Electrical gremlins!?!?

[Chilly]

My wife and I just purchased our first pup: a 2004 Fleetwood Westlake. We took it on our first trip this past weekend and loved it!! Only one little "problem" I was hoping someone could help me out with:
  We were dry camping, so obviously using battery power. The battery is a brand new Group 27 that I made sure was fully charged before we left. The problem came about when running the furnace, maybe one light and the water pump (intermittently). The power would shut off for a few seconds and then come back on. It seemed to happen randomly, but usually when the above load was applied to the battery.
    I chased the problem (I think!) down to the ShortStop circuit breaker on the positive side of the battery. I put a test light on it and no power was getting through. I jiggled the circuit breaker a little and the power came through. I figure the circuit breaker is bad?
    My concern is that the power on/off problem also happened when plugged into a 2000 watt generator I brought along. Could the circuit breaker be causing this also as the battery was hooked up and being charged through the converter?
    So I guess my questions are:
1. Would a bad circuit breaker cause this problem?
2. Would the circuit breaker cause the problem while plugged in?
3. And is the circuit breaker necessary, as my converter has one built in?(I am all for redundant protection, I just don't want to have something I don't need break on me!!!)

    Thank you in advance for any help anyone can give me...I have been surfing this site for a month or so now and have found all sorts of advice/tips that have already come in handy!!! Thanks..

[wavery]

My wife and I just purchased our first pup: a 2004 Fleetwood Westlake. We took it on our first trip this past weekend and loved it!! Only one little "problem" I was hoping someone could help me out with:
  We were dry camping, so obviously using battery power. The battery is a brand new Group 27 that I made sure was fully charged before we left. The problem came about when running the furnace, maybe one light and the water pump (intermittently). The power would shut off for a few seconds and then come back on. It seemed to happen randomly, but usually when the above load was applied to the battery.
    I chased the problem (I think!) down to the ShortStop circuit breaker on the positive side of the battery. I put a test light on it and no power was getting through. I jiggled the circuit breaker a little and the power came through. I figure the circuit breaker is bad?
    My concern is that the power on/off problem also happened when plugged into a 2000 watt generator I brought along. Could the circuit breaker be causing this also as the battery was hooked up and being charged through the converter?
    So I guess my questions are:
1. Would a bad circuit breaker cause this problem?
2. Would the circuit breaker cause the problem while plugged in?
3. And is the circuit breaker necessary, as my converter has one built in?(I am all for redundant protection, I just don't want to have something I don't need break on me!!!)

    Thank you in advance for any help anyone can give me...I have been surfing this site for a month or so now and have found all sorts of advice/tips that have already come in handy!!! Thanks..

It is conceivable that the battery circuit breaker could cause this symptom but it would be rare and not while hooked up to the generator. The generator by-passes the battery all together.

It sounds more like a bad ground and/or corrosion somewhere. If you follow the white (ground) wire from the battery, you will find where it is attached to the frame. From there, it will run inside the camper and into your converter.

I would disconnect the ground lug from the frame, clean all connections with emery cloth (sand paper), sand the corrosion off of the frame and put it back together. From there, you may want to pull all of the 12v fuses out of the converter, clean the contacts and reinstall them.

Yes.....you do need that circuit breaker on the battery. It is there to prevent a short in the hot lead (black wire) going from the battery to the converter. If you don't have the circuit breaker and a wire insulation chafes through, you may well have a fire.

[tlhdoc]

Welcome to PUT!  Nice floor plan in your new camper.  As for your power problem, running the camper on AC power (your generator) and having the same problem eliminates the self resetting circuit breaker.  When you are plugged into the generator the power for the 12 volt items in the camper goes through the power  cord to the power converter and is converted into 12 volt power.  The battery is out of the loop.  Does the power outage happen when someone was moving in the camper?  It sounds like a short to me.  Good luck tracking it down.

[rccs]

It could be a bad safety switch under the upper galley which is there to shut off power to the lights etc. when the galley is put in the travel position. The switch itself could be intermittent or the wires connected to it could be loose. My  brother-in-law had a similar problem once while we were camping together. His switch had broken and I had to jumper the wires together temporarily while we camped so his lights would work. He replaced the switch the next week and had no more problems.

[wavery]

Welcome to PUT!  Nice floor plan in your new camper.  As for your power problem, running the camper on AC power (your generator) and having the same problem eliminates the self resetting circuit breaker.  When you are plugged into the generator the power for the 12 volt items in the camper goes through the power  cord to the power converter and is converted into 12 volt power.  The battery is out of the loop.  Does the power outage happen when someone was moving in the camper?  It sounds like a short to me.  Good luck tracking it down.

If it was a short, it should blow one of the colored plastic fuses in the converter (Blue for 10A red for 15A I think???). However, if the converter is messed up and the short gets to the circuit breaker on the battery that could be it. However, that would be pretty rare and very dangerous (if the circuit breaker were not on the battery).

['tiredTeacher]

If it was a short, it should blow one of the colored plastic fuses in the converter (Blue for 10A red for 15A I think???). However, if the converter is messed up and the short gets to the circuit breaker on the battery that could be it. However, that would be pretty rare and very dangerous (if the circuit breaker were not on the battery).

I don't think it's a short. What he probably has is an intermittant OPEN (no circuit).  Shorts are easier to find 'cause you just follow the smoke and smell.  
Opens leave no such tell-tales and can be difficult to isolate. I agree with checking all connections, starting, as suggested, with the grounds.

[Chilly]

Well, I would like to thank everyone who replied...I think I have it fixed!! I replaced the circuit breaker on the positive side of the battery and, as suggested, I located the ground on the frame. It had some corrosion and was bent at a sharp angle. I replaced the ring terminal and fixed the angle problem. I also cleaned all of the connectors in the fuse panel.
  I ran all of the lights, in and out, the furnace and the water pump for quite some time and no problems!!! I did this both on battery and plugged into the house. Now, as everyone knows, working in the garage and working at the campsite are two totally different things, but hopefully all is well!!!
 Again, thanks a million for all of your help!!!