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I replaced all cables on my 98.5 with a set from http://www.custombatterycables.com/ . Very pleased with how the new ones turned out. Trying to think of what I should do with my old set. The terminals are shot, they have lost their clamping power, but I know that can be fixed with new terminals being put on. Maybe theres a member out there who may need a set. Only one terminal had a very very minor amount of corrosion which I cleaned off. When it comes to scrapping any insulated wire, do you get more if you take the insulation off? I have never scrapped insulated wire.

So prey do tell how one goes about relocating the battery.

thank you for looking, this is my first post after joining this forum. I have owned this CTD for a few months after purchasing it from a private seller and is my first diesel. my problems currently have started with loaning the truck to my younger brother to take to school. He left the lights on all day and came back to a dead truck. I believe while having jumper cables hooked up he was able to crank it over but had no start. it is cold but i filled with winter blend the night before, no gauges installed yet but i have a FASS titanium. my brother determined the alternator was bad (not sure how), it was bench tested as 'good' from O' Rileys although they do not test for AC interference. the most intriguing information i can relay is that my scan gauge2 volt reading shows 11.8 when the dash meter shows nothing as the truck is running. the SC2 readout does not fluctuate. other pertinent information is that i recently had my auto trans swapped and batteries tested, i got the truck back with codes 113, 380, 382. the relays may be stuck, the 140 amp alt. fuse may be blown. it is frustrating as i am not able to get to the truck to do any diagnostics of my own like take grid heaters out of the loop or run a multimeter around it. the truck is a 2002 24v. where does the SC2 get its information from? any suggestions on what to try would be much appreciated.

I took my boys fishing Fontenelle Reservoir in southwest Wyoming over the past several days and wanted to give my opinion on the batteries that I recently put in my trailer. In July I bought 2 Energizer EGC2-122 (6V/232 amp hour) batteries from Sam's Club. I have taken the trailer out a couple of times since I bought them but only for a couple of days at a time. We spent 5 days and 4 nights in camp with no ability to recharge the batteries (I don't have a generator or solar panels, yet.) I was nervous about them lasting the trip so I tried to be as conservative as possible and as much as 2 young boys will allow. The highs were in the 50's and 60's but the lows were in the low to mid 20's and it felt it for sure. I kept the thermostat low at night while we slept so as to not kill my power, but ever being conservative the furnace ran quite a bit. I have a Mr Heater that I run inside the trailer in the morning to warm things up and that helped to take the chill off. After I got camp set up the batteries were sitting at 12.7 vdc and yesterday just as I was pulling out I measured them again and they were at 12.2 vdc. Not bad at all in my opinion. Granted, I am not using the power that some use. I tried to use the lights as little as possible, but the we did run the radio in the trailer about 4-5 hours a day and I was half convinced my boys were going to wear out the water pump--we are still working on showing them how to not turn the water on full blast to wash their hands. So all-in-all, I would recommend these batteries to anyone that may be looking. I am going to look into a solar panel kit. It would have been nice to have kept the trailer warmer and knowing that they will get some sort of recharge throughout the day. I guess I'll put that on my letter to Santa. It was a great trip for Father and Sons. I think I may have an issue with the thermostat in the truck but other than that I have nothing to complain about. Here is a picture of my youngest son and his 19" rainbow. Kind of makes it all worth it.

Evening, all.My batteries aren't getting charged up. I had a local garage (the only garage in town) change the alternator, as they'd indicated it was bad. No, the batteries are still not getting charged. They replaced a wire from the alternator, as they said the connector was fried and corroded. When I started the Dodge up, I noted that the ammeter was just barely above the 12 amp mark (left white hash mark). I pointed that out and they said it would rise, that 12 amps was within spec. I drove around town a bit (small town) and saw that the ammeter wasn't rising at all. I took it back to the garage and they said it might be the batteries. They're fairly new (1 year old) Les Schwab batteries, their X-treme top of the line.Well, I'm willing to admit they might be fried due to having to be charged up 5-6 times. I'm taking it back to the garage Monday for one more shot at getting it fixed. I'm having suspicions about the overall competence of the folks at the garage. My main question, however, is this..How far can one drive on fully charged batteries and essentially no functioning alternator? There's a highly recommended repair facility 25 miles away.

