as of right now, my parents are still out of town.

Just go to napa and put a new alternator on it. That's all that is wrong. The easiest test in the world for an alternator is to crank the engine, turn on the lights, then shut the engine off. If the lights get dimmer when you shut the truck off, the the alternator is working. If they don't, then the alternator is not working. (the brightness of your lights are directly porportional to battery voltage)

Just jump your truck off, or put it on a battery charger for a few hours and test it like I said. If you find that your alternator is dead, charge the battery for a few hours, then drive to the parts store and get a new alternator. Don't shut the truck off at the parts store, and you should have plenty of juice to get you home.

I'd say alternator. My freinds old dodge had one that went out. You'd be driving and try to turn the radio on with the lights already on and the lights would shut off with the radio on. Turn the radio off and the lights would come back on, very dim but on. So I'd say alt.

That is pretty easy. I personally prefer using a DMM, but my favorite "easiest alternator test" is to hold a screwdriver to the back of the alternator case while running. If it stays there by itself, it's working. If it falls to the ground, it's not (a working alternator creates a magnetic field). :)

Well there are alot of tests to check alternators, but most of them will only show if the alternator is partialy working. In other words the alt could be working at 20% and most of these tests would say that it is working when in reality it needs to be changed.

Easiest way to tell 100% that the alternator is working properly, and putting out enough power to run the truck and charge the batter at the same time is to start the truck and once it is running disconnect the battery. If the alternator is putting out anything less than 12V the truck will die.

Over time an alternator just like anything else it will loose some of its efficency, where instead of putting out 14V it will only put out 10 or so. Now with that 10 it is trying to charge the battery, run the truck etc.. A truck can run like this for probably 6 months before it finally calls it quits.

That's not a good idea. The battery is a buffer for the electrical system. You run the risk of screwing up something bigtime if you do that. Not to mention, burning up your alternator.

+1 for NOT disconnecting the battery like someone else said. Don't do that, it can only cause problems.

The other thing to do while you're waiting for your parents to get home is to check the ground (the ground is the cable which goes from the - battery terminal to the frame). Make sure it is connected well, especially at the frame. Sometimes it will vibraate loose or rust out and not make a good connection. This is probably not the issue on a newer truck like that, but it takes 2 minutes to check and it's free so I thought I'd mention it.

I'd bet it's the alternator though.

Ok well I am not saying go driving around town with it disconnected. If the truck is started and you disconnect the battery it will do one of two things. If the alt is still in good working order then it will continue to run, if the alt is not putting out enough power the truck will die instantly.

I am going to ask you a question, then I want you to re-read what you said. If you have a dead battery what do you do? You jump start it right. Ok now you just jumped your car and you drive it to wherever you are going. Do you think that once you jump it that your dead battery is charged instantly? No it isn't so in other words when you jump a dead battery you are basicly just getting enough juice to turn the starter over so that the alternator will run the car. As the car runs it will charge the battery back up, so until the battery is charged back up you are running on the alternator.

You're right, but as I stated earlier, the battery is a buffer. It helps protect the systems from voltage spikes and electrical surges. If you remove it, you remove the biggest protection your electrical system has. Also, I'm not sure if the engine will run unless you touch the battery cables together and complete the circuit. Either way, it's a bad idea to remove the battery with an engine running.

Now on an outboard boat motor, you can do that, the engine will keep running, but you will burn up the charging circuit in the process because the voltage regulator will go crazy and the electricity has nowhere to go. That's why it's a bad idea to crank your bote with someone else's battery and then swap back to your dead one. Sometimes you can get away with it, other times you'll be spending $300 dollars to fix what you burnt up.

Now these newer trucks may have some kind of protection built in to prevent problems like this, but I wouldn't take the risk on my truck.

Most alternators are capable of putting out in excess of 18 Volts. You pass that kind of current through a battery and you're gonna boil the water out of it. You pass that kind of current through your truck's computer and you're gonna smell smoke.

Well like I said, you only have to take the negative cable off of the battery for about 2 seconds to figure out if the alternator is bad or not.

Trust me I have done this enough times to know that it works, takes about 4 seconds total to do, and will not damage the ECU in any way.

Wow,ya'll probly have this poor guy all confused! By far,the easiest way is to take the battery and alternator to a good parts store and have them load test them.Or,take it to AutoZone; they can check them both,in the truck! :fyi: