Battery Issue

[Pelican]

The past few days I've gone to start my truck and it's dead, batteries are discharged. I initially thought I had something drawing them down, but today I'm pretty sure I determined one of the two batteries is shorted. This is in my F-350. After getting the truck charged and started this morning, then restarting successfully several times, at an afternoon stop the truck was again dead after sitting for about 1/2 hour. When I opened the hood to jump it, one battery had visible sulfur gas coming from the vent and the case was extremely hot to the touch. When I went to disconnect it, the positive post was mushy in the case.

I isolated that battery out, charged up the second battery and was on my way. I didn't have any further problems for the day with the hot battery disconnected from the truck.

These batteries are about 2 years old. Can I get by with swapping the one bad one out or will I need to replace them both?

[Jerre Heyer]

Steve, you can do just one in a pinch but be sure to match it's amp specs when you do/ Better to do both though sometimes it's not in the cards.

J