erda

Truck was parked for about 1.5 months. Went out to start it today and the batteries were dead. Have the charger on it now and will see how it goes.
Question is: do these things have enough draw to drain the batteries in such a short period of time? Both batteries were new within the last 6 months.
TIA
erda

b4wheeler

My answer would have to be ....Yes....
Check to see that you do not have anything drawing any current while the truck is off. Do you have any electrical accessories?
Cell phones being charged have been know to draw a battery down...
Check the current draw on your main positive cable and start pulling fuses until you find the culprit.

erda

Nope, no extra wiring or electronics.

After charging over night the beast started no problems.

Does anybody have any experience with a product called Battery Tender? With our set up of dual batteries, should both batteries be charged, on will the charge "transfer" to the one that is not directly connected.

erda

PChouinard

Yes. The batts are in parallel so both have the same charge as the other. This is why one batt with a shorted cell will kill the other. There are a ton of posts about the seatbelt mechanism drawing power for around a minute after the truck is shut down. I guess sometimes this can stay on and creat havoc. Do a search or maybe someone with more experience with the thing will chime in. Good luck..

cstmfabman

Are the tops of your batteries clean? The film that ends up on tops of batteries will cause a power draw. Take your ohmeter and put the negative lead to engine ground, then take the positive lead and put it on top of the battery, between the positive and negative post. Even though you are touching the positive lead to what seems like an insulated area, the film will cause your ohmeter to show voltage, causing the battery to drain over time.

supr

The only problem with my truck has been the batteries. Both died so hard that it could not be jumped.
These trucks have a small load of some kind. I would do the battery tender or a charger that has the pulse/desulphate mode(Northern has them) on the batteries every other week or so, to keep your voltage up. Once a battery dies, it's life is dramaticly shortened. If the batteries are relatively new, perhaps you can bring them back under warranty.
These Gen 2's are not like in other vehicle that I have owned, relative to phantom loads. That known, no big deal to keep em charged.

erda

Well, here we go again. Truck sat for about 2 weeks and batteries were dead. Had local dealer check things out after the last time, and they said all was fine
Any ideas?
TIA

PChouinard

Do you have a multimeter? If so, find out what the current draw is when the truck is off. This may give you an idea where to start.

jsflagstad

I had the same issue on one of my vehicles. When it would sit over a long weekend, Monday morning it would be totally dead. What was going on was that the alternator was working and charging, but not very well. It would only charge enough to just keep the batteries up enough to keep the idiot light from coming on. When I checked the voltage at the battery with the car running, I only got 12.7 volts. I took the alternator out and had it gon through and now it charges at 14.35 volts and I have not had a problem since.

It never left me on the road, but it never left the batts in the state of charge that it should of when the car had to sit for a period of time. Batteries will self discharge so maybe this is your issue as well??

As a side note, I bought one of the new chargers that you guys are talking about with the reconditioner on it. It is a Vector brand and it was on sale at the local farm store for $35. It charges 2,6,12 amps, has recondition mode, and an alternator check. It works well, I brought an old battery back to life that had been sitting dead for 3+ years with it .