I was out today in my 180,  I have it hooked to 110V shore power.  I have company coming in for the week. (better half out of town kids and step-kids) They are coming in town for a wedding. So I graciously offered to leave the house to the girls  and I was going to sleep in the R-Pod  so they can talk all night like I know they will. 

Anyway I went out today and turned on the Heat / A/C unit and turned to automatic and got an Error Message of E-1.  The weather today was a very mild upper 60s lower 70s  but I could not get the unit to respond to either heat or cooling. 

What do I do next?

TIA

Tom

  I bought the R-Pod used so I don't have ANY of the original paperwork on anything.  

If that fails I guess its time to get on the roof and look at the unit.  I just came through Hurricane Sally   Which the Pod didn't move that I can tell but I have it parked in a very protected area of my yard.   Privacy fence on the back side, tall azalea behind it and parked under an Oak tree.  with house on door entrance side and my truck parked in front.  

I do keep it covered with a large tarp that is staked out.  The tarp broke loose about 1/2  way through Sally and got hung up on the antenna and the awning.   So it may have knocked something loose up top.   

So If this doesn't work I go topside this afternoon.  

I've checked all my breakers and fuses, All seem to be good.  I unplugged my shore supply line and disconnected 12volt.   Let it set for an hour or two and plugged back in.    Same issue.    So I went top side and inspected the unit.  I couldn't see any loose, or corroded wires.    There were a few ants  in the box but they were on the outside of the electrical works  None on the inside.    My concern topside were due to Hurricane Sally thinking she may have pulled something loose but nothing unusual noted. 

I sprayed it all down with contact cleaner just in case.  

There are two wires  leading from the furnace to the thermostat. I believe the internal wires in the furnace they are connected to are blue. I wouldn't trust FR to use any consistent color code on their end. 

All the thermostat does is close the circuit between those two wires to turn on the furnace and open them to shut it off. So, if you want to test to be sure your thermostat is the problem, just find the terminal positions at the furnace where the thermostat wires originate and jumper them together. Its all at 12V so no risk of electric shock. Of course, you have to wait a couple of minutes for the furnace to complete its turn on sequence. 

Here is the manual. 

https://manuals.heartlandowners.org/manuals/Heating-Cooling/Furnace/Suburban/Suburban%20FURNACE_Service-and-Training-Manual-11-05-2015.pdf - https://manuals.heartlandowners.org/manuals/Heating-Cooling/Furnace/Suburban/Suburban%20FURNACE_Service-and-Training-Manual-11-05-2015.pdf  

If the furnace works when you jumper the tstat terminals then the tstat is the problem.  If it was me I'd try to figure out how to replace it with one that isn't connected to the a/c. 

Electrical is my Achilles heel.   As I explained to him the trailer runs on either 30 amp or 50 amp.   He says those are both 220 volts.      The trailer is hooked up to 110 volt shore line via an adapter....which as I understand it it is only 15 amps.   So could being connected to 15 amp vs 30 or 50 amps be the problem.

Could That be the problem?????

I’ve read some post that this seems to be more prevalent when hooked to 110volt shore power.  

That runs on 12Vdc from your battery and doesn't need shore power to operate if your battery is holding a charge. So, its not related to whether your shore power is connected or not except that you eventually need the converter to be plugged in to maintain battery charge, which a 15A circuit will supply no problem.

Your a/c tech friend is right about 240V for residential air conditioners but not for rPods. Everything in a rPod either runs on 12Vdc or 120Vac. You would not be able to run the rPod a/c on a 15A circuit (20A minimum is required) but that's not an issue for you right now. 

Still open for suggestions.   I did find the ground up top it was a yellow wire with red strip.  It was tight. 

Just to be clear, you're trying to get the Suburban propane furnace to work not the Dometic roof air conditioner right? 

