Drew Callahan · April 17, 2026
Walk into a Newmar dealership’s service bay and ask about a dead AC unit, and they’ll quote you north of $1,200 for diagnosis and parts. Ask the same question on an RV forum, and someone will tell you it’s probably just a $35 capacitor. One of those answers leaves your wallet intact. The dealer isn’t … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 16, 2026
Newmar doesn’t publish a troubleshooting flowchart for furnace failures, and dealer service advisors rarely volunteer that most no-heat situations in a Bay Star Sport come down to two specific, owner-replaceable parts. You won’t find this in the owner’s manual either — what you get is a schematic diagram and a parts list, but no step-by-step … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 16, 2026
I was idling in a Costco parking lot outside Tucson when I heard it—a grinding noise from the rooftop AC unit, followed by a thin electrical smell seeping down through the vents. The fan wasn’t dead, but it was struggling hard, moving air like it was pushing through wet blankets. That sound and that smell … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 15, 2026
Most Thor Gemini owners assume their air conditioner is either working or broken—that there’s no middle ground, no partial failure, nothing to diagnose or fix yourself. That assumption costs them money and discomfort. The reality is that AC units fail in stages, and catching those early warning signs—the compressor that hums but doesn’t spin, the … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 15, 2026
RV repairs are either thirty minutes or three days — there’s rarely an in-between. The difference is almost always whether you understand the system before you start, whether you have the right tools, and whether you ordered the correct part the first time. I’ve learned all three lessons the hard way, multiple times. The furnace … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 10, 2026
Most RV owners don’t realize their Forest River Solera’s AC unit is dying until it’s too late — and by then, they’re sitting in 110-degree heat waiting for a mobile tech who won’t show up for a week. I learned this the hard way at mile marker 847 through the Mojave, watching the rooftop unit … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 10, 2026
Thor Outlaw furnace failures sit in a blind spot that dealer service bulletins and most owner’s manuals gloss right over. The igniter electrode and its control board don’t fail gracefully — they fail hard, and they fail in ways that leave owners stranded in cold weather thinking the whole furnace assembly is shot when it’s … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 9, 2026
It started with a sound—that low grinding noise underneath the AC compressor, the kind that makes you go quiet for a second and listen harder. I was parked outside Flagstaff in a Forest River Sunseeker, mid-August, running the rooftop unit hard enough to actually stay comfortable in the heat. The grinding got worse over two … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 9, 2026
Most RV owners assume their furnace igniter is a sealed, bulletproof component — fire it up fifty times a season and it’ll keep working until the rig is sold. That assumption costs people a lot of cold nights. The truth is more granular: Forest River Solera furnaces fail at the igniter and control board with … Read more
Drew Callahan · April 8, 2026
I’ve got my work bench set up in bay three of my usual spot, tools laid out in the exact order I reach for them — and right now I’m staring at a Thor Quantum AC unit that came off a rig last week. The owner called in mid-August, somewhere outside Phoenix, saying the unit … Read more
