Driving down the highway, battery guage read fine power, but battery light came on. In a remote Alaska situation so I couldn't diagnose, plus truck is new to me. Kept driving towards civilization. All guage dropped. Then lights dimmed, then truck died. This was over about 15 miles. At night with lights on.

Truck has a plow with plow lights, aftermarket crankin stereo which I was using, heater on (Alaska). It sits 70 miles up the highway from where I'm at getting ready to go back and work on it. So...

Of course first thought it is the alternator, not providing enough power for all this. Looked inside, it is a newer looking reman. Belt is fine. My question is, if not this, what else could it be? I'm hoping to haul the alternator and whatever else out there and get it going without having to drive back and forth for more stuff I need. I can always return stuff I don't use. Probably I'll throw a new battery in it as well. But after that, anything else I should be thinking/ready for?

Thanks.

 

Oh yeah, it's a 1999 f250

 

Aside from the alternator and battery, test all your battery cables, grounds and everything. I had a positive cable go bad on the inside, but on the outside it looked perfect. I just randomly tested it while I was testing everything and it was shot.

 

Was your plow on (controller turned on) when it happened? A few years back when plowing, it seemed to be drawing excessive power draws (lights dimmed more than normal, heater blower going slow,etc). Truck died on me and wouldn't start. Went back sn hour or so later and it started right up.

Problem ended up being a bad plow cable. Was running hot (which I guess is why it started after I left it for an hour - it cooled down). Had the cable replaced and it's been fine since.

 

When my alternator went bad........my battery light started flashing......then tested the alternator and found it was bad. Replaced it was just fine.