The furnace does not need the a/c for it to work, but unfortunately in its infinite wisdom FR decided to change from a simple dedicated furnace thermostat to a fancy LCD model that also has to have connection to the a/c for it to work. The E-1 error is telling you that that a/c connection isn't there for some reason.

The furnace itself only needs a simple thermostat that closes a circuit when its calling for heat. That circuit is supplied by the furnace using two wires. If you identify those two wires and temporarily short them together the furnace should run. I suggest that you do that first so you know for sure where your problems are before tearing into the air conditioner.

I posted a link to the furnace manual earlier. If you aren't comfortable reading that to ID the right wires  maybe you can get your friend who does HVAC work to come back and do that for you.

You will need 12V power to test the furnace. The blower that's not working is the furnace blower, yes? Do your other 12V loads (lights, bath vent fan, water pump, etc) work? 

If you can confirm that your furnace is OK you can try to dig into the a/c controls or you might want to just install a simple cheap 2 wire furnace thermostat and get rid of the unnecessary complexity that FR has decided to do. That's what my 2015 179 has and it works perfectly well. Complicated isn't necessarily better, its usually the opposite. Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Suburban-161154-Wall-Thermostat/dp/B003VB0YEC/ref=asc_df_B003VB0YEC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242042684287&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14856842385697236832&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008704&hvtargid=pla-582577147814&psc=1

Not off topic at all, it will operate the furnace only. I was suggesting it for Tearless because it sounds like he is under the gun to get the furnace in his trailer working for his guests. 

The a/c's on the older rpods (like my 2015 179) have their tstats inside the interior a/c cover. I don't know what would be required to get a simple thermostat working in the newer Dometic a/c's, but I'd guess there would be a way. 

I'm with you on simplicity, some things have just gotten way more complicated than necessary. Thermostats are one of them in my opinion. The manufacturers seem to be in a race to add "features" most of which most folks will never fully understand much less use, especially not in a travel trailer.

The British have a great phrase they use for the preference for simple solutions that get the job done, "cheap and cheerful" they call it. Says it all I think. 

Actually it was both the A/C and heater as well as the fan that will not come on.   Which leads us to believe if not the thermostat which we have ruled out the next most likely culprit would be the circuit board.  It took some doing and several phone calls and to dealers but I finally found the newest version of the circuit board.  Ordered it tonight.   

I was able to track down the ground wire. It was hidden behind some other wires but it was secure .

If the new board doesn't fix we had already discussed what you were referring to by bypassing the board and connecting a simple stupid  or not smart thermostat directly to the air conditioner and heater.  I forget exactly how he was going to do it but like I said electrical is my achilleas heel .

LOL  Not sure if that was a complement or not but I will take it as one.  I am VERY left handed or right brain oriented.   My thought process is rarely on track with others around me.  

I will let you all know what happens with the new circuit board is installed.

Oh by the way the OEM circuit board # is:  3313199.000. The newest correct version is" 3313107.076.

Boatandrvaccessories.com  has the best prices.  

https://www.boatandrvaccessories.com/products/dometic-3313107076-oem-s-z-air-conditioner-control-board-c-f

As Forrest Gump says, "stupid is as stupid does". Since the a/c in rpods is not a heat pump there is zero benefit -none- in having a complex control system that integrates the furnace and the a/c. Unlike in your house where you might need a control system to switch between heat pump and furnace operation automatically based on outside air temp, no one is ever going to run both at the same time in the trailer. It just makes both more prone to failure and confusion. If the circuit board doesn't work I would just get a dedicated simple thermostat for each piece of equipment and call it good, it will improve maintenance troubleshooting and simplify operation going forward.  

It took 3-4 days to arrive.  I installed it today.  Took about 15 minutes ..

TaDaaa!!!!  Problem is resolved.  The board fixed the problem.   

So my biggest expense was the replacement thermostat which couldn't be returned after installed so I have a replacement spare thermometer now. Doesn't take up much room in the drawer.  

Thanks again.