Weird Electrical Situation

[Grip72]

ok so I went camping last weekend. truck was running fine. we had an ipod connected to the cig lighter as well as a radar detector going for a 3 hour drive. about 2.5 hours in, the check engine light came on. we arrived to setup camp at midnight and i put the lights on (with engine off) and my buddy forgot the ipod was still plugged in. after no more than 10minutes of using the lights from the truck i noticed they started to dim. i ran over to the truck and tried to fire it up. nothing, it died. a neighbouring camper agreed to give me a boost. he boosted me and my truck fired up fine. i was giving it gas to keep it going and hoping to charge up the alternator. i figured i had given it enough so i let off the gas, but unfortunately the truck died. we hooked up the cables and tried to boost it again. nothing. the battery would not charge up.

 

so blahblahblah i get a new battery from town the next day and install it and the truck fires up fine and the check engine light hasn't came back on. i was able to drive the 3hours back home and i have been using it for errands since with no problems.

 

now, when we boosted it, i didn't know about the remote positive and remote negative locations. i just used my battery and grounds as if the remote locations never existed. could this have damaged my battery to the point of not working at all?!

 

and this evening i put a volt-meter with + to the alternator and - to a ground. it gives me around 14.36V while running with nothing on. i put on the lights, radio, heater and windshield wipers and it bounced around 13.8-14.0V. that's normal right?

 

any thoughts as to what caused my battery get screwed up? i'm so nervous to use my ipod & radar detector in the truck again in fear that it may wreck the battery lol

 

i have had 3 different alternators go on me in 3 different vehicles and i've alwasy been stranded. i DO NOT want this to happen again so i'm a little paranoid. is there another test i should do to check my alternator?

[Grip72]

nothing?

[GasHog369]

Take the truck to autozone / advance auto / etc.... they will test it for free..

 

I take it that was the original battery in your 2000 gmc? If so , it was probably just time for it to go.... Having the ipod / radar are not a strain at all on the batt / alternator... But leaving the truck off and running lights is a big strain. Probably the strain that killed it.

 

I have my train horn setup on my truck and have the compressor that runs off of it , and usually in my daily drive to work , depending on traffic that compressor might kick on 2-3 times a drive depening on how much i use the horns... Anyways, i know its extra strain on my batt / alt , so i do plan on getting a better battery soon as i dont want to be stranded either... but just in case i do carry one of the jumpstarts around with me..

 

 

Your truck sounds like its doing fine now tho, charging correctly / etc... but i would still take it to a auto store and have em test it for free.. cant hurt

[Brad92]

Using the regular battery terminals as opposed to the remote terminals is the same. The only reason the have the remote terminals is because in the GMT800 trucks and up, the engine bay is tighter and it is harder to get large jumper cables to the battery.