Chukarhunter

Gliddenwoods, If I didn't have the access port below the pantry, I would probably add a second return vent even farther forward, probably under the forward dinette. That is because I believe return vents should be placed as far as reasonable from the supply vents. This causes the best mixing of warm supply air as it is pulled across the cabin and into the return vent, and also causes the best mixing of warm cabin air throughout the basement on its way back to the furnace intake. It is important to have warm return air-flow flowing across as much of the basement as possible on the way back to the furnace to eliminate dead air spots which can become very cold in sub-freezing weather. Another easy way to add some "as needed" additional return paths for warm cabin air into the basement is to slightly open a drawer or two. Since the wall behind the drawers is open to the basement, cracking open one or more drawers by an inch or less will provide another path for warm cabin air to be pulled into the basement, warming the sink plumbing at the same time. The best solution I believe is to provide a decent sized return vent in the bathroom which will allow warm cabin air to warm the entire length of the cabin as it is pulled into the bathroom and also the entire length of the basement on the way back to the furnace intake vents. I believe that Oliver started putting in a return vent in the bathroom in 2022 (although I think it is very small). After three years of patient observation of my furnace's performance under all sorts of weather conditions using multiple thermometers, I have decided to add a return vent to the bathroom but not cut any new holes. Instead, I am disconnecting the bathroom flexduct supply hose from the existing supply vent in the bathroom which will turn the existing supply vent into a return vent. I will re-terminate the flex duct supply hose inside the vanity in the front of the basement which will place warm air directly under the bathroom and closet; common cold spots. The combination of warm air flowing across the cabin and into the bathroom and then into the basement and back to the furnace should make the cabin and bathroom more comfortable and substantially reduce the temperature differentials between the cabin and basement. I have multiple remote thermometers and will report on the results of my simple modification after thoroughly testing it this winter. The good thing is If it doesn't work satisfactorily, I can easily restore everything to its original configuration and try something else.

If your 2019 LE II is the standard bed model (like my 2020), then yes, it is (unfortunately) normal and reflects a design flaw on Oliver's part. I would speculatgethat NCeagle's 2020 LE II has the twin bed option which would explain why NCeagle hasn't observed the same phenomena. In our particular vintage of LE II's, Oliver placed only a single air return duct in the very back on the curbside immediately in front of the furnace. When the standard bed is set up and the furnace is running, most of the hot air blowing out the supply ducts can't escape the cavity under the bed and is immediately pulled back through the return duct and into the furnace. This hotter air into the furnace in turn causes the supply air temperature to become even hotter which in turn causes hotter return air into the furnace which increases the temperature of the supply air, etc. Meanwhile, the air temperature in the cabin takes forever to increase because the hot air from the supply vents is immediately pulled back into the furnace and doesn't mix well in the cabin. As the intake air around the furnace (i.e., water pump) gets hotter, the heat exchanger in the furnace gets hotter and eventually overheats and triggers a safety shut-down of the furnace flame before the cabin actually reaches the temperature set point; referred to as short-cycling. From your pictures, it looks like your furnace started short-cycling badly when you increased the thermostat set-point just before 8 in the morning. It appears that it took over an hour to raise the cabin temperature by 10 degrees quite probably due to the short-cycling. I doubt this is an issue in the twin bed model because the hot air from the supply vents can freely mix into the cabin air and doesn't get trapped under the bed to be fed immediately back into the furnace. The quick fix for standard bed owners is to open another furnace return vent on the street side of the trailer forward of the bed. This helps pull hot air out from under the bed and returns that hot air to the furnace via the street side basement opening and over the water tanks. My 2020 LE II has a nice round access hatch on the streetside below the pantry (to access the Inverter GFCI). In the heating season, I just remove that access cover to that streetside hatch and the short cycling problem is solved, the furnace runs quieter, basement temps are more even throughout, and the furnace/thermostat do a much better job keeping a constant temperature at the set point chosen.

