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Heated enclosed trailer burns up

S

savagecanuck

Free Member
This happened in my neck of the woods yesterday.I wonder if the sled caused it or the furnace in the trailer,very nasty either way.Looks very panicky!!
http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-105885-2-.htm#105885

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/olNG39zWs9o?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" width="1280" frameborder="0" height="720"></iframe>

vernon_p2451566.jpg


20140104_075143_resized_921.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wonder if he was driving/towing with the furnace running.

My furnace MFG states in bold letters NOT to tow with the furnace operating. Guess is could cause an explosion.
 
Sorry for their loss.
Read thru the post but can't see where it said it was an heated trailer, did I miss something? Know lots of people who run their furnace in their trailer as they are towing.
 
Furnace or catalytic/open flame heater?

I'd be hard to believe a forced air furnace would start a fire as it's combustion chamber is closed off to the inside of the trailer.
Now a catalytic heater.....tick tick tick
 
If I were forced to guess,
I would say pilot light ignited fumes from leaked gas (from sleds or stored in containers)
 
Mine almost blew up

I turned it on for the first time in the mountains in November, waited about 15 min to check on it, meanwhile my pups were inside it. I opened up the door and the trailer was filled with smoke.

The furnace had an internal fire.

Suburban replaced it under warranty. Eventhough the Trails West Rep at the snow show and the trailer dealer both said you could run the heater while driving. Great sales pitch, they are now saying differently since so many people are having problems doing just that. The funny thing with me, I wasn't even driving... it just went out
 
Last edited:
Hillside said:
I turned it on for the first time in the mountains in November, waited about 15 min to check on it, meanwhile my pups were inside it. I opened up the door and the trailer was filled with smoke.

The furnace had an internal fire.

Suburban replaced it under warranty. Eventhough the Trails West Rep at the snow show and the trailer dealer both said you could run the heater while driving. Great sales pitch, they are now saying differently since so many people are having problems doing just that. The funny thing with me, I wasn't even driving... it just went out
Click to expand...

Did Trails West come and tow it back to Preston for you? I'm curious what the problem is, and glad I'm only 1/2 hour from their plant.
On my trailer it just seems like the furnace is a little weak. It seams like it takes at least 30-45 minutes before it feels like it's taken the chill off. The only place that has much warm air flow is when I open the door on the glove warmer and let the air blow out there. Air flow everywhere else is just a slight trickle.
 
Exactly what I was dealering with

Laundryboy said:
Did Trails West come and tow it back to Preston for you? I'm curious what the problem is, and glad I'm only 1/2 hour from their plant.
On my trailer it just seems like the furnace is a little weak. It seams like it takes at least 30-45 minutes before it feels like it's taken the chill off. The only place that has much warm air flow is when I open the door on the glove warmer and let the air blow out there. Air flow everywhere else is just a slight trickle.
Click to expand...


Mine has the same exact issue. What year is yours? Do you drive with it on? Shane told me 1 week ago everyone drives with them on, after they towed it back and he called me this week, he changed his tone and says I can't drive with it on. Unreal... I know 4 guys with this same trailer and they all drive with it on...

Like you, I ran mine for 45-1hr and the only area that was blowing warm air was in the box below the boots. The in floor heat didn't feel warm ever. I couldn't ever get my thermostat above 55degrees. The one day I ran the furnace for 4 hours and it still never got above 55degrees. I truly believe trails west failed on this new design. Everyone I know with a 2013 doesn't have these problems and the in floor heat system isn't necessary. All the ducting and air passages actually don't move air. Traps it

They said on Wednesday it was 7 degrees and they ran the trailer for 10 min and rose to 82 degrees inside. They even opened the side door and ran it to make sure it continuously run and nake sure the furnace didn't fail. Sounds like you have a faulty unit yourself.
 
They said on Wednesday it was 7 degrees and they ran the trailer for 10 min and rose to 82 degrees inside. They even opened the side door and ran it to make sure it continuously run and nake sure the furnace didn't fail. Sounds like you have a faulty unit yourself.[/QUOTE]

I don't want to sound negative, but I don't believe that you could heat a four place enclosed trailer to 80+ degrees from 7 degrees in 10 minutes.
 
lol

gonehuntnpowder said:
I bet the one in the pic heated up that fast.
Click to expand...


I doubt it too, I let the dumb thing run for 4 hours and it never got past 55degrees and it was 20 outside. They said they let it run for x amount of time and it got to 88. Trails west is telling me that I can't run my heater if its windy outside. I did that on vail pass and the furnace had an internal fire. Ridiculous
 
I have a dumb question I guess. Why does one need to run a furnace in the trailer while traveling, especially if it only takes mere minutes to heat a trailer up to a reasonable temperature?
 
Hillside said:
Mine has the same exact issue. What year is yours? Do you drive with it on? Shane told me 1 week ago everyone drives with them on, after they towed it back and he called me this week, he changed his tone and says I can't drive with it on. Unreal... I know 4 guys with this same trailer and they all drive with it on...
Click to expand...

he's a peach isn't he? haha

i wonder how long until TW pulls down that video??

the furnace charmac uses is 4-6k larger than the TW unit, hoping that helps speed up the warm up time. i would pull over 10-15 min from the parking lot and crank mine one so it was kind of warm when we got there. otherwise its just getting warm when your ready to leave. i would like to put a programmable thermostat on my charmac so that we can set to come on around 30 min before we plan to arrive and set at 50deg. then when we get there crank it up to 65 or 70.

where are the RV units exhausted at? with snowmobile trailers venting up front i think that can induce too much back pressure on the exhaust vent while driving at freeway speeds. that could cause all sorts of issues
 
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