its always something.

[Lakota Wolf]

Its always something that throws a wrench into the spokes of a rolling wheel of intense thought. I got the heater/furnace working after being showed something new about how central air and central heat are controlled,(Fleetwood model RV's)..That itself was a nightmare from Elm St. excluding Freddy Kruger,(of course I did think I saw him lurking in the shadows). A simple 2 wire simple basic hook up thermostat was NOT in the plans of the mechanicals of the design.I think the manufactures pay outside companies to come up with insane unbertarded wiring designs to really throw the average Joe off when trying to do something as simple as a 2 wire hook up. In my case, That did NOT happen,, It could have quite possibly have been that Mars wasn't in line with Pluto aligning the stars to be in my favor.

Who would have thought that with manufacturers wanting to cut costs and save money would run All the wires up to the roof a/c unit,, then back down to the thermostat and THEN over to the furnace. In laymens terms,,, having to have all the wires go to the a/c first, before they go over to the furnace,,,What happened to simple running of 2 wires over to the furnace,, approx 5 ft,with the simple 2 wires (the switch) to make it simple? So, Now I have 2 thermostats mounted on my wall,, One controls the a/c unit, and the other controls the furnace,, But heres the confusing part,(best to have aspirin handy),, The furnace side of the thermostat (original a/c thermostat) has to run up to the 2 NEW wires that are run over to the furnace to supply the 12 volts and connect into the furnace thermostat, So now its technically a 4 wire set up. (takes 2 aspirin just explaining that headache). Now the next problem that popped up, was the water heater,,, (hey, its a 1992 model 5th wheel,, its bound to have a few quirks). The water heater would take several tries to kick on,, really irritating when it didnt light, It has a simple switch on the stove vent hood,, you click it on and magically it turns water heater on.

(I think, its a mini tazer button that shocks a gerbil and he runs down to the water heater with his Bic lighter and lights the burner,But thats only a suggestion). Anywho,,,, a little yellow light comes on and says pilot out,, which means, the water heater did not light,, So you click it off, and wait the 10 seconds for it to reset, and click it back on,,, and well,,,, that little yellow light must have had it out for me,because it kept comming on. I triple checked all the plug connectors, along with double checking everything else,, The piezo ignition was clicking but no ignition and flame,, ziltch, nadda zip. I take the Automatic tank switching regulator off and install my ole trusty back up single regulator,,,,,, and,,,,, ziltch nadda  zip-orino,,,,, the ignition was clicking but NO GAS.

I tinkered around the whole day, tinkering on this and that,, and finally took the automatic regulator switch apart to see how this thing works,,

(almost like a 3rd grader taking his dads radio apart looking for the guy who is talking thru the speaker). I clean it all out with carb cleaner and low pressure air from the compressor,, and putting it back together,,and didnt even have any left over parts,,(by the way, thats very rare that I dont end up with Extra parts).. So this evening, I was determined to figure out why the water heater wouldnt fire up. Plus I wanted a hot shower,, The cold showers are,,well, uhhhh, oh heck,  they suck,there,I said it). So at 10;00 at night,, with a flashlight and hand tools,, I remove my trusty back up regulator,which is no longer labled *trusty,, and re-install the automatic switcher regulator, I turn the knobs on the propane bottles and spray my soapy water all ove rthe connections checking for leaks, which I was lucky and didnt have any this time. I take my home made pressure guage,which is actually a boost guage for a diesel,,,with a gas fitting on a T, and I flip the water heater switch on a couple times,, then click it off and go out and look at its a sweet 11lbs of pressure. I remove the guage and fit the gas lines back to normal and click the water heater switch a coup,le times to *prime, and Viola,, woooooosh,, water heater clicks, blows a nice blue flame and the water is heater up.

I take my home made guage and put it on the output of the ole trusty back up regulator and thread the fitting on another full propane tank and turn the propane bottle open and the guage goes up to 7.5 lbs,

There was my problem,,, LOW propane pressure.  Who would think, approx 3 1/2 lbs difference would cause a headache like that?

So today,, I lernt something,,,,, Propane regulators DO have specs on different pressures... Its NOT a one size fits all. 

Oh,, just so you know, before typing this blog out, I did a happy dance like The Fresh Prince of Belairs brother used to do on that show.

(You know your old if you can remember that show and his gooney dance).

[Rick Faunce]

Here is a link of interest and something every RV do DIY guy should have.

http://www.rverscorner.com/manometer.html

[Rick Faunce]

Just to correct your correction, gas pressure at the appliance is measured in inches of water column. 11 inches of water column. That is measured with a manometer.

[Lakota Wolf]

You are absolutley correct as its measured in ounces, not pounds,,,  My bad for not clarifying that.

*brain fart. And with the adjustment screw,,, yea its there, but,, on both regulators, the screw cavity is filled with a sealant that is equivlent to concrete, and i even tried to carve that stuff out,,didnt have much luck. I ran the numbers that I had through a buddy who works with propane furnaces in machine shops and he walked me through the ordeal, even though I was giving hiom my readings off my guage in pounds... Again, thank you for bringing up that technicality, because Im sure, someone else will come across that same problem in the future, and will have to remember to measure it in OUNCES and Not pounds.

[Rich Thomas]

Good read Lakota, what disturbs me though is the Carlton dance; I just can't get that out of my mind. What if Carlton would have married Elaine(Seinfeld). Glad you got those gremlins out of the way.