Taking out the furnace has been quite a riddle. We weren't able to find a method from others that worked for this Duo Therm furnace:
Everything has to come out of the camper for the new floor and general clean up. We want to keep the furnace and keep using it, but for now it needed to come out. Not easy. David kept looking for a final elusive screw, or finding the right way to wiggle or pull it out.
When we did our 1965 Security Traveler, and its Hydro Flame furnace, we had the same problem: STUCK. David couldn't remove it, so it just stayed in place and and he worked around it. Not ideal.
Searching online, we found several other people that ran into this problem with a variety of mid 50-70's campers, but there wasn't an easy solution. Many people ended up destroying the furnace while taking it out, or sawing through the exhaust ducting. We didn't want to do that. In general, everyone seemed to agree that they are just stuck with rust, and with enough wiggling and elbow grease you can get them out. This one wasn't budging. Just before resorting to the sawsall, we figured it out a solution.
Part of the problem lies in the vent- there is no was to get your hands on the exhaust pipe because the vent (whether it is a Hydro flame or Duo Therm) blocks it.
Here is how it worked. The exhaust pipe goes through the wall to a vent, and the vent is covered like this:
Even after unscrewing the vent cover from the outer wall, the heater didn't come out. So David drilled out the rivets on the vent cover, exposing the flange:
And hit that flange with a hammer. The exhaust pipe, previously stuck to the flange with rust, came loose. And voila, the pieces came apart.
(You can tell there was water leaking around the vent cover, which is why a previous owner put so much caulk around it).
Here is David with the whole furnace.
The rust that held the exhaust pipe to the flange was the only rusty part. The furnace looks great over all and we look forward to years of cozy camping in the Montanan mountains.
No comments:
Post a Comment