Thor Wanderer Glide Lite - Furnace/Hot Water Heater q's?

[troyman]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and just bought my first new to me travel trailer. It is a 2000 ThorCalifornia Wanderer Glide Lite 230FB. I just took it out for the first trial run and am getting the feel for how everything does, does not work or the fact that I have no clue on how some of it works at all.

I figured out with some help about the propane detector needing to be on in order for the stove to light, so got that part nailed down (Previous owner removed the fuse from the sensor for some reason, but it does seem to be working correctly with the fuse back in place).

On to my questions:

1. Is there something special about getting the furnace to light/run? I know I have flow from the propane tanks at least to the refrigerator and the stove as the fridge was nice and cold and I could light the stove. I tried adjusting the temperature on the thermostat up to a high level, but never felt any heat or any sound of the furnace lighting or running at all.

2. Is there something to check if the water heater will not warm water on just propane/12V? I am about 90% sure that the hot water is working on shore power, but it just made kind of a buzzing sound when we were on 12V/Propane. I was kind of thinking that the propane lines might have been clogged near the water heater, but wasn't sure how to go about purging the lines or if there is a way to blow out all of the propane lines at once with compressed air?

3. If there is a way to clear the propane lines all at once, do I need to be careful about how high of pressure and where would I force the air into the system? Do I just unscrew the lines to the propane tanks and force in air from there?

Thanks for the help on this, I've been doing a bunch of reading on here over the last few weeks and got a lot of good information!

[bcsslc]

Hi There,
sorry for the interruption. ....
this is a bit off subject but you listed it as apart of your setup. If I were you I would connect both of your batteries in series. No need to not charge both every chance you get, plus if the connected one goes down it would really suck if the other "spair" was not up to snuff. However as far as propane goes..... I only run one at a time. That way if I run out I know how much estimated time I have before im out for the count. A buddy of mine would run both of his tanks at the same time until he ran out. This was not intentional and very bad timing. After that he only runs one at a time and fills the same tank before he heads out. This is what I do every time as well.

Good luck on the other stuff. Your in good hands around here.

troyman wrote:
Ok, thanks for the warnings on the propane line purging, I'll leave that to the pros.

For the appliances themselves:
Brand/Model Furnace: Suburban NT-16SE

Brand/Model Water Heater: Atwood G6A-8E

Batteries: 2 brand new 12V deep cycle batteries, both fully drip charged. I am only running one battery at a time so far, as I haven't had enough load yet to even barely tap any of the reserve yet. Prior to our first trip, I also went through and replaced all of the incandescent bulbs in the interior with LEDs which I believe made a pretty significant difference on draw. Aside from that, we've only ran the refrigerator and I keep a constant eye on the battery draw to see what my expectancy is going to be for each battery. At this point, I've only been using the meter in the trailer which is a pretty simple bar indicator showing fully charged, but I am also adding in a LED volt meter in line so that I can see what the true voltage is across the batteries.

I actually have located the manual for both of these two appliances, however some of the settings in each of the manuals don't quite jive with what is actually on the appliances themselves. For instance, the manual for the Furnace indicates that there should be an "off" setting on the thermostat which does not exist, just a slide setting for turning the heat up. For the water heater, they refer to a on/off switch on the 6 gallon version (like mine) that I do not have (or it is not on the back of the water heater where everything else is).

The more I am opening up service panels though, the more I am noticing that there is some contamination on the metal surfaces. I bought this trailer from someone that was close to the bay area, so I'm starting to think that I need to start by cleaning off of the contact surfaces and making sure I have good electrical contacts.

Also, for the person that mentioned about the propane sensor date, I did check that and it was dated Sept. 1999. Looks like an item on my shopping list, thank you!

[hddecker]

Check the water heater manual for the procedure to reset it if it goes into lockout mode.

[jimw606]

When I was having to clean the terminals. This is what was happening.
Thermostat on, Heater tried to light with a little puff, then would click again in a few minutes, and try to light again.
Cleaning the terminals, would always allow it to light and stay lit. FYI

[troyman]

Got the trailer back home yesterday and made some progress. So a couple of things were kind of dumb...

1st thing, checked all of the wiring and one of the previous owners apparently thought that the twist on wire connectors are appropriate for an automotive application - WRONG!!! Tightened up the connectors on all of the twist connectors that were falling apart (These are all getting replaced this afternoon).

2nd thing, traced the wires back to the power junction and the power to the furnace was on a different circuit than labeled and had no fuse. Put in a new fuse and instant heating!

The thermostat doesn't actually have an on/off setting, so I have ordered the Emerson single stage 1E78-140 thermostat, so I can turn it off at the thermostat. There is also an on/off switch on the side of the furnace tucked underneath the cabinets, but that was actually turned on. Apparently a previous owner thought it was better to just pull the fuses on anything he didn't use - like the furnace and propane leak detector.

