Bad Alternator or Bad Batteries?

[Scotialaddie]

I thought my alternator was bad and it turned out to be the battery isolator. $85 and 10 minutes to swap it out. Just saying

[nothermark]

Finally changed the battery in my 2008 P/U this year. Would not reliably start after sitting 2 weeks a couple of times. Been flat 7 or 8 times over it's service life. Was still starting if I drove the truck once a week but I don't always do that.

[ereadingrv]

As we hare received a great deal of help over the past two years, we like to (at minimum) post the solution (or resolution) to whatever problem we're having during this long restoration...

In this case, the culprit was ultimately, as several people posited, simply bad chassis batteries. We replaced them and...not only did the issues we were having go away, we saw a marked improvement in several other areas of performance, including startup.

I'd like to add a special thanks to all the people who offered additional information on battery testing, etc. That was INCREDIBLY useful info, which we did not know much about, and we have saved it in our local files.

COMING UP...

In 2018, roughly 900 watts of solar to start. Along with that will come a bank of new house batteries and other improvements, plus Bilstein shocks all around along with a likely steering gear replacement. Then, in 2019, cosmetic fixes and some mechanical ones, too, most probably a new trailing arm installation in Oregon.

Onward and upward! Thank you for the kindness and support...we appreciate it greatly.