Won't start, loses power when key to on

Went out this morning and pulled the truck forward to load up a load of stuff to take to my storage unit and it started fine. Got back in after loading up the bed and when I turn the key to on all electrical power goes away. There was some corrosion on the positive terminal and I cleaned that the best that I could, pulled both terminals and cleaned both terminals and post. I am lost on how it can drop power this fast. Also I checked the body ground next to the battery and it was good and secured. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Truck is a 2014 Off Road.

 

bad battery. They just up and quit sometimes. This is why i always carry a jumper pack.

 

^this...

Modern batteries very often die in that manner--most likely a shorted cell. Get a AC conductance based battery analyzer and test your new battery after it has fully charged and rested for 30-45 minutes--record the readings, voltage, internal resistance, and CCA. I've had mine for nearly 5 years, still works like a champ.

Then every 6 months or so test it again and compare the readings to the new battery values; when you see the internal resistance get up to 5.5 or so mΩ and/or the CCA drop to 75% of the "new" value it will be time to think about getting a new battery and not get stranded again.

These were the "new" values for the EverStart battery I got in April:

'09 Tacoma
EverStart Maxx 24F
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04.01.2017
12.96 V
3.51 mΩ
841.8 CCA
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These are the values from last month (all are within the expected accuracy of the tester):
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11.09.2017
12.92 V
3.52 mΩ
840.9 CCA
-----------------------

Walmart has one online for $25.08 with free shipping--haven't seen it personally, however its display looks identical to the HF unit and if you "google" it there are some decent reviews...

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Had a buddy run me up to the autoparts store and tested the battery and came back with a whooping 18 CCA. Needless to say a new battery and I am back on the road. I have never had a battery just up and quit like that but live and learn. Thanks for the help.

 

Me personally speaking I like the old school carbon pile load testers. They are much more accurate and things like surface charges never get in the way of it failing a battery if it is truly bad.

 

I used to be 'til I got the conductance tester, and got comfortable with understanding what it was telling me.

Now my 500 A carbon pile tester sits on a shelf, and there's two or three nichrome heater coil units of 200/100 A capacity living somewhere in the barn. The CP tester is great for testing generator output (however I've not had to do that for a while); the "toaster" units are pretty much useless.

A good conductance based analyzer will see right through a surface charge or electrolyte stratification...

 

First time it hit me was with my '03 Mustang and the 3-year-old OEM battery. I had made several shopping stops on a Saturday morning with no problems, then came out of Ace Hardware and just as you described turn the key on and nothing. SA was a smaller town 10 years ago and the store owner gave me a ride to Advance Auto and back.

From some research I found that newer starting duty batteries are designed with thinner plates to maintain higher voltages (>10.5 V) while cranking--and thereby keep the electronics happy. The downside is that the thinner plates are more prone to shorting, and can fail quite unexpectedly as you and I have found.

Conductance analysis will catch this potential failure before you need to "thumb" a ride...