That 3:00 M phone call. You know the one. When my wife calls from no where CT telling me the "little icon that sorta looks like a battery" came on as she traveled to see the Grand Kids.

I'm in St Louis what can I do?

Damn Minivan only has 280,000 miles on it for criminy sakes. 1999 Dodge Caravan LE...; what were they building back then?
(Sarcasm alert)

Wish they built them that way now.

 

Be glad it is not a CS-130. Had to replace one of those every 18 months until I replaced with a CS-144.

ps could tell her to go to wallyWorld and buy a 15A charger. Plug the car in every night, drive only during the day, and don't use the AC. Drove a GMC Motor Home with a 455 from Orlando to Bentonville Arkansas that way. Helps to have a grp 31

 

Crumpy makes this 1155 mile trip five or six times a year. I keep this car perfect. So, if you don't mind I'll have a Connecticut mechanic, I know and trust, put in an OEM.


I am very happy with Chrysler products I bought during the 90's. A Jeep, a one ton dually pickup and a '99 Dodge Caravan LE. Frankly the products made during their tenuous relationship with Daimler were great. Anything built with Daranelli at the helm sucks. We inherited a 2003 Town and Country Minivan and it's quality and reliability is plain awful by comparison. 55K and it is toast.


Cathy makes the 1,155 mile trip to Ct about 5 times a year. ALONE! The '99 is comfortable and reliable. Even with all those miles. But given it's age and the longevity of those trips, there have been some minor issues on the road after 230K miles. Wiper motor, fan belt Idler and now the alternator. Which was functioning miraculously when they went back to rescue it this morning. It is entirely possible that the problem was a high drain from the inverter she had on to keep her laptop up. Or just a bad battery cable.

 

I don't put a lot of miles on my Chrysler products but I put a lot of years on them, no complaints really.

 

Didn't mention an inverter, they pull about 12x the 120vac power being used so my 120vac 1.2A netbook charger would need about 14.4A of 12vdc. That would drain a new car battery below any ability to start the car in minutes.


I had the ATC module in a Buick short on and the blower was drawing over 10A. Killed a very good 34/78 Optima in about an hour.


Have a 1KW inverter in my trailer and a 3 minute cup of coffee @ 64A takes 24 minutes of 200W solar to replace (also have 215 AH of deep cycle batteries for nighttime power).


ps in the last millennia I bought only GM cars. Now I have two Chrysler products designed by D-B. Have had two FIATs and that is enough.