Jesse:
this is a good question. The furnace does run off propane but the blower runs
off the deep cycle battery. So, even though you could run 36 hours on a tank
of propane, you would have to start the engine and charge up the battery as
the deep cycle will never go this long with the blower (unless you had some
killer battery that I don't).
Our 95 has the original deep cycle and before this winter I'm going to put in
a new one and I suspect I will get better performance. On the old battery,
however, you could go to bed on a cold night, (and I mean down near 0) and
let the furnace cycle on and off and by 5:00 the volts are down to 9 on the
battery and the furnace sounds a bit lethargic. Once you start the engine and
let it go a little bit things are find again.
The "procedure" that is described to prime the system, we found didnt' work
very well. Instead, we just light the stove first and then the furnace. This
seems to work fine. All in all, from two part time ski instructors who spent
every weekend last winter in the van at about 9000 feet, we give it a big
thumbs up.
Good luck,
Sue
