[Muzza]

I have a trickle charger on a timer that charges 1hr/day.
Must I disconnect the battery from the bike wiring to charge it?

 

[mugillaa]

There is no need to disconnect the battery from the bike to operate a trickle charger, using a regular battery charger would require the battery to be disconnected.

 

[Muzza]

There is no need to disconnect the battery from the bike to operate a trickle charger, using a regular battery charger would require the battery to be disconnected.

Thanks Mugillaa, I shall try it

 

[beestoys]

As mugill states no need to disconnect. What you can also do is add one of these onto the battery posts and run it out to a easily accessed point.

 

[Mello]

As mugill states no need to disconnect. What you can also do is add one of these onto the battery posts and run it out to a easily accessed point.
View attachment 130958

I have run mine to the opening on the left rear and cable tied it to the grab handle for the centre stand.

Sent from my LM-G810 using Tapatalk

 

[beestoys]

Ran mine to the same spot. But I'm running a shoria that has a special charger and cable.

 

[Aussie Dave]

Best to use a smart charger as they don't need a timer switch - they just switch off and sleep until the battery needs a bit more.......... AGM Pb batteries....... Li Ion do need a proper Li charger with a balancing function, but only once a year.

I use a C-Tek 3.8 which can be selected for bike or car and comes with a wiring harness so the charger just plugs in quickly. But I don't put my bikes on a charger unless I've been slack and not ridden for more than a month...... especially the BB as it doesn't drain much power while sleeping.

If your battery has been on a charger for months and months, do a load test with a multimeter - take the charger off and leave the battery connected in the bike for 12hrs. Then at 1st start in the morning monitor the volts while cranking. If the Battery is good it will display >9.5v accross the terminals while cranking over (this is called cold cranking volts) and when the engine fires and the revs rise while warming up, the volts should be around 14v (near 2k rpm) - this checks that the alternator and rectifier are working properly. Once warmed up and the revs drop to a normal idle (eg 1100-1200 rpm) the battery volts will drop to 12.something, which is just normal for old tech charging systems. New gen bikes are like cars in that the alternator puts 14v charge into the bike while idling, whereas a BB will drain the battery at idle.

Don't be fooled by lying batteries....... they are really sneaky critters........ the charger just tops up what few cells are still working and will let a multimeter display 12v instead of near 13v for a fresh new battery...... this makes a lot of riders think their battery is still fine - but a load test (as above) is the only way to get a true reading.

PS You don't need to buy an expensive battery, I use one of these....... around $100Au and they are brilliant.

 

[BackStreet]

Best to use a smart charger as they don't need a timer switch - they just switch off and sleep until the battery needs a bit more.......... AGM Pb batteries....... Li Ion do need a proper Li charger with a balancing function, but only once a year.

I use a C-Tek 3.8 which can be selected for bike or car and comes with a wiring harness so the charger just plugs in quickly. But I don't put my bikes on a charger unless I've been slack and not ridden for more than a month...... especially the BB as it doesn't drain much power while sleeping.

If your battery has been on a charger for months and months, do a load test with a multimeter - take the charger off and leave the battery connected in the bike for 12hrs. Then at 1st start in the morning monitor the volts while cranking. If the Battery is good it will display >9.5v accross the terminals while cranking over (this is called cold cranking volts) and when the engine fires and the revs rise while warming up, the volts should be around 14v (near 2k rpm) - this checks that the alternator and rectifier are working properly. Once warmed up and the revs drop to a normal idle (eg 1100-1200 rpm) the battery volts will drop to 12.something, which is just normal for old tech charging systems. New gen bikes are like cars in that the alternator puts 14v charge into the bike while idling, whereas a BB will drain the battery at idle.

Don't be fooled by lying batteries....... they are really sneaky critters........ the charger just tops up what few cells are still working and will let a multimeter display 12v instead of near 13v for a fresh new battery...... this makes a lot of riders think their battery is still fine - but a load test (as above) is the only way to get a true reading.

PS You don't need to buy an expensive battery, I use one of these....... around $100Au and they are brilliant.

Batteries should be changed out before they die. A trickle charger may hide a weak battery that should be replaced. BTW - Battery Tender makes accessories for the adapter. I have a USB port and a volt meter.

