Ok my truck has two batteries and won’t start right now. I have the truck at home in California, but I am in Yuma AZ right now (Marine Corps got me) so I was only driving the truck on the weekends. I went home two weeks ago and pick up my little brother at school on a Friday with no problem. Saturday morning I go to start the truck so I can help a friend move and I let it cycle power then go to start it and nothing. Volts drop below 8V and about a second later it tries to cycle power again, but its very week. I cleaned the batteries and cables with baking soda and water and charge them up with a trickle charger, but with no luck. I take the batteries over to AutoZone have them load tested and turns out the one on the passenger side is good and holds a charge while the one on the drivers side was at like 2V. They charge it up for me and then try to load test it and it drops to 11.2 or something around there and it says low charge. The guy told me it had a bad cell (he’s a friend from high school) Now would this cause that problem? I have read about a lot of people running one battery and being fine. I would try to start the truck with one good battery on the driver’s side, but I won’t be home until the 20th so I am just trying to put a check in each box before I go and buy two new batteries. Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance.

 

see, if one is 12v and one is 2v, there trying to level each other. So, your bad one is killing your good one.

 

To me it doesnt sound like the batteries are your problem. Make sure you are getting a good ground to the block first. But it sounds to me like perhaps starter troubles. Even with only one good battery, the starter should engage.

 

Just read TIMMY's post before me...if you tried starting it, after charging the batteries, before the bad one could kill the good one, there should be enough juice to engage the starter

 

The common rule of thumb is that if one is bad, the other isn't far behind. Just go buy a couple new ones and you'll be good to go.

 

Also, if you are doing tours that keep the truck unused for more than a couple days, it may be good to hook up a battery maintainer set up. I believe the ignition off draw kills the batteries in 10days - 2 weeks.

 

Ok could I take my one good battery and put it in on the driver’s side and start the truck or will this truck require both batteries to turn over? Also can some one give me the details on what our truck needs in a battery as far as CCAs, CAs, and reserve capacity? Thanks for your inputs