Battery Drain?

[Me&Lea]

I have a 2004 Chev 2500HD 6.0L, Recently if I left my truck parked for more than 2days my battery would be dead. It had the original Batt in it so I decided it must be bad so I replaced it, I thought that was that because I could leave sitting now for over 2 days and it would crank until I tried to crank it today after it had sit for 5days and you guessed it Dead. Nothing is plugged up in it, and I was wondering if anybody could give me any ideas on where to start looking

[Rob & Cathy]

Hi Aaron, do you have anything at all plugged into any 12v power outlet such as GPS or satellite radio or cell phone power cords?

Rob

[bigbunkhouse]

I have had one go dead because somebody left their cell phone charger without phone plugged in in the console, and I have had a bad alternator cause a drain. I would start by having the charging/starting system checked, our local NAPA has a fancy $700 tester you can have them hook to your rig and 5 minutes later know the battery/ alt/ starter condition. Actually would do a second once over first to check for lights, chargers etc , check at night could you have a bad door switch that causes the interior light to stay on? How about after market equipment, cb, sterio etc. Also I had a voyager brake controler go bad and drain the battery. If yoou have an amp meter check the load with the key out. Typicaly when I find the load I feel like an arse cause it should have been obvious like my 79 bronco with the sticky brake pedal that the lights would stay on in, or the cell charger that I found after 2 hrs playing with the charging system.

good luck

[Samsbird]

Yes, check to see if the battery has any load on it while the truck is not running. If you don't have an amp meter you can remove the positive terminal from the battery and see if it has any arc at all whenever you reconnect it. If it does then somewhere somehow, something is drawing current.

Randall

[Me&Lea]

I went over it real good last night:
1.nothing is plugged in to any 12volt supply
2.the interior light is not staying on.
3.I do have a voyger brake control, How do I check to see if it is drawing current?
4.Do I hook an ampmeter from post to post to check for a current draw?

PS: Thanks guys for trying to help out, electrical isn't my strong suit

[bigbunkhouse]

Amps must be measured in line so take off the positive terminal and put it between the battery terminal and pos wire. As far as the brake controler, I would hook up the ammeter and unplug the brake control and take note of the difference, or un plug it and wait 5 days and try to start the truck. I would start at napa or another place that could test first, the Napa tester says "system noise" if there is a load when there is not supposed to be. It will also let you know what is going on with your regulator which could cause the problem

keep us posted

[snoking]

Solder two leads to a #97 blub. Disconnect the batteries ground leads and hook the blub between the post and a battery cable. Light most likely will be on. Pull fuses until I goes out or dims to hardly on.

Chris

[Me&Lea]

OK, Thanks guys I will keep you posted

[Chief409]

Another thing to check is at the plug for the trailer. Once I had the same problem on my Bronco, after I unwrapped 5' of tape I found some wires touching there.