 

[Aussie Dave]

Batteries should be changed out before they die. A trickle charger may hide a weak battery that should be replaced. BTW - Battery Tender makes accessories for the adapter. I have a USB port and a volt meter.

I agree BackStreet and usually change batteries every 2yrs as they drop to 9.5ccv....... and doing that prevents R/R damage .

 

[beestoys]

And the very best thing you can do is to do a full overnight charge before you even install it.

 

[Mallow1]

Ran mine to the same spot. But I'm running a shoria that has a special charger and cable.

Ran mine through to the rear of the tail (just right of the reflector) using a waterproof SAE connector port (off an optima battery tender system).

So it's located at the mirror image position to the seat release. Its run through a wifi bat monitor (a SchuLink). This way I so can hook up the sae cable with minimal faff.

 

[Mallow1]

Ran mine to the same spot. But I'm running a shoria that has a special charger and cable.

Ran mine through to popping out the back of the undertray tail (opposite side to the seat release so in a mirror image on the rhs of the rear reflector). I used a through panel mount taken off an Optima bat tender system.

Now it's very convenient to plug the charging cable into the tail port.

I'll post a pic of installed when I next can.

 

[Mallow1]

Before it reaches the battery in also goes through a SchuLink wifi voltage monitor (so I can verify the battery state from anywhere inside my home on my phone (well world really but that's pointless)… the bluetooth versions just don't have the range).

 

[Roboman]

Before it reaches the battery in also goes through a SchuLink wifi voltage monitor (so I can verify the battery state from anywhere inside my home on my phone (well world really but that's pointless)… the bluetooth versions just don't have the range). View attachment 130975

Yea, I would like to see a picture after its mounted.

 

[Mallow1]

Yea, I would like to see a picture after its mounted.

Battoned down for transit…

And connected up for chargimg…

There are other panel ports out there but this one seemed the most robust in attatchment (I figured a lot of pushing and pulling is involved over time connecting and disconnecting) and the weather cap seemed the most secure (and replaceable should it fail or get broken).

When I next have the tail off I'll take some inside too (though that may not be for a while yet).

The other mods are:

• at 11 o'clock from the seat release there's a secondary alarm led (so one up on the dash next to the ignition lock and one here to ward off against theft via seat removal).
• at 5 o'clock from the SAE trickle charge port there's an oil line from the Scotoiller touring reservoir behind the index plate into the Scotoiler itself (hidden securely in the tail).

The SchuLink will have to wait till the tail is off to see it in place.

 

[Mallow1]

With the seat off you can just see the SAE cable entering the rear through a grommet.

Close up of where the SAE cable enters the rear then heads off left into the tail bodywork where, out of sight, it then connects to the top of the Schulink and the bottom of the Schulink then connects to the battery.

There's also a Y-splitter allowing the usb port on the rhs to be fed. It is there to top up the portable tyre inflator velcro'd into the tail

 

[Mallow1]

Okay, the USB port under the seat wasn't ignition relayed and was draining 20mA!

So no wonder my trickle charger was running to stand still (esp with a second dual port USB up on the bars for the phone/ SatNav doing the same thing!).

Hence both have been binned and replaced with ones with a local switch plus an integrated voltmeter.

Tidier too!

 

[Mallow1]

Yea, I would like to see a picture after its mounted.

The SchuLink WiFi monitor is now off the bike and just plugged into the battery tender in the house (no need to ride around with it attached to the bike draining power trying to link to a WiFi well out if range) as the Bluetooth monitor does still give me a degree of remote monitoring and saves having to reprogram the ShuLink for different WiFis (I don't think it can store more than one at a time).

So the tail is now just SAE leads/ connectors from the port in the back (as per prior pics) through a couple of Y-splitters to link the two USB ports (under seat and up on the bars), the trickle charger/ tender and the battery.

Nothing really to see except too much dirt (just the jumble of Scottoiler reservoir line, Datatool & cabling, SAE battery tender and USB leads and excess vacuum line tucked up to drive the Scottoiler).

Bluetooth battery monitor sits neatly next to the battery (bottom left in PIC below).