ajb0812

I brought my meter home from work (I'm a coal mine mechanic). It's a fluke 375 true rms clamp meter. It does in fact measure amps dc.

06_F150

Ok cool. I did realize they made Hall effect meters. I agree with homer that it might not be sensitive enough to measure the drain current. Also like he said are you sure you got it fully charged? Something don't seem right though if they keep dying every year. Do you do a lot of short trips or a lot of start stops?

ajb0812

Not really. Every time I take the truck somewhere it is at least a 20 mile round trip. I am going to take the advice posted above and try removing the battery from the truck overnight and see if the voltage drops while it is disconnected. That would give me another view off if the battery is bad or if the truck is draining it.

Nalb1221

I literally was just having this problem in my 04 screw fx4. My battery kept dying, took it to advanced and everything tested fine except the battery rated for 850 cca was only pushing 630 cca. The battery was about 3 years old so I just replaced it, next day it was dead. So I figured I have a parasitic drain happening, and notice the display on my radio was going out. I installed a pie aux adapter over a year ago and figured that was the problem so I took it out and charged the battery and problem solved. If you added anything to your truck I would start there, it can be a bad ground you can test for parasitic drain with a tester and a full battery by removing fuses one by one. I can post a link to walk you through the process if you want. Anyway I just figured I'd add from my experience. Let me know and I'll post link.

homer

I'm not arguing your meter doesn't work, mine's a Fluke too and I love it . It's a good product. I just find when the current draw is that low, it's not the best for reading with a clamp. Just my thoughts. Here's two other ways to do it:

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain - with a meter (without clamps) - watch your fuse limit!
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2962333 - with a test light

Again though, your battery if it's been drained that many times is probably weak now anyways. And it won't help if it's froze either after it was discharged.

I'd make 100% sure you don't have a parasitic draw though otherwise you're going to be using batteries like they're going out of style. Either that or like 07 F150 said, maybe it is your alternator overcharging or producing an A/C signal.

Sorry if I've come off the wrong way, I'm just trying to offer suggestions.

You definitely don't have anything aftermarket? i.e. Stereo, amp, remote start + alarm...?

ajb0812

The only aftermarket things I have are an edge programmer and a trailer brake controller that is wired in using the factory kit. When this happened last year I only had the programmer. At which time I unplugged and the battery still died after a few days of sitting.

Nalb1221

You have some kind of drain or maybe something to do with your alternator. The link homer posted is good and here's a video on how to test for drainage. . You can at least do the first part to see if there's something draining the battery. It can also be a ground problem. If the battery is dying with it unhooked then the battery is faulty it shouldn't drain when not hooked up. With the edge you can monitor the volts to see what the alternator is charging at. Have you charged the battery with a charger and not by jumping it? Charging it will give better results then jumping and the battery will like you better, haha. Good luck.