battery issue?

[uncertain]

This winter will be the 3rd winter I have had this truck. It occasionally has an alt. light that flashes, was told no big deal. When the light is on I checked it with high fan, and lights on and was gettin 13.9V at the battery.
I have not drove the truck for 2 weeks, and when I started it yesterday, it did not want to start, turned over slowly. But finally did.
The batteries have the heaters around them, and are motorcraft batteries.
How long do the batteries in these usually last? I know it was a 2-3 year deal on my 7.3IDI.
Or do I have another issue

[cpolchow]

Depending on the age of the batteries I would say they are on thier way out. If there is any question take to the local battery shop and have them do a hydometer test (if it is not maintance free) and do a load test. Make sure though that it is not the cheezie load test of 100 amps though, make sure that they can put altest 250+ amps. That will tell you the condition of the battery. If I can be of any more help please let me know.

[Jarrod B]

you also want to get that alt checked out. where are you to have heaters on the batts?

[dannyboy950]

Man the last place I saw battery heaters being used was on the Alaska pipe line job.
Man did it get cold there.

[uncertain]

I am in the pacific NW neat Portland OR. Truck was purchased in Utah, used wile on vacation. And has a cold weather package.

[dannyboy950]

You may want to look for a voltage draw from a short in the wireing. If you have gone thru a lot of batteries I would suspect that.

[uncertain]

had to throw a charger on the truck last night to get it started.
After geting it started I had 12V from the alt at idle, At about 1400, I had 14V. So I think that alt is ok. Just needing batteries?
I have never changed them, they are Motorcraft, and no date sticker. Any other way to tell when they were made?

[cpolchow]

I would have the alt tested, along with the batt. There shouldn't be a jump like that, it should be a stead 13.7-13.9 voltage at idle. From my experience it sounds as if the the alt is not getting excited, this is why I would stress getting the batt load tested.

[Splashdance]

Originally Posted by cpolchow

Depending on the age of the batteries I would say they are on thier way out. If there is any question take to the local battery shop and have them do a hydometer test (if it is not maintance free) and do a load test. Make sure though that it is not the cheezie load test of 100 amps though, make sure that they can put altest 250+ amps. That will tell you the condition of the battery. If I can be of any more help please let me know.

Good advise.

I had my batteries checked at an Oreilly auto parts and they checked out fine. I ended up pulling into a local battery shop, he did a series of tests and found that one of my batteries was bad. I learned a lot, and he gave me a better deal on better batteries than Oreilly had. It was nice to also support a local guy.

[bigwhite7.3stroker]

I've ran the Orbital Gel Cell batteries from Napa which were good batteries and now running Optima Red Tops great batteries and warranty