Battery fun...

[STROKMII]

So I was helping a friend move across town last weekend, I noticed a Rotten Egg smell coming from the front of my truck. I opened the hood to see the Passenger side battery venting off a TON of vapor!!!! So I disconnected the Battery + lead from that battery to stop it from getting MORE overcharged and blowing up under my hood. Truck ran fine on Drivers side battery, so I was thinking about just going to ONE Big battery instead of the 2 the truck has..... A buddy is running ONE battery on his 95 Cummins but the Compound Turbo set up took up all the room on the Passenger side of his truck.
I KNOW that there is a ton of electrical stuff on this truck thats probably why it has 2 batteriers and for starting. On my 96 PSD I ran with 1 battery from probably like 6 months with no problems.... I just wanna know if anyone else has every thought of the 1 battery idea....

[sschefer]

I'm not sure but I was thinking the 2 batteries were for 24v to the starter. Just what I was thinking, I don't know for sure.

FYI - next time disconnect the negative side, DC current flows from negative to positive not the other way around like we've all been lead to think for so many years.

[walkeru08]

As long as the one battery provided amperage equal to the dual batteries it probably wouldnt make any difference. The dual's are wired parallel to double the amperage not the voltage. You can't get 24 volts off two 12volt batteries wired in parallel, they would have to be wired in a series.