So my stock battery is just the 540 CCA battery and my second battery is a 1000 CCA Everstart Maxx battery. What should my voltage be? It's only at 13.8 volts at idle. Should it be higher than that? I kinda figured it would be more around 14+ volts.

 

Thats what mine was at too, doing the big three made it go up to like 14.2 with the factory alt and with my new one it's usually at 14.5/14.6

 

Mine idled at 14.1 stock. Now it idles at 14.6-14.7.

 

13.8 just seems low to me. I've never seen anything above 14.3 maybe as far as I can remember.

 

Does that seem a little low to you guys? Or am I just expecting too much?

 

That's about what my Scan Gauge says at idle.

 

idle voltage doesn't mean much for audio or starting power. (trust me on this one, I fix industrial batteries for a living) Unfortunately there are no simple measuring tools available to figure out if you're over taxing the battery. As a general rule the more battery weight you have the better, also some batteries are better at rapid discharge than others. I'm a big fan of the 'pure lead' batteries because their shorted discharge rates are scary compared to old school deep cycles. Its all a matter of surface area when it comes to rapid discharge, so parallel two batteries and you have twice the surface area, switch to an optima and you get more than that.

btw, battery on charge/finish rate voltage has nothing to do with available power. Its about the lead plate composition and charge/alternator voltage, all though higher is generally better...

 

Doesn't seem alarmingly low. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

I would only worry about it if your truck blowing up is a cause for concern for you.











j/k. It does seem a tad low, maybe your alt isn't charging as good as it should

 

That's kinda what I was thinking. Any chances of my alternator going bad? I've been hearing a slight whine every once in a while that's coming from the alternator.

 

If your charging more than 13.6 do t worry about it. You should not be charging more than 14.2-3. At around 14.6V most electronic devices turn off because they are receiving too much voltage. That is dangerously high

 

My scangauge indicates I'm getting 13.7 volts cruising down the road. It doesn't seem to have an electrical problems that I can see.

 

Voltage at idle should be between 13.6 and 14.3 so it is normal
I wouldn't worry about it