On the left side of the sink vanity in the bottom storage area is a small 3" heat duct and very little warm air comes out of it when the furnace is running. Much less than the other ducts throughout the trailer anyway. Is this normal? Also behind the toilet is a floor duct that no air comes out of and I can see hot and cold Pex lines that run through there. Is that a cold air return for the furnace or is that a heating duct that isn't working and should be repaired? Thanks in advance for any input.
Bathroom vanity heater vent has no duct pipe from factory
Under the vanity there is no actual duct work to the heat registers. they just cut a hole in the floor under the vanity.
See the pictures this guy took. I'm working on the same fix for my 290BH.
Under the vanity there is no actual duct work to the heat registers. they just cut a hole in the floor under the vanity.
See the pictures this guy took. I'm working on the same fix for my 290BH.One of the clues that you may have this issue is if the water from your bathroom faucet is VERY hot (even the COLD water) when you first turn it on. This would be because all that warm heater air is circulating loose around the water lines as it is pushed up into the bottom of the vanity. I have this issue right now, before I do this fix.
I took the louvered cover off the vanity and I definitely do not have any duct work in there. It's amazing how GD takes such care to pay attention to details in some areas of their RV's and then for this their thought process is "drilled a hole, good enuf'"
Agreed. I was absolutely stunned. Makes you wonder what else they cheaped out on. I also cut into the back of my bedroom closet to frame up and brace the shower control valves. They were just screwed into the plastic shower stall and it flexed and warped. No support for the weight of or the torque applied to the shower controls. It would surely break at some point. Now my shower stall doesn't flex and the shower controls are solidly attached.
Since I expect my bedroom to now get too much airflow with the duct fix from the bathroom, I am going to split off that duct line and add another vent in the riser of my stairs. Some Reflection models already have that, mine didn't. Another cheapout on their part.
I love the floor plan of my trailer, but there are a lot of little things I'm changing to suit me.
1. There were no 12 volt USB ports in the living area. Only one randomly placed in the ceiling of the bedroom, near--but not directly above--the headboard shelf. I put another one in by the night stand and also in the living room on the built in hutch. Much more user friendly for all my guests.
2. There is a convenient wall switch for 2 small lights in the hutch that I'll never use, but the switch for the main ceiling lights is behind a cabinet door in the hutch on the main control panel. You have to open and close that door every time you turn those lights on. I'm going to swap those out so that the wall switch controls the main ceiling lights, like you would expect. Also going to put in a dimmer switch on this.
3. There are crappy self adhesive stick tiles on the backsplash that are coming off. No idea if the 1st owner put them in or from the factory but I have to replace them with something better.
4. I dry camp a lot so I put 4 large marine/rv batteries in and I'll recharge them with portable solar panels. I had to put plywood on both sides of the flimsy panel separating the front utility/battery compartment from the pass through storage area to mount the terminal blocks.
5. On either side of the pass through storage there are thin plastic floor panels that are not supported underneath. They will break and anything that falls out will drop in front of the trailer tires. Wouldn't be fun. I have to put braces underneath and plywood or metal as the floor.
6. The cabinet under the sink was 27 inches tall with no shelf. What a waste of space. I built a shelf unit and installed it.
As I said, I love the floor plan and design, and my used unit was in great shape and I got a good deal on it. These little things can be changed, just seems dumb they didn't think of how people will actually use the trailer and build it that way.
Good luck on your upcoming trip.
Since I expect my bedroom to now get too much airflow with the duct fix from the bathroom, I am going to split off that duct line and add another vent in the riser of my stairs. Some Reflection models already have that, mine didn't. Another cheapout on their part.
I love the floor plan of my trailer, but there are a lot of little things I'm changing to suit me.
1. There were no 12 volt USB ports in the living area. Only one randomly placed in the ceiling of the bedroom, near--but not directly above--the headboard shelf. I put another one in by the night stand and also in the living room on the built in hutch. Much more user friendly for all my guests.
2. There is a convenient wall switch for 2 small lights in the hutch that I'll never use, but the switch for the main ceiling lights is behind a cabinet door in the hutch on the main control panel. You have to open and close that door every time you turn those lights on. I'm going to swap those out so that the wall switch controls the main ceiling lights, like you would expect. Also going to put in a dimmer switch on this.
3. There are crappy self adhesive stick tiles on the backsplash that are coming off. No idea if the 1st owner put them in or from the factory but I have to replace them with something better.
4. I dry camp a lot so I put 4 large marine/rv batteries in and I'll recharge them with portable solar panels. I had to put plywood on both sides of the flimsy panel separating the front utility/battery compartment from the pass through storage area to mount the terminal blocks.
5. On either side of the pass through storage there are thin plastic floor panels that are not supported underneath. They will break and anything that falls out will drop in front of the trailer tires. Wouldn't be fun. I have to put braces underneath and plywood or metal as the floor.
6. The cabinet under the sink was 27 inches tall with no shelf. What a waste of space. I built a shelf unit and installed it.
As I said, I love the floor plan and design, and my used unit was in great shape and I got a good deal on it. These little things can be changed, just seems dumb they didn't think of how people will actually use the trailer and build it that way.
Good luck on your upcoming trip.
Thanks, I don't believe there is an RV made that's perfectly built. But I will say I have owned a Heartland Trail Runner travel trailer and a Forest River Hemisphere 5th Wheel. The Heartland was built well and insulated well. Our Grand Design is built well. The Forest River was a piece of junk and the fit/finish was horrendous. It's fun to make changes to an RV to suit your needs but the lack of duct work makes me scratch my head. It just so happens that I got a one year survey from Grand Design today in the mail. There was an option to fill it out online so that's what I did. I gave them high marks but I did mention the ducting issue. Maybe they'll consider it, maybe they won't but at least I got it off my chest.
Yes, this is a cold air return.
X2 - My dealer shared that with me in the walk around at delivery.
Unfortunately we bought our rig when everything was shut down because of Covid. The dealer could sell RV's but interaction between us and staff was very limited so my PDI/Walk around didn't happen. We did most everything online and on the phone during the sale process and even the pre-purchase walk through was done by ourselves. They just opened the rig up and put our name on it so we knew we were in the right rig. When we actually signed the papers, we sat at one table while the business manager sat at another table. It was a good thing this purchase wasn't our first rodeo.
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