Anybody have any issues with their batteries suddenly being dead. My dad's truck is now in its 3rd pair of batteries. Truck only has 60000 miles. Last set of batteries was put on at 30000 miles less than 2 years ago by dealer and they are claiming there is nothing wrong with the truck, just the batteries. Truck ran fine Friday, but completely dead on Saturday.

Check alternator output and check under load with AC and stereo on. Possible it is going bad.

Any hi draw electric add on's?

Have the alternator checked.

Is the truck driven daily? or is it a weekend type vehicle?

Sitting is very hard on batteries, if it is a weekend use vehicle get a charger with a maintainer setting.

Dealer claims alternator is good. No add-ons to truck. Truck is driven daily.

Best part about it, dealer doesn't honor warranty of batteries that were put on last year because they were installed under original manufacturers warranty so they claim that the two year warranty batteries have does not apply.

Did your dad have to pay for the last set of batteries? I agree with the dealer that the warranty doesn't start over when a new set is installed if the new set was paid for by the manufacturer.

When the batteries went on my 08 2500, they just went. No Jumping either. Go replace them and be sure to keep the corrosion down on the next set. Battries require maintenance too, and very few folks do any.

Cousin has an '08 and drives about 5 miles one way to work every day. His eats batteries in about 2 years.

It is too easy to go out and check your alternator output yourself instead of trusting the dealer. If the alternator is not putting out 14.2 to 14.4 volts than replace it with a high output rebuilt one. You don't say where you are located but Alterstart in Dallas is a good place to start.

Not as simple as testing the output of the alternator at battery. Although a quick test to see if the alternator is outputting the correct voltage it isn't foolproof in ensuring that the batteries our getting the full affects of the charging. The setup on the cummins dictates that you do a voltage drop test between the cables and where it attaches to the batteries. A very common problems with the older dodge is the cables connecting each battery has excessive voltage drop and not fully maintaining a good charge level on batteries thus not charging or shorting the life of your batteries. Google voltage drop test to find how to do it. May help to pinpoint your issue.

BigAl

Actually it is as simple as I mention. Take the same multimeter you'd use to check your output at the alternator and measure your output with the truck running at the battery. Compare the two. If math is not your strong point subtract the voltage at the battery from the output voltage at the alternator and that would identify voltage drop. Again, any high output alternator would take care of that ASSUMING your problem isn't something else. Good luck!

I have had 3 sets of dealer batteries. One set went bad overnight in the drive way,2nd set went bad in parking lot,3rd set went bad driving down the road, all 3 with out warning, no swelling or bubbling nothing at all. I switched to Costco batteries.

fishingallday
if the batteries went dead overnite you have a major draw on them,you need to have someone do a draw test on vehicle to see what is staying powered up

sounds like a draw on the electrical system.