I recently picked up a 2000 f250, and yesterday while doing some electrical work (installing rear backup/hitch camera) I came to realize that the driver side battery is dead. I get 12 volts on the passenger side, and 0 volts on the driver side.

This doesn't seem possible to me, since they are both connected together, is it possible for one of them to be completely dead and the other holding a charge just fine? Seems like the dead battery would start to drain the good one? Or is there some sort of sensor that somehow isolates the two batteries if one of them goes dead?

I'm going to clean the terminals real good and put the meter on it again tomorrow incase I made a goof-ball mistake and somehow didn't do it right. (wouldn't be the first time, haha!)


If it is dead and won't hold a charge, I should probably replace both batteries if they are the same age? I'm moving to another city about 400 miles away, and will be making quite a few trips back and forth, so I want to make sure it's not going to die on me if I have to stop for any reason. It's nice having a tank large enough to make the trip without stopping for fuel

 

I tested both batteries again disconnected and wire-brushed the terminals this time. They both read over 12 volts, so I must have not had a good connection to my volt meter when doing my earlier reading. There must have been a layer of dirt/schmutz on the terminals of the driver side battery that didn't let a good contact be made.

So, I guess I'm good for now