Dead Gladiator

[Mr._Bill]

After 40 hours on the charger/maintainer (but still blinking red for charging) I disconnected the charger, disconnected the positive and negative terminals, and disconnected the two negative terminals attached to the negative bracket - in otherwords all negative leads disconnected. After 30 minutes reconnected everything - hoped that 40 hours had charged it - nothing at all. Not even able to open the doors with proximity or pushing the unlock button. Unlocked with the key, no lights on the dash at all. Seems that charging for 40 hours actually totally drained them.

Hooked up the jump starter again - no crank, and lights gone wild and wiper blades wiping (even though they are turned off).

Calling the Jeep service department. I think I have a bad battery - 4-5 weeks not running should not break a battery to the point it will not charge. My wife's car sat for over 6 months and still had juice to start the car. And it is a wee little battery compared to what is in the Gladiator.

Disconnect the main battery from the truck and put a regular charger on it. Connect the new maintainer to the secondary battery. When the main battery shows charged, reconnect everything and see what happens.

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[Walter-new jeeper]

Disconnect the main battery from the truck and put a regular charger on it. Connect the new maintainer to the secondary battery. When the main battery shows charged, reconnect everything and see what happens.

I have not tried the dual charging like that. But when I disconnected the neg clamp from the battery, connected charger to n1 or n2 and the neg to the neg cable, all I get is lots of whirring and clicking in the compartment somewhere. I think I even tried connecting to the positive clamp while it was disconnected with the same results.

It's being towed to my service department - I described everything to him and he seemed to be of the opinion that 40 hours on a trickle charger should have charged the batteries up, even after not being driven for 5 weeks.

Update - the tow truck driver tried to get it started - he had a little better luck than I did - it actually cranked and almost started. After several attempts he concluded that there is something else wrong. Off it went to my Jeep service department.

 

[Raton Pass]

Regarding your jump start.... Leave the donor vehicle running and the jumper cables attached to your positive and negative terminals of the Main battery for 10 mins. while donor vehicle is running.... NOW, after the 10 min., try to start your JT.

This way of doing... it is what JL owner's have found is needed to jump start a JL.

Not to derail the thread but I saw your chute.
I too love jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft.

 

[redrider]

I started jumping in '73, right after I read the book and saw the movie The Gypsy Moths. Those were good times. Some of the girls in my HS were interested in observing sooo.... This was the Bobby Riggs-Billie Jean King summer of love and a local FM(!!!WTF!!! FM?) station's DJs challenged any woman to any sport. Well, being young and mischievous, we had 100lb Connie throw down the gauntlet. After consulting the lawyers, the DJs accepted with trepidation. A weeks worth of ground school. Ken Martin was stocky and on the limit of a T-32-he landed in the trees. Cannot remember the other fellow's name but he made the grass but not the pea gravel. Just to be fair, a couple of guys swapped Connie's specially modded T28 for the mil spec T32. There she was, gaining altitude with every updraft and she used every word in the Sailor's Dictionary on the way down. BTW, the Russian PC was the hot ticket but treacherous. Ram Air foils were sorcery and several local ANG pilots volunteered just to get the hours.

 

[5JeepsAz]

Just for clarification purposes. Crazy asses who jump out of perfectly good airplanes hijack threads, not derail. It's a point of distinction.

 

[Raton Pass]

I started jumping in '73, right after I read the book and saw the movie The Gypsy Moths. Those were good times. Some of the girls in my HS were interested in observing sooo.... This was the Bobby Riggs-Billie Jean King summer of love and a local FM(!!!WTF!!! FM?) station's DJs challenged any woman to any sport. Well, being young and mischievous, we had 100lb Connie throw down the gauntlet. After consulting the lawyers, the DJs accepted with trepidation. A weeks worth of ground school. Ken Martin was stocky and on the limit of a T-32-he landed in the trees. Cannot remember the other fellow's name but he made the grass but not the pea gravel. Just to be fair, a couple of guys swapped Connie's specially modded T28 for the mil spec T32. There she was, gaining altitude with every updraft and she used every word in the Sailor's Dictionary on the way down. BTW, the Russian PC was the hot ticket but treacherous. Ram Air foils were sorcery and several local ANG pilots volunteered just to get the hours.

Got me beat.

1975 in high school and followed a girl out the door the only reason.

My older brother put me in the school of accelerated bouncing . aka frap school

21st jump with his stratostar with no ground to air communication.

Winds picked up and thank God the old man plowed the field two weeks prior.

Swung like a pendulum to the ground & knocked unconscious.

Came to, picked up the chute to see drag marks to a small crater with everyone running towards me.

Next time jumped a borrowed para commander that someone bounced with prior.

”already had a SCR so I was hooked badly”

Bro had packed a sniveler and held onto me in free fall down to 2000’ AGL, around D class range.

Kicked & punched for clean air to deploy and pumped the front risers on the streamer for the shortest canopy ride ever. * saw a YouTube of one like mine

Did my first stand up & bro hit a barb wire fence bleeding like he was in season.

Friend said it looked like I hit the ground then the chute opened on the rolling hills.

Next attempt was Spaceland in Houston .

He tied a knot in my steering line & was yelling cut away!

Huge Power lines there.

I had to walk back but was the right choice as my lead sealed rigors seal was missing on my reserve.

