power problems, Battery?
 

i have had to jump my truck twice now. The first night time because i figured it just died because of the cold (MN)and the second i figured it needed it just because i didnt drive it long enough for the battery to charge.and now its dead again. now this sounds just like a normal thing, but when i got in my truck i can turn the radio on and it plays, then when i go to start my truck the starter sounds weak when turning it over and the truck never catches. another weird thing i noticed is when the radio is going and i turn my lights on, the radio shuts off. I checked my connections and their isn't any corrosion. is the battery going bad?
Thanks
James

Check the ground and mess with the batt cables might be bad connection. You can take your batt to auto zone or where ever and get it tested to see if its good.

Dakota's are very sensitive to low voltage. Even a battery at 11 volts will cause the problems you descibed. Your battery is likely shot and won't hold a charge no matter how far you drive the truck. Like dodgeramguy says, most parts stores will load-test it for you for free and they can check the alternator output too. Get a new battery asap. Continuing to run a bad battery will also cause a lot of excess strain on the alternator and you might have to replace that too.

I bought a Duralast Gold battery for my truck this past summer at Autozone. It is a great battery, we had some 20 degree mornings last week with that freak cold front that hit Florida and my truck started right up like it was 85 degrees and sunny outside. I put a Duralast Gold in my gf's Honda Accord too, they are really about the best battery out there, made really well, built like a tank and have a 7 year pro-rated warranty and a 3-year free over the counter exchange warranty. Be sure to clean your battery cable ends and the new battery terminals with a battery post cleaning tool. Put Vaseline or some spray battery terminal anti-corrosion spray compound on the battery posts and the battery cable ends, and check all of the ground connections too.

Jimmy

Do not use Vaseline as it is FLAMMABLE. Use dielectric grease available at just about all auto parts stores and hardware stores.

thanks, i'll bring my old battery in today, and get a new one if i have to.

Is this the original battery? When mine started to kick, even though it only did so once in a while, I just bought a new one. Colder starting crank and all...can't go wrong with it. Especially no more hassle for a good while.

just got a new one and had O'riellys check it and it came up bad battery. and as it turns out it wasnt the original battery the previous owner must have bought a new one it was much smaller then the one i bought, set me back a 100bucks

Just put a battery in our jeep 110.00 I figured when my truck one goes which its getting pretty slow as it gets colder so I figured I might as well spend the extra 60.00 and get the optima red top.