Fixes and Fails - Cab/Dash A/C Heater issue

Within 5 minutes of driving off the Camping World Houston lot after purchasing our new 2019 Thor Palazzo 33.2 in March of 2019, the dash A/C started blowing hot air.  So, we spent Saturday night and Sunday at the RV park making a list of issues and took it back into Camping World on Monday morning, where they spent most of the day working on it only to tell us they could not fix it.

So, we packed up and headed north to Kansas City, where I still had a job and we had reserved a site at Trailside RV and Propane.  It was still blowing hot air, so I turned on the dash fan opened the front windows and shut the A/C off. Three days of driving north certainly helped with the need for A/C, but it was still blowing hot air after about the first 5 minutes, so we setup an appointment at Camping World KC, which is conveniently located just across I-70 from Trailside.

They kept the RV all day, looked at a few other issues, but in the end told us that cab/dash A/C issues were a Freightliner problem, along with the left rear turn signal not working, which we discovered after getting some friendly hand signals from a driver on I-435.  Unfortunately, Freightliner of KC is a first come first serve shop and they had a week and a half backlog, so we dropped it off and waited..and waited.. only to be told that neither of these issues were their problem, that will be $500!! (Afterwards we were able to show them that the turn signal issue was their problem and they took care of it, but that is another story)

So back to Camping World, who now tells us that they don't work on A/C and referred us to Spillman Service, which was right next door.  They re-filled the Freon in the A/C as it was now empty, they added a dye to help locate leaks, but could find none.  OK, so at least when it does leak again, we should know where, but after a few weeks (I wasn't driving it much) it appeared that it would once again cool for about 5 minutes and then start blowing heat.  I did notice that at idle, it would blow cold air, but when I got up to speed, it would turn hot.

They checked the A/C and it was fine, they checked the heater and could not find anything wrong.  After several weeks/months of calling Thor and having things checked, I asked them to just put a shut-off in the heater line.

That fixed the problem, but created a new one, the A/C was so powerful, it would freeze you out and with no heat, my only option was on or off.  We were headed to Houston in July, so it wasn't a big concern.

In September we were  in Wakarusa, IN for some work at Paul's RV service and had them look at the heater issue, they could not figure it out, so when they wrapped up mid-day on Friday, they suggested we spend the week-end at Thor Service's lot, where they have water and power hook-ups, and check with them Monday morning.  When we got there, one of the other RVers, suggested we just walk-in and see if they could help (they were not busy).

A couple of techs came out, looked at our heater, tried several things and then when over and looked under the hood of another Palazzo that was parked there.  When the came back they switched the heater input and output hoses.

All fixed! And it only took 6 months.

Pat