You would think I would have quit instead of sleeping on my chute.
He had shot at me years before but I was hooked bad by then.

Meanwhile, reading Pat Works Relative Wind I joined three newbies and drill sgt dirt dived them to do a 8 man sequential with a little over 50 jumps.

On the ground they thought senior jumpers had broke up the 8 man attempt & went with a four man.

Chutes deployed they thought we switched rigs.

This pissed him off & the senior jumpers broke us up with NSCR promises & other trollings of drop zone fame.

I was told that would have been nationals quality .

He did my father wrong & I ended up buying all my dad’s shops ending the efforts of my demise.

About 10 years ago his Harley landed on his headcrushing his skull. Karma?

Air life and years of brain therapies like CORE the sob defied all odds from medical professionals to walk, talk & remember short term.

Long term only prior.

Might be because my mom pleaded for me to go to his bedside to pray on his deathbed.

You can pick your friends and even your nose but not your family.

One close call not due to him was both magnetos dead on a C-182 under 500’ AGL with only a muddy field.

We looked at one another & I stepped out and deployed my hand held pilot chute to let it rip me off the strut.

Everyone followed suit as the plane turned right.

Plane flipped on landing & the pilot went to the ER.

Zeppher Hills & three ring cape well designer Bill Booth was my favorite jump & drop zone. Twin otter my favorite bird.

Believe it or not, I barely have over 100 jumps when I decided to quit testing God.

Sold my strato cloud rig and walked away.

Still live in pain to this day making the crater.

My log book is somewhere with my ranting comments of brotherly “love”...

Rant over lol

PS

My friend I jumped with is Bruce Jones.
Sub designer & builder.
He holds the world record deepest dive sub.
Anyway he drove his Pantera & other exotics to the drop zone back then.

He asked me what are you going to do if you bounce?

Trac to the most expensive car in the parking lot I said.

Do you know he quit driving exotics to the DZ?

 

[10ecHarry]

I would love to just bypass the secondary battery

I took my aux battery out. connect positive that was on aux to big battery positive. No more aux battery. Works good.

 

[10ecHarry]

Appreciate it.

Would a bad aux battery stop the car from operating if the main is ok? Or just cause this intermittent sort of thing? Need to drive to Fresno this weekend and deciding to take the truck or my sedan.

Yes, it did with mine. Aux battery a bitch to get to. Thats why I eliminated mine.

 

[j.o.y.ride]

While I could carry some wrenches and disconnect the battery and reconnect if it happens again, if my wife is driving it's nocandoesville.

So I think I am goint to just bypass aux battery.

 

[Walter-new jeeper]

Interesting - got a call from the Jeep service department. They claim the drain hole on the aux battery tray was clogged so the water did not drain, and that ruined the battery. Claimed debris from the window cowling somehow made if through the drain holes there into the battery tray.

They did replace it.

 

[Walter-new jeeper]

@Walter-new jeeper

This water accumulating.. a plugged drain hole, etc., in the storage box holding the Aux battery has been brought up before on the JL Wrangler forum and on one of the JT/JL related, Facebook groups.

For sure, something to keep in mind... to be aware.... that it could be an issue, especially if you ford through water/mud..

Had not seen anything about that. So it seems like it was a problem just waiting to happen. Bad engineering design if it is that easy to get water and debris into the tray from the front window cowling.

Had a thought about how it could have happened though - we had a snowfall of 6 inches just the prior weekend. The debris may have formed a slight plug and then water froze around it. When the snow started melting more debris went with it and hit the frozen plug and just accumulated. Then all thawed out but it was plugged.

Still a bad design if it is that easy to plug a drain under a battery. The engineer needs to be flogged.

 

[StingGrayJT24]

Interesting - got a call from the Jeep service department. They claim the drain hole on the aux battery tray was clogged so the water did not drain, and that ruined the battery. Claimed debris from the window cowling somehow made if through the drain holes there into the battery tray.

They did replace it.

Very interesting! Last weekend I replaced mine with the Genesis dual battery swap (my aux was dead, but I did it for other reasons as well). I pulled my aux battery, I had water in my compartment as well. At the time, I wondered if this is what killed mine.

I’m glad to hear the dealership took care of you! That’s great.

 

[Walter-new jeeper]

Very interesting! Last weekend I replaced mine with the Genesis dual battery swap (my aux was dead, but I did it for other reasons as well). I pulled my aux battery, I had water in my compartment as well. At the time, I wondered if this is what killed mine.

I’m glad to hear the dealership took care of you! That’s great.

I may consider doing the dual battery swap - this would be one reason to do so. Yes, the water may have killed it. Bad design that can let that much water collect around a battery. There should be more protection on that side of the battery, or better yet, not bury it so low under the fuses.

 

[5JeepsAz]

A known issue, wait for it, jeep heads, your gonna love this, it's the 'nothing to worry about' 'nothing to see here' award winner of the year: "water in a battery compartment" ... Coming soon, the all electric jeep. Hope the brilliant geniuses on that project figure out how to prevent water from destroying a completely sealed battery, in a compartment, high up in the engine bay.

 

[Walter-new jeeper]

Now that I have it back, most of the settings were still fine. But I noticed that GPS appears to not be working - NAV shows me being somewhere else and the clock is not updating. Something for the dealer to do or do I need to do something?

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