Coach Heater

[homeless]

2000 Itasca, Previous owner told me the Coach Heater on the dash never did work! And I guess it still don't! Can someone tell me what it is suppose to do? And if it don't work what to look at??

[02rld]

Years ago I bought a used 1983 Itasca with the same issue. It had already been through two owners and no one could figure it out. I took the dog house off and looked at the hoses--It turned out that when the factory spliced the heater hose to install the tee necessary to run engine heat to the heater in the rear of the m/h they did not remove any extra hose and just stuffed it down out of the way creating a kink so the water could not get to the front heater. I simply lifted it, removed about 4" to 6" of hose, reattached hose to the T and had a great front heater!!!

[homeless]

Originally Posted by 02rld

Years ago I bought a used 1983 Itasca with the same issue. It had already been through two owners and no one could figure it out. I took the dog house off and looked at the hoses--It turned out that when the factory spliced the heater hose to install the tee necessary to run engine heat to the heater in the rear of the m/h they did not remove any extra hose and just stuffed it down out of the way creating a kink so the water could not get to the front heater. I simply lifted it, removed about 4" to 6" of hose, reattached hose to the T and had a great front heater!!!

Heat that comes out of the floor registers and not the dash ports?

[DAN L]

homeless,
my coach heater has hot water going through it all the time.
there is a basket blower below the co pilots seat bulkhead. that is what the switch controls.
my basket hits the housing which is a common issue, makes a lot of noise, and blows the fuse. this fuse also controls the backup camera. I need the backup camera all the time, the coach heater not so much.
the air from the coach heater comes out of the floor heater vents.
do a forum search and you will find that the blower is a pita to reach.
I disconnected the wires from the dash c.h. switch. I plan to use the switch for fog lights in the future.

[02rld]

My issue was dash ports, but a kink in either hose will stop the the flow. It is just circulating your radiator water through heater cores. Check all the hoses!

[winnie32v]

I also had a non-functioning coach heater when I bought my unit.
Here's what I did.............

1. Put dash switch on HI or LO and nothing happened.

2. Lift up your dashboard and locate the blade fuse that controls the Coach Heater. Mine was blown.

3. Replaced fuse and put dash switch on LO, nothing happened. Put switch on HI, fuse blew.

4. Removed floor vent cover on the floor, directly behind the front driver/passenger seats. Carefully with agility, I put my arm in the vent and was able to get to the birdcage of the heat exchanger. I tried to rotate the cage but felt a serious resistance. This was the indicator of the "famous" problem with this set-up.....the cage has moved, over time, on the shaft and is now 'rubbing' against the housing, causing resistance which causes an amp overload and the fuse blows.....as it should.

5. Refer to # 3. The reason that the fuse did not blow on thge LO setting...there is a LO / Hi resistor in the heater unit. It is not unusual for this resistor to 'go bad' and one of the speeds will not work. In my case, the LO side of the resistor was bad and, hence, the circuit was not complete and the fuse won't see any amp overload....because there isn't any.

6. I ordered a complete new unit and just replaced it. Once the old unit was out, I realized that I could have fixed it but was not sure what the problem was so.............

7. There is quite a procedure involved to remove the 10 gal water heater tank just to get to the Coach Heater. I have a procedure w/ photos that was available from a very detailed forum member that will guide you through the process. If you need this, please contact me. I can send a Word.doc OR .pdf, as needed.

8. This Coach heater was one of the best innovations that Winnebago put in this unit. We leave the very cold north for Florida and we are extremely comfortable w/ no coats on while driving and the unit is warm from front to back. We usually run on the LO setting until we stop for the night when I will run HI just to get the unit warmer before we sleep for the night.

Hope this helps to solve your issue.
Let us know how you make out.

[homeless]

Originally Posted by winnie32v

I also had a non-functioning coach heater when I bought my unit.
Here's what I did.............

1. Put dash switch on HI or LO and nothing happened.

2. Lift up your dashboard and locate the blade fuse that controls the Coach Heater. Mine was blown.

3. Replaced fuse and put dash switch on LO, nothing happened. Put switch on HI, fuse blew.

4. Removed floor vent cover on the floor, directly behind the front driver/passenger seats. Carefully with agility, I put my arm in the vent and was able to get to the birdcage of the heat exchanger. I tried to rotate the cage but felt a serious resistance. This was the indicator of the "famous" problem with this set-up.....the cage has moved, over time, on the shaft and is now 'rubbing' against the housing, causing resistance which causes an amp overload and the fuse blows.....as it should.

5. Refer to # 3. The reason that the fuse did not blow on thge LO setting...there is a LO / Hi resistor in the heater unit. It is not unusual for this resistor to 'go bad' and one of the speeds will not work. In my case, the LO side of the resistor was bad and, hence, the circuit was not complete and the fuse won't see any amp overload....because there isn't any.

6. I ordered a complete new unit and just replaced it. Once the old unit was out, I realized that I could have fixed it but was not sure what the problem was so.............

7. There is quite a procedure involved to remove the 10 gal water heater tank just to get to the Coach Heater. I have a procedure w/ photos that was available from a very detailed forum member that will guide you through the process. If you need this, please contact me. I can send a Word.doc OR .pdf, as needed.

8. This Coach heater was one of the best innovations that Winnebago put in this unit. We leave the very cold north for Florida and we are extremely comfortable w/ no coats on while driving and the unit is warm from front to back. We usually run on the LO setting until we stop for the night when I will run HI just to get the unit warmer before we sleep for the night.

Hope this helps to solve your issue.
Let us know how you make out.

I would like this word DOC?

[winnie32v]

Originally Posted by homeless

I would like this word DOC?

Click on "Winnie32v" to get you to my info and "send me a private message" or "email" with your email address and I'll get this out to you ASAP.