Drew Callahan

I’ve got a blackened igniter electrode sitting on my workbench right now — pulled from a Berkshire that came in last month with the owner convinced the whole furnace assembly was toast. The ceramic around the spark point is cracked, the tip’s carboned over to nearly nothing, and the wire connector shows green corrosion where … Read more

“Drew, my Palazzo’s furnace keeps clicking but won’t actually fire. The blower kicks on when I turn up the thermostat, I can smell propane coming from the vents, but nothing ignites. Is this the igniter, or am I looking at a bigger problem?” That question landed in my inbox last winter, and it’s the same … Read more

I’m standing on the ladder with my head tilted up into the rooftop AC shroud, one hand on the blower housing and the other holding a multimeter. The hum is there — the compressor is spinning fine — but the fan blade barely moves. It’s 98 degrees outside, and inside the Berkshire it’s climbing toward … Read more

A Fleetwood Bounder furnace igniter replacement runs $280 to $420 in labor alone at most RV service centers — and that’s before the part itself. Add a control board failure into the mix and you’re looking at a shop bill that climbs past $800 without much effort. But here’s the thing: if you’ve got a … Read more

Most Fleetwood Bounder owners miss the early warning signs of a dying AC capacitor until the compressor won’t turn over at all. By then, you’re looking at a $600+ rebuild instead of a $40 part swap. I’ve pulled units off dozens of these rigs where the run capacitor was clearly failing for months — the … Read more

Is your Fleetwood Discovery’s AC running but barely pushing air, or are you getting nothing but a hum when you flip it on? Chances are you’re staring at either a shot capacitor or a fan motor that’s given up the ghost—and the difference between those two repairs is the difference between a quick roadside fix … Read more

It was mid-October when I pulled into a rest area outside Flagstaff with a Discovery I’d just picked up for a flip. Temps were dropping fast at that elevation, so I fired up the furnace to test it — and got nothing but a weak click and a smell like stale propane. The igniter was … Read more

Walk into a Newmar dealership service bay and ask about a furnace igniter failure on a King Aire, and you’ll hear one story: “Control board is toast, we need to replace the whole assembly, that’s a $600 service call plus parts.” Log onto an RV forum and you’ll hear the opposite: “Igniter electrode always goes … Read more

The Newmar King Aire pulls its cooling load through a Dometic rooftop unit that was engineered for reliability, but like every AC system mounted that high and that exposed, it lives on borrowed time once the run capacitor starts to age. I’ve watched owners sit in 115-degree heat waiting weeks for a dealer service slot … Read more

Your American Coach American Eagle’s owner’s manual doesn’t flag it, and most dealer service advisors won’t mention it until the bill arrives: a failed run capacitor on the rooftop AC unit almost never travels alone. What looks like a simple $60 part swap—and what I’ve seen quoted at $400+ in labor—is actually a diagnostic checkpoint. … Read more