Sometimes problems come in bunches like bananas.

Having two batteries is great for starting a diesel engine, but it's painful when it's time to buy more.

I still haven't figured out the campers taillight problems yet but while I was testing everything I determined that my trucks batteries weren't doing too well. The alternators charging them but after sitting for a while they drop down to 12.1 V which means their just about dead.

The dates on the batteries show that their five years old which is pretty much the limit of a cheap Walmart car battery so I hauled the old ones into Walmart and replaced them with some new ones. It's funny how when you start digging around trying to fix a problem and all you do is end up finding more problems, sometimes life is like that. But I can't complain, their cheap Walmart batteries and they lasted as long as they were supposed to.

I used to almost enjoy simple straightforward mechanical jobs like this because I had a garage to work in and a rollaway tool chest where all my tools were where they were easy to get to and exactly where they were supposed to be. And now often as not it takes me longer to find the tools I need than to do the job. My tools are just thrown into some tool bags with the only separation being SAE tools in one bag and metrics in another so digging around for what I need usually ends up being time-consuming and frustrating.

But despite that, I feel its a small price to pay for the great life I live. It's 70s in the day time and 50s at night, the sun is usually shining, the scenery is beautiful, I have a whole summer ahead of me, and some of the most beautiful mountains in America are waiting for me to go camping.

                             theboondork

I decided that since going full time my truck has become more important to me than ever. So instead of buying the cheapest battery Walmart sells I got the best one they had which turned out to be an AGM battery. It's got more cold cranking amps than my old ones had, and it has a warranty almost twice as long. So I'm happy, my trucks happy, and a happy truck makes a happy camper.