Hi guys, got the new grid heater battery jumper wire set I had ordered. I put it on, tried it and fried it in 5 seconds- bye bye $40. Anyway, I just followed the troubleshooting instructions here after this disaster: http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/troubleshooting/Maniford_htr.htm I have .1 or 0 Ohms (depending on the multimeter setting) across the heater grid terminals as stated in the 2002 instructions. But it seems like you wouldn't want 0 if going from the grid terminals to ground as that would in indicate a direct short to ground. If I jump the grid straight to the battery its like a welder. Anyone have any issues with this before? I took the intake horn off just to check if something was sitting on the grid and it's clear. Im not sure what could be grounding out. I also checked the heavy relay to grid wires and they are fine. I'm out of ideas and its 10F today and high of 1 and 3 F this week. Thanks

Sunday morning the ole girl was deader than a door nail. No juice. :think:Had to go to my fiance and my wedding shower so I couldn't work on er till about 1800 last night. I threw a charger on it, not even 30 seconds later she fired up and ran like a champ. I took er up the street to make sure everything worked out all right, no issues. Went out this morning dead again. :doh:SO I threw the charger on it and it started with no issue in less than 30 seconds. Got er to work, Dead by Lunch. :banghead: SO now I'm thinking bad battery(ies), I load test them, both are weak but not BAD yet. SO I start looking, I find the wires going to the Grid Heater relay corroded to high heaven and making smoke with the battery charger on it, so I take em off only to find out they are some fuseable link also. I clean up my battery terminals and cables, leave the grid heater cables off. Charge it up and it starts great. Then is surged twice, and stalled. Now it will not start at all. :mad:Cranks great, dies quick. No Codes showing. Any ideas of what is going on? DO those heater grid cables ned to be in place? Any one seen this before? :shrug:Just went over and tried to start er again. She fired after about 15 seconds then stumbled and died.

ok - don't laugh How do you tell a battery really requires changing and won't hold a charge anymore. To be honest - I don't know Along with my stalling issue - my starting seems to be harder - and it seems like a battery. I added 2 stroke (for general reasons) and drove for like 20 miles to let the alternator charge her up. Got back ..... and turned engine off with lights still on. Saw the voltage needle drop pretty quick from 14V to around 10V. The battery says 10/07 .......... no other indicators If I need a battery - how to tell if 1 or 2 ? - and any recommendations on where what to buy ? --- Update to the previous post... Found this http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/001227.html There is actually 3 different ways to test the battery. One would be a voltmeter to check voltage. This requires a some what reliable voltmeter or multimeter. I think the full charge voltage is 12.7 to 12.9 volts. If the voltage is only 10 volts or so, that is an easy indication of a bad cell in the battery. That checks voltage but it really doesn't mean that the battery can handle a heavy load. It may handle electronics(Radio, GPS or VHF radio) but may fail to start an outboard or run a trolling motor for very long. The second method is with the load tester. The load tester can be used even if it still installed in the boat or vehicle. It is as simple as connecting the clamps to the positive and negative posts. A spring loaded toggle switch is actuated for 5 seconds and a reading is displayed on the meter. It places a dummy load of close to 100 amps on the battery. You do this while watching the meter on the load tester. It is calibrated in voltage and if voltage readings scare you, it has a scale which reads BAD, WEAK or OK. 5 seconds is long enough time to be engaging the starter motor on an outboard or vehicle. If you boat motor takes longer or if it takes multiple tries to start the motor, that can be simulated with the tester also. Just actuate the switch on the tester to mimic what your starting procedure is on your boat. I like this test. It comes as close to what your battery actually needs to do, to produce the CURRENT(not voltage) to turn the starter. The third way is by measuring the specific gravity of the electrolyte. This is the most accurate way to test a battery, but most people don't want the extra work involved to accomplish accurate results. You need a temperature compensating hydrometer to do this. They are available at some auto parts stores for $20-40. Guessing then its not something I can do at home to well without some load tester

So the batteries in my truck are 70 month old. They work great, no issues. They are a little slower in winter, but thats to be expected. They are not slow enough to even worry about... So here is the dilemma, they are 70 months old! I hunt 70 miles from the nearest electricity and if the weather turns to crap at 6-9K feet the starting power might be needed so I want new batteries. I am looking at Sears batteries as they give a great military discount. The two batteries I am looking at are the Sears Platinum and the Sears DieHard Gold. The Platinum is an Odessy battery with Sears paint (info direct from Odessy) and is rated at 950 CCA. The Gold is 750 CCA. The pair of Platinums will run $100 more than the pair of Gold's, and are one of the best batteries on the market, so its what I want. I don't want to worry about batteries when I am in the middle of the back-country with the kids. So I guess its not really a dilemma, just complaining about spending $325 on batteries when mine still work good! And I am doing batteries is the Wife's 4runner and my DD this winter too, both still have originals at 7 and 8 years old. So any input? Here is what Odessy has to say about the battery. http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc1750t.htm