Battery dies when listening to the radio...

[someday31]

I had my truck in the accessory key position at a job site so I could listen to the radio. Had the radio on for about 4.5hrs, the radio died and the truck wouldnt even click, had to be jumped. My last chevy I had I could go all day with the radio on and it would start right up! Is this normal for my silverado? btw its a 03 1500, battery is about 3 mos old, has upgraded 150 amp alternator and has all new grounds done.

[MT-2500]

You are luckie to get 4Hrs running on accessory's.
On acc you have other stuff besides radio power up.
If you are going to run it that long you will need to hook it direct to the battery and remember to turn it off when not using it.

And run a amp draw on radio and find out how many amps it pulls and then figure out how long battery will run radio without gong dead.



Also remember you can only run a car type battery down so many times without wearing it out.

For long extended use from a battery it is best to use a marine deep cycle battery.

They can be hooked up with your regular battery with a inverter setup like on a motor home.
That setup would not pull power from your truck battery and let the extra battery charge up when truck is running.
And let you leave radio on all day.
Good luck

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by someday31

I had my truck in the accessory key position at a job site so I could listen to the radio. Had the radio on for about 4.5hrs, the radio died and the truck wouldnt even click, had to be jumped. My last chevy I had I could go all day with the radio on and it would start right up! Is this normal for my silverado? btw its a 03 1500, battery is about 3 mos old, has upgraded 150 amp alternator and has all new grounds done.

just because you have a new battery really don't mean much. With the battery fully charged, with a battery charger Then have the battery load tester put on it.

draining the battery then dumping a huge current to re charge it is a good way to destroy the cells due to overheating as this distorts the soft lead plates.