Battery drain - cause?

[Pinger]

The tires on my truck usually run at 35 psi, unless I'm going loaded to a show. Then I run them up to 40 on the back and 38 on the front. Your truck being a 2500 series, it's probably got LT series light truck tires that are 10 ply and run around 75 psi. It should have a specified amount in the owner's manual handbook for the size tire and load range. When I get done with work I will look at my manual and post it.

Mine are currently around 75psi rear and 50psi front which is specified in the door jamb sticker - along with another sticker that says they can run a lot lower. I'll check the figures later.
They are too high as they are and are transmitting a lot of noise. As I leave the house here, the tarmac is worn through to the 'washboard' surface grading that was done during its last re-tar. It's horrible!

 

[Pinger]

I like your maintenance thread idea, to add on that, we should start a thread about all the things to check out when you first buy a GMT400.

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Nice one RawbDidit - ''when you first buy'' - not before you buy!
Would I have bought mine if I'd read all the stuff that goes wrong?

Old houses and old cars/trucks/bikes are XX years of someone else's stored up problems. At least with our trucks being easy to work on, it's all retrievable. Just as well really!

 

[RawbDidIt]

Nice one RawbDidit - ''when you first buy'' - not before you buy!
Would I have bought mine if I'd read all the stuff that goes wrong?

Old houses and old cars/trucks/bikes are XX years of someone else's stored up problems. At least with our trucks being easy to work on, it's all retrievable. Just as well really!

If I did all these checks while I was negotiating with the owner, they'd tell me to screw off and they'll sell it to some idiot that doesn't know all these things. You've got it exactly right, it would be extremely difficult to find a 20+ year old vehicle with zero issues. It's either been sitting a lot which keeps the interior and exterior nice, but ruins seals, lines, etc, or it's been used a lot which means there's miles on it, which wears on moving parts, interior, and exterior. This is completely excluding owners going cheap, or simply not knowing what they're doing regarding repairs.

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[HotWheelsBurban]

When we got this Burb, it was on a local small used car lot in a suburb of Houston that we were in frequently for work. Trying to replace the other 99 Burb that was wrecked. Looking at Suburbans all over Houston area.....
So we looked this one over, then had my fleet mechanic cousin look at it too. He said it has some issues, but it's a good starting point. We had seen some things too, from experience with the other Burb.
Maintenance costs on this one have been lower, partially due to not working on the HVAC. A couple of the door handles have broken, it's gotten a few dings and dents, but the biggest problem was the no start and that's taken care of until the starter quits. And the brake hose, but it was original, like pretty much everything I've done except probably the front pads. I think its previous owners didn't do much except change the oil, and probably the lower ball joints. Nobody drives a GM truck on Houston roads for more than a few years without replacing the LBJs......

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Nice one RawbDidit - ''when you first buy'' - not before you buy!
Would I have bought mine if I'd read all the stuff that goes wrong?

Old houses and old cars/trucks/bikes are XX years of someone else's stored up problems. At least with our trucks being easy to work on, it's all retrievable. Just as well really!

There's a video or 2 on YouTube on this very topic. I saw it last summer, and the guy was spot on on most of it. He was actually talking about the pickups but most of it applies to the SUVs too. But we should do a thread

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Mine are currently around 75psi rear and 50psi front which is specified in the door jamb sticker - along with another sticker that says they can run a lot lower. I'll check the figures later.
They are too high as they are and are transmitting a lot of noise. As I leave the house here, the tarmac is worn through to the 'washboard' surface grading that was done during its last re-tar. It's horrible!

My old 90 R2500 Burb (square body Burb version of your truck) had 10 ply skinny 16" tires on it that ran 80psi. It rode like a truck, which was expected. Never tried to run them lower than that, so can't say if it would help. I know when I have the trip load pressure in the tires on my half ton, it does ride a little firmer. FWIW a lot of the problems that Ford had with the Explorer and their other SUVs blowing tires started with the OEM specifying a lower tire pressure than they should have in the interest of improvement in ride quality. So when dealing with big utes one does have to exercise a bit of caution in this. Good luck and let us know how it works out

 

[Eveready]

[QUOTE="HotWheelsBurban, post: 1094507, member: 27253" I want to see what's still making noise in the front end after I paid for that to go away....It usually happens when going over speed bumps, so it's straight up and down movements. I'll do the check with the long board and see what it does. Then I have an idea what to fix next....[/QUOTE]

HWB did you change the front shocks when you paid for the noise to go away? Reason I ask is twofold. Not only do old shocks (up and down motion) sometimes get noisy, but sometimes when shocks are replaced the mounting bolts don't get tightened properly (sometimes it isn't obvious) and there is just enough play to cause one or more to make noise. Might be worth a look in either case.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

[QUOTE="HotWheelsBurban, post: 1094507, member: 27253" I want to see what's still making noise in the front end after I paid for that to go away....It usually happens when going over speed bumps, so it's straight up and down movements. I'll do the check with the long board and see what it does. Then I have an idea what to fix next....

HWB did you change the front shocks when you paid for the noise to go away? Reason I ask is twofold. Not only do old shocks (up and down motion) sometimes get noisy, but sometimes when shocks are replaced the mounting bolts don't get tightened properly (sometimes it isn't obvious) and there is just enough play to cause one or more to make noise. Might be worth a look in either case.[/QUOTE]
I had a local shop that's worked on it before do it. They used air tools to do it, so should have enough torque. The first shock they put on the right side got broken when they were reassembling it. They put new shocks on all 4 corners, and the rear ones were most likely original ones! Fronts probably were too.
But I definitely will be looking closely at everything under there once I get under it in the next few days. Thanks for the help

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

HWB did you change the front shocks when you paid for the noise to go away? Reason I ask is twofold. Not only do old shocks (up and down motion) sometimes get noisy, but sometimes when shocks are replaced the mounting bolts don't get tightened properly (sometimes it isn't obvious) and there is just enough play to cause one or more to make noise. Might be worth a look in either case.

I had a local shop that's worked on it before do it. They used air tools to do it, so should have enough torque. The first shock they put on the right side got broken when they were reassembling it. They put new shocks on all 4 corners, and the rear ones were most likely original ones! Fronts probably were too.
But I definitely will be looking closely at everything under there once I get under it in the next few days. Thanks for the help[/QUOTE]
The mechanic looked at it before doing the work and said it was only the shocks that needed replacing. I did UBJ's 2 years ago, MOOG ones, and they're still good. They were toast when changed, LBJs and upper bushings were within spec then. Front tires had started wearing on inside edge and it was making a lot of squeaking.

 

[Eveready]

They may have backed off too much after breaking the first one. Definitely check all mounting bolts maybe with a hand ratchet wrench and extension. If you can tighten anything without much effort you may have found your noise.