So I'm on the side of the road. I'm driving 55 miles an hour, the engine cuts off. I pull over. The battery gauge is reading under 14 volts. Can a dead battery cause your engine to shut off?

 

Just hooked the multimeter up to it. Ignition off its reading 12.52. While trying to start it drops to 10 then up to 11.2.
Did not go about 11.2.
dead battery?

 

YES! Same thing happened to me when I was making a left hand turn in the middle of an intersection. If the computer doesnt read 12 volts from the battery, it FREAKS out and will shut the truck off. Most vehicles will run off alternator power and be ok until you can get somewhere to replace the battery...but 2nd gen rams dont like it one bit if the voltage reads low on any part of the electrical system.

You could also be looking at a dead alternator. Since the battery gauge was acting up, I'd look at that as well. Depending upon how old the battery is, the alternator could be the real culprit here.

 

Sounds like you have a battery that's shorting out internally. Take it and have it tested. Hopefully, its still under warranty and can be replaced for free..

 

Well after much anger and troubleshooting. I found the problem. But let's start with steps of what I did.
I had someone take me to Walmart to exchange the battery. Get back bolt in it. Still no start. So now I'm like... Alternator is bad. So I have my friend hook some jumper cables up to see if it'll start up and if it cuts off when you take the wires off. My Truck wouldn't start with a jump. Mind you I just got a full tune up less then a week ago. So my next idea is to see if it's getting fuel. I take the air cleaner off and spray some starter fluid turn the key and it starts for a second or 2 than shuts off. So it's not getting fuel.
Fuel pump went bad. A cop stops to see what's going on after I had already got the part and dropped the tank. Remember I'm on the side of a busy highway. So I'm telling him the situation and he tells me to hurry up. I put in the new one, bolt it up. Fires right up. Man what a relief.
I gotta new battery out of it though. Thanks guys for posting.

 

Congrats on the new battery! Glad you found the root problem and got it fixed.

 

The cop sat behind me till I was done with his lights on. I was a good 3 to 4 feet from the white line. But him being there definitely made it a bit more interesting. Haha thanks again for your posts and help. This thread is closed ;-)

 

Him being there probably made the job quite a bit safer..... folks always avoid cop cars.

 

Let's at least hope that's the case. In this general area, I've been seeing stories in the news where many more drivers have run into police on the side of the road these days. This has gotten so bad that we've had recent law changes to compel drivers to move over a lane to allow room for police on the side of the road when they are attending to a vehicle either pulled over or disabled on the side of the road. So many drivers are driving distracted, impared, sleep deprived or outright drunk these days, it's truly scary.. I feel like a boxer when I'm on the road these days - I protect myself at all times and hope for a good clean fight (drive). :-)