Figured out how to keep steady voltage

Doubeleive said:

grounding the headlights to the frame may be your solution then, don't cut your factory harness just add a ground to a accessible clean spot on the frame as close as you can. use a multimeter and check to be sure you are grounding the ground wire on each side don't take it for granted that the same color wire is the ground on both sides I have seen them reversed before just a little heads up.

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Yeah, but the headlights dim due to voltage dropping to about 11.5 (per the gauge). I put some LED headlights in last night and notice the voltage dropped to 11.5 (on the gauge) but they did not dim. So good for now. Is there a way to turn off the RVC in a tune or something? I tried unplugging it , to no avail. I plugged it back in and all is good...for now.

09_4WD_YUKON said:

Yeah, but the headlights dim due to voltage dropping to about 11.5 (per the gauge). I put some LED headlights in last night and notice the voltage dropped to 11.5 (on the gauge) but they did not dim. So good for now. Is there a way to turn off the RVC in a tune or something? I tried unplugging it , to no avail. I plugged it back in and all is good...for now.

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so I take it you did not try grounding the headlight negative wire to the frame? if your voltage is dropping to 11.5 then you have either a weak battery or weak alternator or both or bad grounds or all 3, these trucks are well known to have ground issues. when voltage starts dropping the first thing I look at is the battery, I just had one replaced yesterday, it started the truck just fine but I would get a low battery warning within a couple minutes if the door was open, etc. in the past I could always tell by the volt meter if it was moving even a little I knew the battery was getting weak it's a tell tale sign, now it's more or less a guess by how it starts or if the warning comes on

My cruise control wont work if it drops below 14 volts not sure what to do. Its the 5.3 V8 i think it might be this sensor.
09 Chevy Tahor LTZ

NathanJax said:

I still have issues every once in a while. But mine come from my air ride compressors coming on at the same time my truck starts and that's the same time my auto-headlights come on. That's just so much strain on the electrical system at the beginning and all at once.

As long as my compressors aren't on, there's no issues at all

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you should put a 16v bank Maxwell Ultra caps as well to buffer the compressor

I unplugged this and it is running great.

Is it smarter to upgrade the stock alternator? or to run a 2nd battery? I have a friend who ran a second battery and kept the stock alternator and hes got about 4000 watts pulling, and he said it no longer dims his lights etc...

Noticed somethin interesting this weekend. I hand unplugged rvc 10-12 months ago and got the benefit but never disconnected the battery(lazy). It would stay at 14v on the dot unless I got a bass heavy song or the ac was on with the stereo.

Figured the batteries got some age to it and the stock alternator was prob gettin to the same place and is not much higher of an amperage than the amp draw by itself. That is, until Sunday.

Decided to do the motor mount, got it all closed up and realized I had pushed a wire up over the steering shaft before re-installation. After a slew of profanity i found the wire had a connector close by. Disconnected the battery then fixed the routing and reconnected the battery.

Now it’s getting a steady 14.4 volts on the heavy songs (Haven’t tried ac yet) and never batting an eye at it. Hopefully this stays and isn’t a fluke from essentially clearing the memory.

Moral of the story... don’t be lazy!

Anyone still running this mod? I’m running a stock radio but have installed a Scoshe GMQ01 MagicMount wireless charger. Unfortunately it is designed to only charge at 13+ volts so it doesn’t stay on while parked. But today during a long freeway drive we spent the majority of the drive at 12.8-9 volts making it useless.

ideas?

Doubeleive said:

so I take it you did not try grounding the headlight negative wire to the frame? if your voltage is dropping to 11.5 then you have either a weak battery or weak alternator or both or bad grounds or all 3, these trucks are well known to have ground issues. when voltage starts dropping the first thing I look at is the battery, I just had one replaced yesterday, it started the truck just fine but I would get a low battery warning within a couple minutes if the door was open, etc. in the past I could always tell by the volt meter if it was moving even a little I knew the battery was getting weak it's a tell tale sign, now it's more or less a guess by how it starts or if the warning comes on

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mine is dropping to 11.7 when off it stays charging at 14.6-14.7v (shown on mutimeter) 100% of the time should i take it back to walmart still under warranty it went from 12.3 to 11,7 in 2 days

it has the full 5 year warranty i'm only 2.9 years in

BG1988 said:

mine is dropping to 11.7 when off it stays charging at 14.6-14.7v (shown on mutimeter) 100% of the time should i take it back to walmart still under warranty it went from 12.3 to 11,7 in 2 days

it has the full 5 year warranty i'm only 2.9 years in

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what type of battery is it? i.e. agm/standard