Did I Kill The Battery?

bigbengalbubba · September 17, 2008

So we had no power for a couple of days due to Ike hitting KY. We don't get a lot of hurricanes here so this was kinda new for us. Anyway, I was using my camper for hot showers, cooking etc. The battery on the camper died so I plugged in the truck for overnight. Everything seemed fine the next day when I went to work but when I left work I needed a jump. 2 more starts have been very sluggish but did start. What do you think?

svensk · September 17, 2008

So we had no power for a couple of days due to Ike hitting KY. We don't get a lot of hurricanes here so this was kinda new for us. Anyway, I was using my camper for hot showers, cooking etc. The battery on the camper died so I plugged in the truck for overnight. Everything seemed fine the next day when I went to work but when I left work I needed a jump. 2 more starts have been very sluggish but did start. What do you think?

It needs more time to recharge. Do you have a volt meter? What does it read? You need to maintain 14 or better to get a reliable start. If you killed the battery it will still read under 14 even after a full charge.

07fireball · September 17, 2008

DRIVE IT FOR A WHILE, IF IT GIVES YOU ANY MORE PROBLEMS GO GET IT LOAD TESTED

ITS A FREE TEST AND WILL LET YOU KNOW FOR SURE, SINCE A VOLTMETER WILL READ A SURFACE CHARGE WHICH CAN BE DECEIVING

gvbhunt · September 17, 2008

If the battery was completely dead it will take it a while to charge up. The alternator is pretty much running everything inside the truck PLUS charging the battery. I would assume that you would need it to run for an hour or two to bring the battery back up to a full charge, and that is probably depending on what kind of accessories you have running.

csheatz · September 17, 2008

Sounds like it needs to run for a while to charge back up, but leave some off the accessories off so you dont have everything running off the alternator. You could run the risk of burning up the Alternator running it under that much stress. At least thats what I have come to understand.

EDIT: Hey look at that 100th post!

bigbengalbubba · September 17, 2008

My charger/tester didn't show a fault code which is good and showed the battery at 10.4 volts. My drive to work is only 20 minutes so maybe it just needs a good charge. The confusing thing is it started fine the morning after being hooked to the camper. Didn't have a problem until I left work that day.

gvbhunt · September 17, 2008

My charger/tester didn't show a fault code which is good and showed the battery at 10.4 volts. My drive to work is only 20 minutes so maybe it just needs a good charge. The confusing thing is it started fine the morning after being hooked to the camper. Didn't have a problem until I left work that day.

Assuming that you have your AC back, connect the charger to the battery. Let it charge for 2 hours. If your charger has a needle indicator on it, at that point it should be almost down to full or 0amps or trickle depending on how it is labeled. If it has not dropped that far, check the voltage on the battery again with the charger unplugged. If it still reads close to 10v you have a dead cell. Most batteries have 6 cells of 1.5v nominal each. 5 cells would be roughly what you are seeing with 10.4 volts.

c4cruiser · September 17, 2008

Alternators are not really designed to charge a dead battery back to a full charge state especially when it has to keep the truck battery charged. You risk damaging the alternator if there is too much of a constant load on it.

If you have a stationery generator or access to one, I would use that 120v power from a generator to use a regular battery charger to get the camper battery back to full strength. If the battery had been completely discharged, you will need a charger that can output a good 20-30 amps to fully charge the battery.

biller007 · September 17, 2008

If the battery keeps acting up and the truck is new "forget about the camper part" and take it in to them to replace. Sould be covered under the warranty.

bigbengalbubba · September 18, 2008

Ok, final report. Battery had a dead cell. After charging for a while the charger reported a failure code. Battery voltage never went over 10.8 volts. Took the battery in to Autozone for further testing. Confirmed dead cell. Now the question is. Did hooking up the camper overnight kill the cell or just expose a failing cell? The battery was most likely the original battery. Truck is a 2003 so I probably needed it soon anyway.

jrrod2004 · September 18, 2008

Ok, final report. Battery had a dead cell. After charging for a while the charger reported a failure code. Battery voltage never went over 10.8 volts. Took the battery in to Autozone for further testing. Confirmed dead cell. Now the question is. Did hooking up the camper overnight kill the cell or just expose a failing cell? The battery was most likely the original battery. Truck is a 2003 so I probably needed it soon anyway.

IMO, you needed a new battery and the additional load showed the problem clearer.

minibike132 · September 18, 2008

Ok, final report. Battery had a dead cell. After charging for a while the charger reported a failure code. Battery voltage never went over 10.8 volts. Took the battery in to Autozone for further testing. Confirmed dead cell. Now the question is. Did hooking up the camper overnight kill the cell or just expose a failing cell? The battery was most likely the original battery. Truck is a 2003 so I probably needed it soon anyway.

That's kind of a chicken vs. egg question. There is no way of knowing. GM batteries are not the best thing out there, if I had an original in an 03 that was still working I'd replace it just because.

svensk · September 18, 2008

Get an optima red top and don't look back. Cranks right up even in -50 degrees (last winter).

DofD · September 18, 2008

Batteries do die like that. I've had a number just up and die, with one or more cells dying. The OEM batteries aren't the best IMO. It's always good to invest in a good battery.