Heat bypass to underbelly

[suitcaseisfull]

I tried to create a new thread but had to drop this somewhere.

Back story. I travel A LOT with my RV and full time with work. Some places can be a chore to find a place to fill up propane or sometimes they can be closed by the time I get off work which has given me a few night of worry on if I was going to wake up to a headache. I move around every 3-4 days to a new place, so putting up my skirt became a back breaking chore in a hurry. Being connected to electricity is a win/lose situation, either you run your electric heat and save on propane or you cannot run your furnace to heat the underbelly as if you have your temp high from a space heater, the furnace will not turn on as much. Some people say that you can run your fan to blow into the underbelly but with the 29RS I cannot.

Heat bypass. I recently installed a booster fan at my father inlaws house to help with getting AC out to the addition he built. Looking at the inline fan, I came up with the idea of installing one into my underbelly. I used a temp probe and did some testing on the intake temp vs the outflow, with a low CFM, you don't lose that much and hey, its just got to be above freezing right? I usually put a space heater in my pass through which creates a ton of heat and I might as well capitalize on this.

On removing the underbelly (not actually that hard, but i recommend having a dolly to lay on your back and a friend who is eager to see the underside of an RV) I found a ton of fun things GD left me. 1 screwdriver, a disconnected heat duct (they didn't install a t-section to allow heat to come out at my front tanks then transition towards the back so that was basically funneling all the air to one tank) and a ton of trash (tape, wires, cable ties, tape and a pair of latex gloves). After doing some cable management, I laid out a 3 inch hose to the back of the RV, with small holes every 3 feet with a terminal cap installed.

I placed the inline fan under my inside steps and routed the hose into the underbelly. Sealed the edges of the underbelly with some removable latex as a gasket then went to town with foam to seal the deal for winter. While i was there, I ran some cable sleeves to install some boogie lights (different topic but man they look awesome)

Next, I HIGHLY recommend removing that 2 inch closet track aluminum strip called a support that connects your underbelly to the metal plate under your front storage. That thing moves way too much and will eventually create a lovely gap for you to fill your underbelly with road grime and rain wash. I replaced it with a 4 inch strip of aluminum plate i had and covered it with 8 inch wide rubber roofing tape. That effectively seals the road scoop.

So far its working! I bought the inline fan that has a remote temp/humidity sensor and panel with programmable settings. Now it will turn slowly to push warm air into my underbelly, should I lose propane or wanting to ration it I can. Removing humidity out of the underbelly gives me more piece of mind as a bonus. It was great seeing the temp spike up and the humidity plummet.

Note, this isn't for everyone as I have a very specific issue and needed to think outside of the box to make my life easier.


4inch, then reduce to a 3inch.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[BobLandry]

Scrim tape is the best for this. It's not cheap, but it works.

[WhittleBurner]

This is a nice write up and will be handy for someone.
I moved this into it's own thread.

[Ynot4me2]

Nice job. Did you happen to take a few pics? I'm scared of dropping my underbelly. Not at the work and how to but at what I'll find.

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[suitcaseisfull]

[QUOTE=Ynot4me2;396769]Nice job. Did you happen to take a few pics? I'm scared of dropping my underbelly. Not at the work and how to but at what I'll find.

we were pushing pretty quickly. due to an approaching storm. Honestly its pretty easy to get it off and on. I will admit i was scared to do it and the voice in the back of my head was whispering some choice words but once it was off, it really made sense.

Take a drill with a socket and remove the self tappers and work your way left and right as you work front to back. you go as far as the axles then do what you need to do, then on the back of the rv remove and reapply.

Once you have about 6 feet dropped, slowly take the front edge and fold it under itself to give you room to work. I recommend taking a vacuum with a large extension to clean out the goodies. I cant say enough to have something to roll around on to save your back.

Now a question for the group. Isnt there supposed to be some sort of space blanket down there to hold all this hot air from the furnace? i remember seeing it in GD's videos as their cool thing that they do. yet i dont have one.

[WhittleBurner]

Now a question for the group. Isnt there supposed to be some sort of space blanket down there to hold all this hot air from the furnace? i remember seeing it in GD's videos as their cool thing that they do. yet i dont have one.

There is supposed to be. Ours was a thin sheet of mylar type foil. We replaced it with Reflectix when we dropped our belly a couple years back.

[suitcaseisfull]

I assumed there would be one as well. I was thinking about ordering one up as i didnt have one installed. But without a clear idea on how it would be secured, i left it be.