Truck is D.R.T. (Dead Right There)

[lawdog]

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I am not really sure what happened. I took my truck and trailer to a friends shop today to work on the interior of the trailer (Insulation). I had the trailer interior lights on this morning for a while and that was it. After working on the trailer for the day, I leave to come home. I get about 1/2 mile and I hear the dash chime and see a check engine light. I then notice the alt. gauge is flatlined. Right on the pin at 8 volts??? Truck running fine. I stopped, checked the belt and started it back up and had some gauge, in the safe area, but not over 14 volts like normal????? I continue home anad after another mile, the chime, check engine light and dead gauge again. I stopped again, and still nothing. Truck starts fine but still no gauge. I continued home and parked in front of the house. Now, about 3 hours later, completely DEAD. Not even enough to dimly light the interior lights. The only thing I saw was a small round red light flashing on the dash, lower right side.



I had not drilled or screwed anywhere where there should have been wires, or messed with the wiring at all. Now I get to get a wrecker for the truck AND the trailer (Good thing friend owns the Wrecker Co and he has a G'neck hitch in his Dually (too bad its a Ford).

ANyone experience this before??????? No problems up until this afternoon.





Forgot to add, The edge box has been off for over a month.

 

[Mr. Hemi]

Try recharging the batteries and running without the trailer.

I have had trailer wiring been an issue in the past. Sometimes the only way is to pull all of the trailer bulbs and check for a short in the light circuit with an Ohm meter. Even so the fuse should pop for a dead short.

 

[SOLER]

After you got home, and for this 3 hour period, was the trailer still hooked up? If so, then Mr. Hemi has a point. You need to check all your trailer wiring. I doubt it's the truck.



SOLER

 

[lawdog]

I will try that in the morning. Don't know if it is trailer related or not though. The trailer was new in Aug 04 and has only been used to come home from MN and the past couple days to insulate it, But anything is possible.

 

[ROCKJEEP]

I bought an enclosed trailer for the jeep and had a simular problem. The wiring was a mess. I had to rewire the whole thing. They had the interior lights wired to the running lights. I would defently check the trailer. Also if it has a battery, it could be wired wrong and killing your alternator.

Kory

 

[lawdog]

The trailer has a break-away battery that is charged by the vehicle. I guess Tommorrow I dig... .

 

[lawdog]

Just went out and jumped the truck with trailer wiring disconnected. Truck started, but alt gauge still about "12", definantly lower than normal. In area where it is when grid heaters on. Don't know if just because it was charging or not. Passenger side positive battery cable was definantly warm to touch and had an electrical type of smell to alternator area. I left trailer disconnected so we will see what happens in morning, if there is any juice left or not.

 

[E7mack96]

I can attest to the trailer wiring thing. I bought a brand new 55 ton lowboy. Within a week, the lights on the combo were doing wierd things. come to find out that all of the wiring at the tail end of the trailer was chafed totally bare.



marker lights were flashing when a turn signal was initiated, no brake lights, but turn on running lights and get dim brake lights and a bonus - abs malfunction light on too.



Where has the QC gone?

 

[nickleinonen]

Where has the QC gone?

into the money clip of the owners/CEO's/presedents of the companies making stuff. sad isn't it

 

[lawdog]

Ok, With trailer unhooked all night, truck still had power. I started and let run for a while and still below normal charging. I put on a battery charger with Alt/charging meter and it showed weak charging.

In the trailer, I did find a 12 volt constant wire that was snagged by the rear door cable assist cable and rolled up in the roller. There is 1 small spot I saw in a rubber end on the wire where it had cut thru, which would explain the battery draw.



Now, why low charge from ALt?????? Did something melt????

 

[E7mack96]

it is possible that you have a bad cell in a battery now. batteries don't like being fully discharged, and it may be permanently shot. disconnect both of your batteries from each other, and the truck. Then let them stabilize. The one with a bad cell will show a low voltage after a little while. sometimes immediately. If the cell is shorted internally, it discharges the battery.



The other side of the coin is that the alt. is damaged from the heavy current production, trying to maitain charge, and feeding the short, ect...



If thebatteries in one of our big trucks go dead from say- leaving the lights on, we charge them up before starting up the unit. It is known that it can fry the alt. trying to bring 4 group 31 batteries back to a full charge from total discharge, especially when trying to run 60-100 amps of lights on the rig too.



Hope this helps

 

[GerryDrake]

Give this a try

If you disconnect both batteries and give them each an overnight charge, and then put them back in the truck, I suspect you may find everything is back as you want it. Considering that you had the batteries drawn way down due to the direct short wire, perhaps there was just enough to get the truck started, but since the batteries were down in voltage, while they were taking a considerable charge, the amps would have been high, but the volt meter in the truck is reading what they really are at while charging, and that would be the low reading. Now if you had an ammeter in-line, you might see that the alternator is putting out a 'large charge'.



Just a thought, but before I went out and replaced batteries, tore apart alternators and such, I'd give it a try with an overnight diconnected charge on both batteries...

 

[lawdog]

I have had the charger on the truck (everything still hooked up) and it is showing a higher level now on the alt gauge. gauge is now at 14, so I hope longer on the charger will help make everything good again.

 

[KBennett]

You are probably OK now. The batteries were probably discharged pretty low and it is taking them a while to get back to peak.

 

[lawdog]

I've had the charger going for about 8 hours now or so, Hopefully all will be well. I also made sure the wires are now away from the cable pulley for the ramp door.

 

[The Sequel]

Lawdog, even without your handle, only a cop uses "DRT".

 

[lawdog]

D. R. T. is a classic line. . Very observant you are.....



Truck seems to be ok now. Puled trailer this morning with no problems noticed... Thanks to all who said to check the trailer. that was definantly the problem,.

 

[DIESELMAN]

Al right, enough cop talk. At least it LD's truck wasnt B&T, because he new something AQR, most people thought the alternator was ART, me too, I was totally DIIK, at least it wasn't FORD, the truck was definetly a GOMER, though it was WNL, and the problem was solved with a SWAG, and was definetly cured with assistance from TDR members who are CRAFTy.

 

[lawdog]

???????????????? I know what a SWAG is, but the others????????