Unlike many satellites that are geostationary, the satellites used by the InReach are continuously orbiting the earth. That is why the InReach works almost anywhere in the world. The InReach has to wait until one of the orbiting satellites passes overhead in a line of sight before it can send and receive. In the middle of a miles wide open flat field, the InReach can see so much of the sky that it can almost always locate a satellite quickly. However, in a narrow canyon for instance, it will eventually see a satellite, but it may take considerable time before a satellite passes over the narrow window to the sky above the canyon. If you carry it on your waist or in a backpack, your body will be blocking part of the sky as well. I have found that the fastest way to get an important message out when you can't see the whole sky is to place the InReach wherever it can see the most sky, then move away from it for awhile.

When troubleshooting your thermostat, you may want to take time to plug the large hole on the wall behind the thermostat that the three conductor wire comes out of. You can see part of the hole in the picture above. I found that in colder weather, cold basement air can exit this hole directly into the thermostat and trick the thermostat into thinking the cabin temperature has fallen causing it to start the furnace when in fact the cabin is still at the preferred temperature. Once the furnace starts, the airflow reverses as warm air comes into and through the thermostat and into the basement through the hole, causing the furnace to shut off in short order and then the short cycle repeats itself. Merely covering the hole with a piece of tape is a quick and easy fix. This hole is not necessarily a design issue with OTT but rather a poorly designed thermostat. Well designed thermostats have sealed backs with the wire terminals located on the back of the thermostat. The Dometic has a hole in the back of the thermostat with the wire terminals located on the inside of the thermostat. Cheap design. I swapped my Dometic thermostat out for a "Easy Touch RV" thermostat from Micro Air, primarily to allow me to monitor cabin temperature and adjust the furnace remotely via wi-fi because I store my LE II outside many miles from my house and unwinterized. The Wi-Fi feature allows me to turn on and/or turn up the thermostat from home when a freeze event is forecast. I am also alerted if the propane runs out. Unlike the Dometic, the Easy Touch has a sealed back with terminals on the outside back of the thermostat. You may want to consider the Easy Touch as a replacement if in fact your Dometic thermostat continues to be balky and ultimately needs to be replaced. Micro Air makes a model that is an exact replacement for the Dometic thermostat in the Oliver.

I see you have a 2019 LE II. Oliver only offered flooded/AGM batteries and the 45 amp converter/charger in 2019. Do you still have the flooded batteries with the 45 amp converter charger? If so, then anything larger than the little Honda EU1000i would be overkill for battery charging. A 45 amp converter charger will only be able to charge your batteries at a maximum rate of about 650 watts (45 amps charging current * 14.5 volt maximum charging voltage) regardless of how large your generator is. Assuming 10 percent losses in the conversion from 120 volts from the generator to the 14.5 volt charge current, the maximum generator size needed to charge your batteries is about 725 watts (650 watts / 0.9). If you have only two flooded batteries, then they won't even be able to accept a full 45 amp charging current. Even after adding the tri-fuel conversion kit to the EU1000i, it should still put out a continuous 800 watts when running on propane. More than enough to charge your batteries at the fastest rate possible while simultaneously running the furnace and a few lights. Any larger generator will not charge your batteries any faster (unless you convert to Lithium batteries and an inverter/charger with a higher charging current capability). If the above accurately describes the configuration of your Ollie with the original 45 watt converter/charger and flooded/AGM batteries, you may want to consider the little Honda EU1000i with the conversion kit. It is significantly lighter and much quieter than even the Honda EU 2200i. (I know because I own both). It is expensive though.

