Came back from a weekend trip only to find truck wont start. If i turn key to on position everything comes up and radio will play fine. If i tried to crank engine, lights blink rapidly but it will not start. It doesnt seem to be cranking or turning over. I charged my battery using one of the plug into wall and charge things for half a day only to find same thing on another attempt. The sticks on the dash vibrate but don't become responsive. When trying to start the go up but even after taking key out the stay in the middle and vibrate. i really have no clue what is going on.

 

Sounds like a bad battery, it has enough power to turn the lights on in the dash but not to start the truck. Also the vibrating needles are due to low voltage. Replace the battery and make sure the charging system is functioning correctly. Also it is likely that you have a battery draw since your battery died after two days without use so I would monitor it for a draw as well. It would be wise to monitor the draw all night as well as some components can be very intermittant. Do you have any aftermarket electrical components installed, if so I would start there. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

Interesting... The longest I let my truck sit was 3 weeks... but it usually sits 3 days, over my long weekend... never had problem with mine.

But I plan on getting a bigger battery with the more lighting mods I do.

 

You either have a bad battery or something draining your good one.

Manual, a bigger battery is only going to help if you sit with your truck off and have an electrical load switched on. Your alternator carries the electrical load when the truck is running.

 

I do a lot of running of aux junk when the truck is off.

I haven't had a problem with the battery - yet... and it better not happen till I get a bigger one... possibly a deep cycle one.

 

what is the best way to monitor for a draw?

 

My truck did the exact same thing Friday night. I finally got it jumped though. It took 5 minutes with my ranger hooked up reving at 4000rpm to charge the battery enough to turn the truck over to get it to the dealer. They replaced it free under warranty. 2005 with 15,000 miles.

 

I have one of those 200 amp battery chargers and they work great for jumping off cars and trucks.

 

I just went through this with my '06...took it to my dealer and they said the battery was fine, but the Body Control Module was causing a draw on it and running it down after sitting for a couple of days.

They replaced the BCM under warranty and I got it back Friday. It just hasn't sat long enough yet for me to see if that fixed the problem. We'll see.

 

The easiest way is to go to Sears or somewhere similar and buy and amp clamp to go over the cable. Something rated up to 20A would be fine. They are not that expensive. Then lock up the truck as you normally would. Put the clamp around all of your negative wires going to the battery and monitor the draw. After about 20 minutes the draw should be less than 50mA. It should stay that low as well. If your clamp has a minimum maximum feature you can record the draw over long periods of time.