i was about 1.5 hours from home when....

i just got into Kalamazoo when i hit some traffic. i was coming home from the Bushcraft basic 1 course. i looked down to see how slow these guys were going, when i realized that my tach in my dash wasnt working. my first thought was" oh no the truck just died!" i pumped the gas pedal and proved that theory wrong. with further investigation i noticed that none of the gauges on my dash except the speedometer was working! then i noticed the battery light was on! i began to get over in the right lane and access the problem. the truck was running fine, so i called my dad to see what he thought. after a discussion with him we determined that it was either the battery, or the alternator. the advice was, "if its the battery, just dont turn off the truck. if its the alternator, your screwed and the truck will just quit running after the battery is dead!" dang i thought. so my options were to keep on going, or pull over and fix it. so i did a search for the nearest Auto Zone, only to find out i just passed 3 of them back in Kalamazoo! the next one wasnt until i got to Michigan City Indiana, and thats about 30 mins away from my house! so the only choice i had was to just keep going. so i did. i pushed the pedal down and got up to about 90mph, and headed home. oh yea, i forgot to add i had to go pee! but i couldnt stop the truck, cause i was afraid i wouldnt be able to start it! so i pressed on. about 30 miles later i couldnt hold it, and saw a rest stop sign and thought i would stop. my plan was to pull up in the parking lot and leave the truck running, run inside and pee, run back to the truck. so thats what i did, and i am sure i looked pretty stupid doing it, but it worked. back on the road about 25 miles later the truck got sluggish, the radio quit working, i couldnt turn on my hazzards and it started hesitating, the ABS light was on, the air bag light was on, i pulled onto the right shoulder and slowed down, but kept pumping the gas until i got to the next exit. i blew the stop sign and crossed the street to an abandoned waffle house. i put it in park and sat there with it chugging and going on wondering what to do. then the whole truck shook a little and the radio blared on, the hazzards came, the dash gauges were working and it was sounding like new! i couldnt believe it! i made a couple laps in the parking lot, and headed back to the interstate!
i did not have any other problems the rest of the way home! i am still not sure what the deal is, but will have to figure it all out tomorrow. i will keep you posted!

Jeff

Wow! Glad you made it home OK. Sounds like the alternator. They will come on and off like that. Even if they test it, it might test good. I have had that happen with alternators and starters. Go with your instict and change the alternator. Or the voltage regulator if it's seperat from the alternator.

Good luck.

Whew that sounds like it got the pulse up a little. At least you made it home.