I agree and it is all good advice. I spent hours and hours on this forum agonizing over whether my tow vehicle could tow the LE II safely. In the end, the many wise and experienced members of this forum convinced me that I could do so while staying within all limits as specified in my owners manual and placard on the door pillar. The wise advice of J.D. actually gave me the confidence to pull the trigger and I am grateful. I have been frowned upon in this forum more than once for my choice of tow vehicle but nobody on the forum has ever accused me of being a terrible danger to my family and everyone else on the road. Should the mystery owners of the subject Kia ever identify themselves, I suspect this is what they might say….. "Our very low mileage KIA (with tow package) is rated to tow 5,500 lbs with the Anderson hitch and 550 lbs tongue weight. It has a cargo capacity of 1,325 lbs. We spent a lot of time on this forum and paid particularly close attention to J.D.'s posts about towing with his Land Cruiser 200. We noted that the wheelbase on the KIA is a few inches longer, and the front and rear track width are the same but the KIA has a lower center of gravity and the distance between the rear axle and the receiver is shorter on the Kia than the Land Cruiser. Our tow package came with auto leveling rear shocks that allow us to always tow flat which increases safety without affecting rear suspension performance the way aftermarket air bags can. We then noted that J. D. successfully travels with a tongue weight under 500 lbs and thought that if we followed all the guidance on the forum, we wouldn't be putting ourselves and others on the road in danger. We are empty nesters with a small 20 lb dog. The combined weight of my wife and I and the dog is 325 lbs, our hitch weight typically 520 lbs (with half full fresh water tank), and the Oliver loaded with provisions is 5300 lbs and we carry less than 200 lbs of cargo in the car. So total actual payload is typically 300 lbs below the limit and gross trailer weight is 200 lbs below limit. Engine performance is definitely marginal on long grades but we have no trouble maintaining over 50 MPH climbing over the Siskyou pass on a hot day. We bought and use a tongue scale and occasionally weigh on commercial Cat scales to make sure we don't get careless or complacent. We have thoroughly enjoyed our Oliver in the brief time we have owned it, and had no idea what a danger we have been to others on the road. Now we are confused. Where did we go wrong?"

For the first year of ownership, we never used the patio lights at all because we didn't want to blind ourselves on the curbside, much less the neighbors on the streetside. Like other Oliver owners have, we ended up adding amber film over all the patio lights and the light is now warm and subdued. I agree that Oliver should provide separate switches for street and curbside lights, but we found that adding the amber film to the lights is an easy, low cost way to mitigate those annoyingly bright lights for everyone affected.

Ditto for me. On rural interstates though, I usually adjust my speed to match the predominant speed of most truckers. Out in Oregon that seems to typically be around 67-68 MPH. If I catch up to a trucker going at least 65 MPH I will follow it. If I start getting passed by trucks (which I hate, especially in the rain), I will speed up a little bit and drive with them. And I will admit that under ideal conditions in remote stretches of Interstate, I will cruise at 70 MPH. On two lane roads I drive 50-60 MPH depending on conditions and I don't try to keep up with the trucks. I will typically slow down in heavy crosswinds/headwinds but only to save on fuel. I find the LE II to be almost impervious to crosswinds.

I may have stumbled on a simple cause for your frequent furnace cycling, especially when it is colder. I had not been very pleased with the Dometic CT thermostat in my 2020 LE II and had at one time experienced the clicking noise but only when I tried to change the deadband from 2 degrees down to 1 degree. I occasionally experienced erratic performance from the thermostat and more so when the temperature dropped rapidly outside to temperatures below 45-50 degrees. I recently decided to change out to a new wifi thermostat (Micro-air Easy Touch RV), primarily because I store my trailer outside across town at my son's house and his wifi reaches the trailer. It now allows me to turn the furnace off and on, monitor the cabin temperature and change the temperature setting from my home or anywhere else. I can also monitor when the furnace is actually running or not from anywhere. When changing out the Dometic OEM thermostat, I discovered that there is an almost 1 inch diameter hole behind the Dometic thermostat that the thermostat wires come out of and this hole is directly behind a big hole in the back of the thermostat. The hole is large enough to allow a significant air exchange between the cabin and the basement/hull cavity between the outer hull and the inner hull. I think what is happening is when the furnace is running, the return air into the furnace is naturally creating low air pressure in the basement that pulls return air from the cabin through any penetration between the cabin and the basement/hull cavity. Most of this warm cabin air is pulled into the basement through the return vent at the rear curbside floor, but some air is pulled out of the cabin into the basement through other small openings such as around the drawers, etc. It will also pull warm cabin air through the thermostat and out through the hole behind it. This is not a problem although it could cause the thermostat to occasionally turn off earlier than it should. The real problem occurs when the furnace shuts off and warm cabin air starts exiting the cabin through the max air vent if open or other small air gaps around closed vents and the windows creating convection air currents. This creates a low pressure situation in the cabin which will cause much colder basement air to be drawn through the basement scuppers and into the cabin through any and all penetrations between the basement and the cabin, including cold air from the basement exiting the hole behind the thermostat and through the thermostat into the cabin. It is not unusual to have the basement temperature be 20 or more degrees below the cabin temperature. I believe that as soon as the furnace turns off when say the cabin temperature is 65, almost immediately a small current of much colder 45 degree air starts flowing out the hole from behind the thermostat, through the thermostat and into the cabin. This sudden inrush of much colder air into and through the thermostat causes it to quickly restart the furnace again and once again warm air gets pulled into the thermostat causing it to quickly turn the furnace off, which causes cold air to almost immediately begin entering the thermostat from behind and the cycle repeats itself. You can test my theory by unscrewing the Dometic thermostat and let it hang away from the wall and put a piece of tape over the hole behind it. If the rapid cycling doesn't happen anymore, you may have found the cause of your issue. Me, I am going to seal the hole in the wall behind the thermostat to seal off the air flow, and then put some little pads on the back of my new thermostat to hold it about 1/4 in off the wall to break the thermal coupling between the thermostat and the colder wall.

