2006 36 ft journey furnace return

[jabass]

took off my furnace return cover to try and find a filter inside my propane heater return vent. what I found was a louvered grill that would not allow me to get below to clean off some kind of mesh. anyone have ideas how to get past the grill.

[cbeierl]

There is no filter on the furnace, only on the AC.

[jabass]

Yes, I saw there wasn't a filter. My question remains: anyone got any ideas how to clean the dust/filth in the return vent when there is a guard precluding any cleaning of the (apparent ) mesh just above the furnace.

[powercat_ras]

You did not say what make model year of Winnebago you are working on. That said, the return air side of a RV forced air furnace is generally open and is connected to the basement of the RV and to dead spaces in the RV such as under the shower, under the bath cabinet floor, and in walls in particular where there are return air vents.

You are not going to get to the heat duct side of the system from the return air dead space.

#1: You can remove floor vent covers and use a flex hose vac to get things out of the hot air side. You can vac up what you can by removing return air vent covers, too.

#2: It is work, but you can remove the furnace innards by first removing outside cover, furnace fuse, disconnecting the 12 volt wires, turning off propane, disconnecting the propane line. Then you will have more access to the dead space that draws return air and the metal hot air outlet ducting to vac up more.

All that said unless you bought your RV in total pig sty condition or the furnace is not working I would NOT do #2, the improvement is not worth the work.