My 2000 Ram 3500 (shown here parked on I-95 in SC, yeah we had time to play football) has nearly 260000 miles on it now, time for an alternator.

How long should the alternator last on a Dodge truck? Mine just made 258,000 miles and stopped working. The symptoms were wierd, the a/c clutch wouldn't engauge and then the volt meter went way down followed by a "check gauges" red light on the dash.
 
I'm out of town without a volt meter or even a test light, so I'm just going to guess it's the alternator and hope it repairs the problem. Anywone else had a similar malfunction?

Let me know, meanwhile I'm on the way to Autozone to pick up my $129 reman alternator.