Those of us that occasionally or frequently encounter very cold weather when pursuing our passions with our Oliver can benefit immensely from the experiences and insights of others on this forum. Those that never do, or that always winterize, probably don't care as much, especially those that never boondock. Let's face it, if you have full hookups, you can put two electric space heaters in the basement and run the propane furnace at 70 and not worry. Absent shore power, cold weather can be stressful. I would like to see the Moderators expand the category of "Oliver Boondocking" and call it "Oliver Boondocking and Cold Weather Camping" so those of use that do find ourselves in frequently in cold weather and unwinterized can share our questions and insights in one place. I have spent over two years trying to figure out the eccentricities of the Oliver when it comes to balancing temperatures throughout the trailer in cold weather and I wouldn't trade my Oliver for anything else. However, what I have learned or not learned can't be shared in one giant post. And I haven't figured it all out either. After two years of moving remote wifi temperature sensors around to different places, changing out the thermostat, and opening different pathways for return air to enter the basement, I have learned a lot. Importantly, I have come to the tentative conclusion that the biggest reason that the basement temps can drop so far below the cabin temp in places is due to the fresh water tank. Heat travels through water 20 times faster than it does through air. Conventional wisdom would say that the fresh water tank would act like a hot water bottle to help keep the basement warm. However, the fresh water tank in the Oliver appears to sit on a rubber mat on the floor of the basement and that creates a direct coupled path for the heat in the water tank to be lost through the bottom of the trailer at a rate up to 20 times faster than heat is lost through the rest of the shell. This sucks heat out of the basement faster than the furnace can replace it. Even a small air gap under the fresh water tank would slow this heat loss dramatically. Unfortunately, insulating under the fresh water tank is not an option for us, although Oliver should consider doing something like it in future builds. The rapid heat loss from the fresh water tank could explain why the basement temperatures drop so much compared to cabin temperatures, unless the furnace runs constantly. I am wondering if it would help to add 2 inch or 3 inch rigid pink foam panels to the underside of the trailer between the ribs of the frame to reduce the heat loss from the fresh water tank. Am I crazy?

I researched this extensively when I bought my LE II back in 2020 and confidently claimed a 30% tax credit for the cost of my solar system option (including inverter) from Oliver plus the $2800 I spent on four LiPO4 batteries (Oliver did not offer a lithium option at the time). The total tax credit was just over $1,800. As I remember, you could not claim a tax credit for lithium batteries by themselves. The batteries had to be purchased and installed at the same time as the solar system and inverter to claim a tax credit on the batteries. The rules may have changed since then.

