38Q furnace heat distribution

cpoo · 10-18-2015, 10:05 AM

My new 38Q is set to arrive next week. In this coach the furnace is located in the rear. For those of you with the longer coaches with the furnance at one end I wonder if you have OK heat distribution from the front vents? I suspect there will be more heat in the center and back but am wondering if the blower is big enough to carry heat that far. I appreciate any insights as i suspect I will be using the furnace on our shake down trip because we are already dropping into the 20's at night.

j.smith · 10-18-2015, 04:04 PM

Also have a 38Q, 2015 model. The gas heater works very well, you don' t really notice that it is running, but it will warm the entire coach. We also have the fire place and find that we use that most of the time, it will warm the living and dining areas.

cpoo · 10-18-2015, 05:22 PM

Thank you. Glad to hear it works well. I had a fireplacr in last coach and loved it.

j.smith · 10-18-2015, 06:26 PM

We are also very happy with the fireplace, probably would not have ordered it, it was in the coach which we bought off the lot. Now that we have had some time with it we are very glad we got it.

When you pick up your coach make sure they demonstrate the autostart for the generator. Ours did not work from the factory, required a replacement control unit, took 2 trips to the factory to get it working correctly. Spent the summer in Alaska a lot of the time without hookups, AGS paid for itself during that trip.

alank · 10-18-2015, 07:44 PM

Your concern is well warranted. I have a 36Y with the same furnace setup and a lot more heat came out of the bedroom vent than the others. Just shut down the bedroom vent to cut most of the heat coming out that vent and most of the heat will be forced to the front.

cpoo · 10-19-2015, 06:38 AM

Thanks for all the info. Good idea to close that vent. I had the same experience on fireplace on our Sightseer 35G. Thought it was just a gimmick and then found we loved it both visually and functionally. The auto start on the generator is a big reason we are trading. I appreciate the headsup. We traded a 2015 Sightseer 35G. We liked it for 15 months and then saw the 38Q with all the features including the new Ford 6 speed tranny. They were eager to make the deal so we took the plunge. We thought the 35G was our last moho and we would have been good with it. Ours is the Suncruiser as well. I hear Itasca will be closed in a couple of years. There is no difference anymore and even interior colors are interchangeable so the Itasca dealerships will become Winnebago. Alaska is great. We did it 7 years ago in a 27 ft moho. Have had three others since. Did your larger coach handle the frost heaves and the mountains without problem? We used the Marine HWY which was great with the 27 ft. the Q might be a bit more complicated and certainly expensive.

j.smith · 10-19-2015, 10:27 AM

No problems with the trip, just had to get used to the v10 way of doing things. Previous coach was on the W22 workhorse chassis, miss the grunt of the 8.1.

For me the jury's still out on the 6 speed, I don't think the v10 has the horsepower without revving the crap out if it for a 6 speed. Certainly do not expect any fuel economy increases, but will wait to see how it works out. This is our last coach so we plan to drive the wheels off it...

cpoo · 10-19-2015, 11:48 AM

I hope it works for you and me as I hope this to be the last one and one we like. We seem to spend more time parked than traveling so the size is important.

j.smith · 10-19-2015, 10:45 PM

Might not have been quite clear in the last post,the 2015s have the 5 speed, we have averaged 6.5 mpg over the last 17k miles. I think the 6 speed will provide better shifting when climbing but don't think the mileage will improve any. But it will be interesting to see how it actually performs...

rk911 · 10-20-2015, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j.smith

Also have a 38Q, 2015 model. The gas heater works very well, you don' t really notice that it is running, but it will warm the entire coach. We also have the fire place and find that we use that most of the time, it will warm the living and dining areas.

X2 on this. we have an early 2016 Suncruiser 38Q (basically the same as the 2015 model). we're in rapid city and the nites have been coolish. on mild nites we set the fireplace to 70 and go to bed. on nites in the 30's we set both the fireplace and and gas heat in zone 1 to about 70. I don't like the electric heat option as it's really noisy so we keep the zone 2 heat off.