I did also go through the exhaust/intake ports and cleaned out the big 'ol wasp nest that had apparently been abandoned a while ago as well. So hopefully I should have good air flow as well 😄

Going to dive into the water heater issue again after work today and start by cleaning all of the terminals as suggested by another person on here. Anyway, happy to have made some progress and thanks for the good advice on here folks!

[troyman]

Yeah, I'm thinking that is what my issue is. I just brought it back to the storage place but will be checking this all out again here in about a week or so when I bring it back home for our pre-trip checkout.

[jimw606]

I had an Attwood and when it would not light on gas, I had to clean all the electrical terminals on the heater, on the outside. There was a sticker, that said to do this before replacing the circuit board. Just my .02

[Ex-Tech]

Never saw a travel trailer with a 12-volt solenoid valve for the propane supply operated off of the leak detector but I guess it's possible. Usually this is only found on motorhomes.

[Boband4]

Check all sides of the furnace thermostat. My last trailer had separate thermostats for the cooler and furnace. The furnace one had a little switch on the bottom along with the temp dial. That little switch was an on/off switch. It was hard to see and it was very stiff to operate.

[daveor]

not really familiar with your trailer,, but on ours,, the off/on switch for the water heater is not on the water heater itself.Might look around and see if you can find a switch that you don't know what is for, also not sure which thermostat you have for your furnace, but on ours, the switch is on the side and the temp setting in the slider on the top.

[troyman]

Thanks for those manual links, the one for the water heater specifically is a much better version than the one that I had! That version is actually showing the exact version of my setup.

[Old-Biscuit]

Suburban NT-16SE Manual

Atwood G6A-8E Manual

Your WH is propane only so ON/OFF switch is on panel inside RV and is for the propane operation. Switches on backside were for electric element (Gas 6 gallon 8th version electronic ignition)

[troyman]

Oh yeah, one other thing I did learn over the weekend. That propane sensor does actually interrupt the flow somehow for the propane. Two of the people I was camping with actually told me to look specifically there as both of their 5th wheels also had this same interrupt system. Apparently if the sensor isn't in a "safe" mode (green light) it is somehow interrupting the gas line. I was able to confirm that with the fuse out, my stove had no gas going to it. With the fuse back in and a green light, propane began to flow through.

Thank-you to both of the folks who have mentioned owning this same trailer, that's great to hear that you had good experiences with it! We're hoping to have this one for a couple of years and then maybe step up to something bigger along with a 3/4 ton pull vehicle. Our current pull vehicle is a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ with the VortecMax aluminum 6.0L and the NHT heavy duty towing package. It pulls this trailer quite nicely, even going through the Sierras with the wife and I, a few loaded ice chests, two big German Shepherds and the trailer in tow. I'm not quite sure I believe that the trailer is 3680# dry though, it "felt" heavier than that when I was towing it home after purchase with nothing in it.

[Tin-bender]

Troyman,
This doesn't help with your problems but I have to say we owned that very camper,model year 1999,from 2000 till 2012 and towed it many miles off road as well as on road and never had a single problem. They are a good rig for the money.
Tinbender

[troyman]

Ok, thanks for the warnings on the propane line purging, I'll leave that to the pros.

For the appliances themselves:
Brand/Model Furnace: Suburban NT-16SE

Brand/Model Water Heater: Atwood G6A-8E

Batteries: 2 brand new 12V deep cycle batteries, both fully drip charged. I am only running one battery at a time so far, as I haven't had enough load yet to even barely tap any of the reserve yet. Prior to our first trip, I also went through and replaced all of the incandescent bulbs in the interior with LEDs which I believe made a pretty significant difference on draw. Aside from that, we've only ran the refrigerator and I keep a constant eye on the battery draw to see what my expectancy is going to be for each battery. At this point, I've only been using the meter in the trailer which is a pretty simple bar indicator showing fully charged, but I am also adding in a LED volt meter in line so that I can see what the true voltage is across the batteries.

I actually have located the manual for both of these two appliances, however some of the settings in each of the manuals don't quite jive with what is actually on the appliances themselves. For instance, the manual for the Furnace indicates that there should be an "off" setting on the thermostat which does not exist, just a slide setting for turning the heat up. For the water heater, they refer to a on/off switch on the 6 gallon version (like mine) that I do not have (or it is not on the back of the water heater where everything else is).

The more I am opening up service panels though, the more I am noticing that there is some contamination on the metal surfaces. I bought this trailer from someone that was close to the bay area, so I'm starting to think that I need to start by cleaning off of the contact surfaces and making sure I have good electrical contacts.

Also, for the person that mentioned about the propane sensor date, I did check that and it was dated Sept. 1999. Looks like an item on my shopping list, thank you!