We have the standard floor plan so no nightstand. We use one of these and plug it into the cigarette lighter port above the stove. It has a Type C 30 watt fast charging port, two USB ports, plus you don't lose your cigarette lighter port so in theory you can charge 4 items at the same time. It has a continuous readout of battery voltage as well. I typically charge my dog tracking collar, phone (fast charge) and Garmin InReach through it at the same time. It has worked just fine so far.

I am a fellow cold weather camper and considered doing that as well but decided that doing so would result in insufficient total free air flow from the furnace likely leading to furnace heat exchanger overheating and short-cycling of the furnace. To work properly, the manual says the furnace needs a minimum of 25 sq. inches of unobstructed supply duct airflow. A 4 inch flex duct has 12.56 sq. inches of airflow as it leaves the furnace. Since there are only two supply ducts from the furnace, both must be completely unobstructed to achieve 25 sq. inches of unobstructed airflow. All duct work creates friction and turbulence which reduces the free flow of air. Rigid duct minimizes restriction of airflow but the flimsy flex duct used in the Oliver really reduces airflow in anything but short absolutely straight runs. Dedicating one 4 inch duct to a long run to to the bathroom would cause such a restriction that the furnace would be subject to short cycling and poor heating performance. I am sure that is why Oliver put the splitter into the long duct run to the bathroom so it feeds two registers, one being closer to the furnace. To further complicate things, in my LE II, Oliver put a reducer behind the bathroom register that necks it down from a 4 inch duct to a 3 inch duct further restricting airflow into the bathroom. They may have done this to make it feel like there was more air blowing into the bathroom (higher velocity but lower volume). I don't thing changing this from a 3 inch to a 4 inch would make much difference though, given the long duct run to the bathroom. I really wanted to turn my bathroom run into a straight, untapped duct run to the bathroom (i.e., eliminate the splitter) but determined it would not be acceptable without adding a third duct run off of the furnace, but that is next to impossible to do in my LE II, given the way Oliver installed the furnace in a vertical orientation. The furnace can be installed vertically or on its side. If Oliver had installed the furnace on its side, it would have been easy to run a third duct off of the furnace. It is not feasible to make that change now. I think probably the best that can be done now is to add a return air vent to the bathroom and add ventilation between the bathroom and main cabin as you are planning. I am getting ready to add a return vent to the bathroom in my LE II. I will probably put it in the recessed front of the vanity behind the towel bar, so that return air will directly warm the plumbing under the bathroom sink.

I swapped my supply flex ducts around at the furnace exactly as you did. I also improved on the 180 degree "crushed" flex duct turn at the same time. I could not find any adjustable hard elbows that would work as John suggests so I used a hard flexible dryer duct that is very short from the package, almost like rigid duct, but is expandable and bendable. I used all of it without expanding it beginning with a large 15 inch diameter 180 degree turn at the furnace then ran it as far forward as it would go without expanding it. It almost reached the diverter and then like you, I shortened the existing flex duct and clamped it and taped it to the new aluminum duct. As you discovered, switching the duct runs around at the furnace increases the air flow to the bathroom but adding the lazy aluminum duct for the hard turn made for a noticeable additive increase in air flow forward as well.

I too usually crack the Maxxair unit slightly and open the rear streetside window slightly to reduce condensation in cold weather. A warning though; I learned the hard way that you should never open the curbside window when using the furnace because the furnace combustion exhaust is located immediately below the window. I cracked the curbside window above my head once while sleeping on a cold windless night and woke up about 2:00 am with a strong smell of furnace exhaust in the trailer. I won't make that mistake again. I also don't crack the streetside dinette window when it is cold due to the fact it has the potential to confuse the thermostat, hence I open the rear streetside window.

