For all we know, it was just a dead battery and the dealer tech smoked the fuse. That would only add more insult to the injury. I'm sure that didn’t happen.
If you've gone to connect two batteries at very different levels of charge - it's a hell of a pop. Easily blow a fuse.
The loud pop, sizzling noise and burning smell reminded me of this issue https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...electrical-connector-issue.85238/post-1378121.
Sizzle is sign of a bad connection - I've seen battery connections sizzle and you could see the sparking and "smoke" rise from the connection. Has to be similar.
True, but it would have happened in my driveway when I turned the engine off, not at a light when all I did was stop. Engine was running fine, the ESS kicked-in normally, and nothing went wrong until it was supposed to restart. Logical conclusion is that if the ESS was disabled (meaning the button was pushed manually or by the Tazer - not implying the Tazer somehow bypasses it and I understand it's just activating the button) then I would have at least made it to my destination another mile down the road. And yes, I do blame ESS because this would not have happened on a vehicle without it.
I would be suspicious if I didn't literally hear the thing pop and sizzle. It's not subtle. I thought the engine itself blew up for a minute.
While it's true it would have happened at your next "planned" stop and shut down - be it a parking lot, rest area, or driveway at home, I guess you've not experienced a battery going zap and belly-up in your driveway, and the battery is internally shorted, not allowing a jump start. It happens.
Yes, my point exactly. Having a vehicle that won't start in my driveway after I turned it off would have been much better than ESS turning it off at an intersection blocking traffic. If I remembered to have the Tazer plugged-in or pushed the ESS off button, I would have most likely made it home, so ESS was 100% the reason why I was stranded at a light. Dangerous, dumb feature forced on us by the government.
3400 miles in 2 years, always on a maintainer and never used? I'd hope to get 9+ years out of the battery too in a vehicle that's never driven and always plugged in. You might have 2 years worth of normal average miles in 10 years which makes your battery life less impressive. My 2023 mojave already has 35k miles on it, has never been plugged in, and almost never gets driven outside of weekends and roadtrips. Original batteries are still fine.I don't drive my Gladiator very often. I think it has 3,400 miles on it (December 2023 build date). It's not uncommon for it to sit for a month or two without being started. You would think the OE batteries would be toast, but I keep them maintained. I highly recommend keeping your Jeep on a battery maintainer when not driving it. I usually get 9+ years out of the factory batteries by keeping them maintained.
Note: I have noticed that it takes much longer to charge the dual battery system in the Gladiator.
But you drive distances. Not the same thing.
Generally in modern Jeeps we get 3-4 years and about 50k miles out of the stock batteries. Getting more time out of a battery that's never used and always on a charger isn't impressive. Driven that little you could simply remove the batteries and they'd last for decades. If I never used the winch I'd agree that my batteries have a pretty optimal life... but there has been several hard pulls from them.
