Battery Power Problem

[Wyatt5]

Hi all,
Thanks so much for all of your suggestions, I believe I have discovered the problem. There is a circuit breaker near the battery on the frame. When I bypass this breaker, everything works just fine. This is a $3.99 part and it has caused me much grief.
I will purchase two to have a spare. Thanks again for your help, even though the unit is under warranty they would have charged a diagnostic fee. I believe about $100 and hour.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A tripped circuit breaker is probably "working as designed", i.e. it  opened to protect from an electrical overload. Breakers can fail, of course, but it's not the first thing you should suspect. Or even the second.

 

[Kevin Means]

I'm thinking he means he bypassed it even though it had not tripped, which could indeed indicate a breaker with bad internal contacts. However, I'd be concerned about why the contacts were bad...

Kev

 

[Just Lou]

I'm thinking he means he bypassed it even though it had not tripped, which could indeed indicate a breaker with bad internal contacts. However, I'd be concerned about why the contacts were bad...

Kev

Kev, it's possible that it's mounted on the trailer frame and thus, exposed to the elements.  I have one for my slide that is mounted on a frame member behind the front grill, but otherwise open to the elements, that is so rusted that I'm sure I could not remove the nuts on the connecting studs without destroying it.  It could very well be non functional as a breaker, but still making contact.  That's the reverse of what the OP reports, but these DC breakers don't appear to be weather proof.

 

[kdbgoat]

Like Kevin Means, this Kevin is also a "find the root cause" kinda guy, but right now I would be more concerned with a by-passed circuit breaker that may well have been doing it's job correctly. Not likely, but possibly. I may have by-passed it long enough to see if it was the problem, but wouldn't continue to use it that way. Hopefully the OP will post that replacing the offending breaker really fixed the problem or if it continued with the new one in place. If it did in fact correct the problem, then I would be cracking open the old one for an inspection.

 

[John From Detroit]

A tripped breaker yes.. But some breakers if the contacts get a bit dirty  Exactly what he described happens.

Bypassing fixes.. But is dangerous.. Replacing fixes,, Safely Spares are good things.

 

[Wyatt5]

Yes, I replaced the breaker. Everything works just fine. It is exposed to the elements, and a spare one is in the tool box. It is described as a reset breaker, that will function when it cools down. Like you Kevin, I was curious as to why it would not work. So I took it apart and inside was so corroded. I will make sure the new one is protected, which may include a small box. Thanks again for the help.