It sounds like you may have been running off of only one propane tank at a time since you said one was depleted and the other was full. When it is very cold outside it is best to draw propane from both of your propane tanks at the same time. It is the expanding propane gas that draws heat out of the propane tank causing it to become much colder than the outside air temperature. By splitting the total propane drawn between two tanks instead of one, each tank loses heat at half the rate of a single tank and this will make a big difference in how cold the tanks will get . I believe that pointing the lever on the propane tank regulating valve straight up will cause the valve to pass propane from both tanks at the same time (make sure both tanks are turned on). If the valve is pointing to the tank on the right, it will only draw propane from the right tank even if both tanks are turned on. Same for pointing the lever to the left tank. Point it straight up which is halfway between each tank and it should draw from both tanks simultaneously. Someone correct me if I have this wrong. It is possible that drawing propane from both tanks will reduce the heat loss from the propane tanks sufficiently to negate the need for a heated tank blanket when running the furnace in very cold weather, at least at temperatures above O degrees F.

I have found that it is not difficult to loosen the nuts to put slack in the chains when needed. I have done so without even using a ratchet handle on the socket to adjust the nuts. OTT supplies a large socket and I am usually able to tighten or loosen the nuts with with only my hand around the socket. Just use the front tongue jack to raise the trailer tongue while still attached to the tow vehicle until the chains start to slacken. Then loosen the nuts and lower the tongue back down and the chains should now remain slack. Be sure to count the threads showing before loosening the nuts which makes it easy to tighten them back to where they need to be when the time comes. Reverse the process to tighten them again. Jack up the tongue again (while still hooked to the ball) and tighten the nuts until the proper number of threads are showing. Then reverse the tongue jack to lower the tongue back down and you are good to go. I have found it only takes a few minutes to loosen or tighten both nuts if you raise the tongue to take pressure off the chains. OTT demonstrated this technique when I picked up our LE II. Raising the tongue while still attached to the tow vehicle also allows you to routinely hitch and unhitch the trailer (i.e., attach/detach the whale tail) without ever having to adjust the nuts. If the road is so terribly rough that loosening the chains will not provide for sufficient articulation, you are probably pushing the ability of the bulldog hitch to articulate sufficiently, even with the Anderson disconnected.

Welcome home to Oregon!

Looks like UW colors on the Oliver. Shouldn't have to worry about anyone stealing it!🙂

I have not resolved the issue permanently but I have made enough adjustments that I am not too concerned about temperatures down to about 15 degrees. My LE II is hull 657 and when I am running the furnace I open the round access hatch under the pantry ((for inverter access) and that makes a huge difference. I am not sure your LE II has an access hatch under the pantry like mine. I also modified the hot air supply vent under the sink/microwave by removing the movable baffle that formerly constricted airflow out of the vent. This allows much more warm air to be blown forward in the cabin and mix with other cabin air before returning to the furnace through the vent under the bed. It takes 15 seconds to remove the movable damper in the vent. It made a huge difference. I think OTT put the movable damper in to try to force more air to the bathroom but it doesn't really help in that respect and instead reduces the total supply vents in square inches to less than required by the furnace manufacturer. A recipe for short cycling. You can also open a drawer or two by an inch which will allow air to flow through the back of the drawer cabinet and down into the basement when it drops below freezing (there is a large cutout behind the drawers to allow access to the sink plumbing). Again, your LE II may be different than mine. The only permanent fix is to add return vents forward in the cabin and in the bathroom, and reduce the size of the return vent under the bed. You should read the thread below that is currently active on the forum. It has a lot of information relevant to your issue with good input and advice from many contributors to this forum. Just click on the pic below. Good luck. You have an outstanding trailer. I just wish OTT would acknowledge the issue and develop a recommended fix for customers based on input from a professional HVAC engineer. Most of us are not comfortable winging it and cutting holes in our Oliver without guidance from the factory.

I would advise against using closed cell foam to plug the vents underneath the trailer. The foam is semi-permanent and can't be removed from the bug screens on the inside of the vent at all if you needed to. If you ever get water in the basement, the holes are the only way for it to escape. I would suggest making a small ball of HVAC putty and place it in the vent opening, being careful not to push it in too far into the screen. The putty does not harden and can be flicked out with a screwdriver when you want to open the vents for ventilation. I personally like the vents open anytime the temperatures are not going below freezing.

