Hi folks,

Recently, we have been waking up to a dead battery in our truck. One it is jumped, it runs and starts fine, it is only after it has been parked overnight that it is drained.

There is a short in one of the power seat wires that has tripped the circuit breaker in the fuse box... the breaker is too hot to touch with bare hands. We had this problem last year, but it never drained the battery.

Is this the most likely cause of the battery draining?

Unless you added something into the system I would suspect the voltage regulator which now seems to be built into the alternators. A bad cell in the battery can cause this as well. A load test of the battery can help to eliminate it some. I don't know if they can test the alternator for a shorted diode while the alternator is hooked up though.

Batteries that are repeatedly drained and not fully recharged before using don't last very long(surface charge) add long cold winter and its toast

2016? Could be time for a new battery. After you charge the battery back up unhook it and check the voltage. Right after the charge it should read around 13.7ish volts and pretty quickly go down to around 12.8 volts. The next morning it should still read 12.4 to 12.6.

If your battery goes down to around 12 volts while it's unhooked then your battery is toast. If it holds a charge then you have a drain. Batteries seem to last me 2 to 5 years depending on the quality I buy at the time.

Had tractor batteries do same thing. Took to unhooking ground wire when shutting off. Haven’t had to jumpstart in a year and going strong. Not quite the fix your going for but it works and it keeps working. Have wrench in cab just for that.

Also, repeatedly jumping the truck is bad for the alternator and a bad battery is bad for it as well. Asking an alternator to charge a dead battery or one that can't hold a charge is overtaxing it and will cause premature failure.

Go to the parts store a simple drain test will let you know if its the battery or not.

If you disconnect the red cable when you park it at night and it still won't start in the morning (after reconnect), it's the battery and not a short.

there are switches for just what you are doing that are cheap and make it a lot easier and keep a good connection.Dad has a side by side with a clock in the dash, if it sits for a month then the battery will not start the vehicle, since the switch was installed no worries.

I'd disconnect the circuit to the power seat and see what happens. If same I'd have the bat and alt tested.

Just be sure that circuit is not running something else that is important,,
you do not want to run without tail lights etc.

Thanks for the replies folks.
I think the circuit only runs the power seat and seat warmers (it's my wife's truck LOL, I don't use the seat warmers)
I spoke to a local mechanic and he suggested same as Wright Brothers, so I'm going to try that.

The heat generated in the breaker in this case is drawing current from the battery overnight. It is definitely a contributor to the issue (if not the cause). On top of that modern car batteries are not designed to be run that far down unless its a "deep cycle". So the battery is likely gone. I doubt its the alternator because it charges it back up and runs properly when started from a dead battery.

This is why home owners insurance is higher if you have an attached garage, (fire).
These late models have so dang much junk they drive me crazy, yah that's it lol.

I think this: