Another Newbie

[PNW]

Hello everyone, my name is Justin and I am now the owner of a 2021 Coleman 2835BH. My wife and I bought it from a government auction and just drove to Oregon to get it. The trailer was used by FEMA for temporary housing for displaced wildfire victims, there's about 60-80 trailers there and they are auctioning 20 at a time. Some looked like they had never been used and ours looked to be lightly used.



Upon our first brief inspection, my impression was "this trailer is flippin sweet!" that was short-lived as We were kinda rushed picking it up, the armed FEMA officers were not interested in letting me properly set up my new equalizer hitch so i got it out of there, then finished setting up on the side of the 101. I drove 8 hours straight home (WA state) and it was dark so I just unhitched it and went to sleep. Yesterday, I got out there and leveled it as well as opened it up. I wired an outdoor plug in receptacle for 30amp power and once I got all of the lights on and the slide open, I started noticing how poorly built this thing is.. I mean wow. Anyways, we paid $25k for it so I still feel like it was a good deal, even though there are some immediate repairs needed.



A few things that have me worried are the A/C unit is very noisey and its interesting I turned the thermostat on for the furnace but the AC came on instead and blew cold air into an already freezing trailer (it was 18 deg F outside). I am wondering why the AC came on and not the heater.. Are these essentially heat pumps? I guess I should find a user manual for this model and start researching. Another thing is the fireplace doesn't work, the breaker was tripped so I reset it and still no power at the fireplace. At this point I'm getting pissed, all I want is some heat in this damm thing and my two heat sources on a relatively new camper don't work.. I understand it could be a matter of me not knowing how to properly operate it but it seemed straight-forward. Anyone else having this issue?



Thank you for allowing me into this forum, I love to learn as much as I can about the products I buy so I'm hoping to learn and possibly help in any way.

[sundancer 87]

Noisy is normal for the most part. A photo of the thermostat would be helpful to determine what you have there.

[franktafl]

Good luck, every one of these things have something wrong with them on the outset. They were probable manufactured so quickly for this customer that they were/not QC’d very well. Keep in mind that these things are made up of two 120mvolt circuits and not 220 to please take that into consideration when feeding the rv with power. The ac doesn’t have a heat pump, the heater is on propane. Do u have propane? The fireplace is a 110v beastie, the front cover of the fireplace lifts up to expose the screws to remove the fireplace then you can remove it to unplug it but I would check your power feeds first to get two 110’s.

[Edwal07]

If you have the digital thermostat go to “fan” and take it off “auto”. That will turn off the A/C fan, it was meant to help circulate the air, it makes it worse for heating. Once you turn on heat, set the temp, the heater fan should come on, then a bit later you should hear the burner light. Go outside and check the heater exhaust, you should feel hot air. If you don’t hear it light inside or no heat from exhaust check your propane and regulator, valves open and regulator lever in on position!
You may need to light a burner on your stove to bleed air from the lines and ensure you do have propane being supplied. If your Coleman is built by Keystone there is a recall on the regulator, check to see if yours is on the list, mine was and just quit working and was replaced. I have an Aspen Trail by Keystone and is very similar to yours.
Hope this helps as I had to call Keystone to find out how to turn off the A/C fan too! I agree with the shoddy construction and inattention to quality. There is always something you have to correct!