A long-shot but the stats above suggest to me that you may be experiencing a furnace air circulation problem in addition to any thermostat issues. I am guessing that you have the standard bed option and that you are testing your furnace with the bed made up. If this is not the case, please disregard this post as it isn't relevant to you. However, for others with the standard bed option, understanding my experience may be helpful. Your furnace is running about 66% of the time and is off only about 34% of the time. This seems like a lot of furnace on-time when it is 26 degrees outside. Off 4.04 On 9.36 Off 2.59 On 8.53 Off 5.41 On 7.42 Off 5.34 On 9.33 Off 3.49 On 7.55 Off 3.17 On 9 Off 2.23 26.27 51.19 34% 66% I experienced a similar problem with my LE II with the standard bed made up, although the outside temperature was up in the 40s. The problem was the furnace was running hard and short cycling, having trouble raising the temperature at the thermostat to merely 60 degrees. After getting out of bed, I realized that the temperature in the space under the bed was at least 85 degrees. I diagnosed the problem was the location of the single return air vent in my LE II that is located in the rear curbside corner of the trailer way back under the bed. It turns out, all of the hot air coming out of the two supply vents was being immediately sucked under the bed through the singe air return vent and back to the furnace and was not mixing with the remaining air in the cabin. Not only did this result in the rest of the trailer heating up very slowly, but the air from the furnace supply vents became very hot until the temperature over-limit switch in the furnace shut it down. Given the above stats, and assuming you have the standard floor plan and the bed is made up, it would be easy to test if you are experiencing this problem. Just rerun the test above, but remove a cushion on the front dinette and open the hatch wide. (also make sure your supply vents are angled forward so the warm air is not directed under the bed). This test condition will result in most of the return air to the furnace traveling through the open hatch and not under the bed, allowing the warm air from the furnace to mix with the cabin air (and thermostat) before returning the the furnace. If you experience a more balanced operation of the furnace on-off times resulting from this test, you have found at least part of your problem. This could actually be causing the problem with your thermostat as well. The Dometic thermostat anticipates when it needs to come on to maintain a temperature at no less than 2 degrees from the set-point. It actually remembers how fast the trailer cooled off previously and adjusts furnace restart time accordingly. If you have the air circulation problem I describe above, then the temperature around the thermostat is going to fall fast when the furnace turns off, even if the area under the bed is still a balmy 80 degrees. The thermostat "learns" that it needs to run almost constantly to maintain temperature within two degrees of the set-point at the thermostat. The clicking you hear may actually be coming from the furnace and not the air conditioner (mine was). This can happen when the furnace shuts off originally due to overheating of the heat exchanger, and the furnace igniter tries to restart the furnace before the heat exchanger has cooled sufficiently that the safety cutoff switch opens to allow the furnace to actually ignite again. This will generate a continuous, noisy clicking noise.

It does sound baffling. You indicated that you did a load test on the two "suspect batteries". You may want to also load test the other two batteries as part of your continued troubleshooting. Good luck.

The method (hack?) I chose to seal the battery door vents was quick and temporary until I get around to a more permanent solution. I just taped over the four vents on the inside of the door with wide white tape of the kind that is used to tape insulation around metal duct work and water heaters. You can't see the tape from the outside so it is not unsightly and does seal off the air flow. I then cut a piece of reflectix insulation to fit the inside of the battery door 1/2 inch , smaller around than the door, cut a hole so the reflectix would fit over the lock mechanism, and then taped the reflectix insulation onto the backside of the door with Frog Tape completely around the outer edge. It has lasted almost two years and worked well enough that I have not been motivated to do a more professional job. There have been posts with pictures in the past on this forum by folks that did a professional job at sealing the vents and insulating the door itself. I searched awhile and couldn't find them, but I will bet someone else on the forum remembers this and will post a link to the thread(s). They did it right. I have yet to insulate the storage door but it is on my to do list. Steve

You might try changing the fan speed setting on the thermostat from "Auto" to "High" (see instructions) and see if the problem(s) go away. Assuming you have the suburban furnace, the furnace fan must always run at "high" speed anyway. The "auto" fan speed setting is only relevant when using certain air conditioners/heat pumps.