

[88excella34]

I have an NT-35k in my excella. Motor is dead. Haven't done extensive searching yet to see if a replacement is available or if a more common one is modifiable to make it work.

Not too difficult to service these if you have a DIY mindset. Turn off gas, open the panel under the oven, take off the 2 screws to access the furnace, disconnect gas line, reach back and disconnect 4 wires- 2 thermostat lines and +- 12V, 2 more screws on the left side, then it slides out. Sliding it back in is challenging however. Takes some coordination to get them back in. Removing the gas sensor to prod the tubes helps some without taking out more stuff than necessary.

Edit: Based off this chart I was able to find a source with one for $177... Added to the wish list. http://www.sahararv.com/fckimages/pd...s_Suburban.pdf