I'm going on a 2mo deployment. thoughts on my batt in my ram

Funny story.
My son deployed for a year and left his truck at my house. I let it sit in the Vermont winter for about 6 months. Every month OnStar sent him an email asking about the truck. I started driving it on Sunday's to give it a little exercise. The OnStar emails changed to bring the truck in, there is a problem with your odometer. So it sat for about 6 months in a Vermont winter and never had a problem and it continued to send updates to OnStar.

Thanks for your service!!!

Leave it alone, it will start like you were never gone.

I have left my Dodge Ram diesel parked for 4 months without anything and it started just fine like it had been driven the day before.

I don't disconnect anything, just put a maintainer on and leave it. Have let it sit for more than 5 months with no issues.

I left my 2008 F250 parked outside for 5 months in a Wyoming winter while we went south. It started just fine. It has a Walmart battery about 2 years old. No charger of any kind on it while we were gone.

Your truck should have an IOD (ignition off draw) fuse in the fuse box. By unplugging this fuse it kills all parasitic losses from the battery for storing the vehicle. Check your owners manual. No need for a battery tender when this is pulled. The fuse will have a yellow plastic retainer clip on it so you can pull it without removing it from the fuse box.

It is item #J13 in the picture below.

I prefer to use the BatteryMINDer to any other chargers I've found on the market. Battery MINDer is the only one I've found that desulfates the battery as it charges. It has even brought marginal batteries back to life for me. You can also check out the reviews on Amazon, and see why it gets 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Best thing to do is just leave it connected.

I am NOT a big fan of disconnected a 12VDC START BATTERY from a vehicle when setting for a long time. Who knows how many computers are ON-LINE in the newer vehicles. Disconnecting the START BATTERY may reset your computer settings and the manufactures will say NO HARM as the computers will relearn the settings after you drive again a few times.

I had my IDLE DROP BACK to around 400RPMs on my truck after the battery was disconnected for a couple of days when I was replacing my Alternator.

When I hooked everything back up my truck would die when I stopped at a stop sign. It never did relearn the factory setting. After about a week of having one foot one the gas pedal and the other foot on the brake pedal everytime I stopped I final took it to the FORD DEALER and had them reset the computer setting. Cost was $90 for a ten minute work effort.

I now hook up a low trickle charge if my truck is going to sit unattended for awhile...

Now on my RV TRAILERS I have a BATTERY DISCONNECT SWITCH installed right at the battery terminals and I will disconnect the batteries when setting over the winter months. I will check the battery voltage a couple of times over the winter months. Have no problems with them draining down when totally disconnected.

Roy Ken

I just hook up a Battery Tender and forget about it for the winter. (My truck sleeps all winter)