So I was at the hospital visiting my poor brother but he was still in surgery (my sister got operated on yesterday too!). Anyway, went out to start my truck and the battery went dead. My dad happened to be there so we took the battery out of his Toyota pickup and hooked it up to my truck. We got two turns when his battery blew the top off! Took a while to find the caps. After an hour my wife came with the heavy jumpers but we couldn't get her to fire. I know now in retrospect that my battery was shorted... .

Ended up getting an new Optima style Orbital ($140 from Checker) and a $50 battery for my Dad.

Brother's ok, sister's ok, trucks are good.

What I learned: Never try to start a diesel with a whimpy toy truck battery!

 

I can't believe you found a level spot to park on. Didn't you try to roll start it? Only need 9 volts to run the shutoff solenoid.

 

The truck was nose in on the parking spot, and gravity was holding the front bumper against a concrete column. No way to push it back without a team of clydesdales!

I had 10 volts but no amps. I was going through the startup sequence like Apollo 13, but could never get the solenoid to click without killing everything.

 

This is OT, but I'm surprised they didn't edit out the word HECK in your subject line...

 

Glad to here everything is OK.

I was using a jeep battery for about 3 months last summer until I aquired a bus battery.

Michael