2007.5 HELP!

[honkerdwn]

Hoping someone here can offer up some help.  I currently have a 2007.5 GMC, LMM, 4WD, crew cab short bed.  It has a 6" lift and 176,00 miles.  I am only the second owner of this truck and love it other than I've been having an electrical problem for two years now.  I am on my third set of batteries, I've replace the alternator, replaced the glow plug module as well as various glow plugs.  The last dart at the dart board was when I had the radio replaced this past January. Something keeps draining the batteries. I've had it into two local shops. All the grounds have been checked, battery connections and cables.  When I took the truck to the stereo shop I told them I wanted all the crap that was hooked to the other stereo remove and the only thing I wanted working was the radio and my back up camera.  I explained all the issues I had been having and they were confident they would find the problem.  When a picked the truck up a day later they said that whoever installed the other stereo made things a mess in the dash but they straightened everything out and told me they were confident they had fixed the problem.  Well all summer long things have been great up until two weeks ago.  The same old thing started again.  As the weather has turned cooler I go out in the morning to start it and turn the key and it just "clunks" (for a lack of better terms).  This is how I have to get it to start.......turn the key, not to start but just let things light up.  Watch the voltage gage climb up to a certain point then I know it will start, usually.  There have been times it wont start at all and I have to jump it but that was prior to the stereo change. Once started the truck looks like a spaceship, the headlights fade in and out until things warm up.  I can handle the lights doing that but the whole not starting thing is really wearing on me.  I feel I cant trust it to take it anywhere in fear of it not starting once its sat at a location for a while.  Yesterday at the end of the day I went to leave work and it didn't want to start.  I do a lot of outdoors stuff and its always my fear to be somewhere far from civilization alone and not have it start.

I've been on the verge of selling or trading it just to get something more reliable but its turned into bigger issues between me and the wife.  She doesn't seem to think its that big of an issue and the guys she's cheating on me with (Dave Ramsey, Mr Financial Guru) says its not in the books.  But if I can get this figured out its going down the road, better to ask for forgiveness right???

 

Thanks for any input!!

 

HD