electric problems

[oljamesyboy]

bit of a story to this one was down river last night (waimak) all was going good till mate got his truck bottomed out on a bank when i reached where he was and parked behind him lights on my zuk went dim i got out to hook tow strap on then zuk completely dies! went to start in and all engine lights work but no head light and so on when i tried cranking could here starter engaging but not cranking.

so with both trucks not going anywhere quick dug mates trooper out (took awhile about 2am by now) then towed zuk back to stock bank then tried starting and it very slowly cranked and then fired into life.

so my question is why would it just die?

[meatc]

alternator not charging so it was running off the battery, battery went flat, no power equals no spark equals no go.

Just cause alt light doesn't come on doesnt always mean alt is working. It might be charging at 12vish, which is not enough.

[oljamesyboy]

alternator not charging so it was running off the battery, battery went flat, no power equals no spark equals no go.

that was my 1st thought but it now runs charges starts fine. but i was running spot lights radios etc

[meatc]

Yep Alt is either down or plain not big enough for the job. My roof lights (800ish watts) drop my volt gauge nearly a volt with an 80amp alt (alt is not the best) and i run 2 huge (like 900+cca) batts.

[oljamesyboy]

yea im still running standard size battery must be time for upgrade or a dual battery setup

[mudlva]

another small trick is to keep the truck on "up idle" when all the lights etc are going as a lot of alts dont charge much when the engine is just idling, 200 to 300 rpm can be the differance to keep the alt charging at 13.8v

it was something that i used to do when i was running my electric winch