This thread is in support of the Mar/Apr 2026 Sidecarist Magazine article on batteries.
Feel free to provide insights, questions or just random thoughts based on the context of the article.
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I see what you did there! 
I will start. The 06 Wing with Champion Daytona 2+2 I bought from Miles came with a LiFePo4 battery that is currently 13 years old. It shows no sign of stopping which is remarkable. I keep it on a tender pretty much any time it will be sitting more than a day. Miles also sent along a newish AGM unit that has been attached to a tender as well in case the LiFePO4 quit. I guess this is a study to determine just how long a battery can be in service reliably.
I've never had a battery go more than 5 years in a motorcycle. Even good AGMs have always become unreliable at that point, even when on a maintainer all the time.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
I tried the s Shorai batteries years ago. The first one I would let it go dead to see if it would come back. The first two times it would come back. The third time it refused to come back to life until I got one of their chargers which plug into the battery. It took a while but came back and live on another nine years. Cannot say nothing bad about them. About eight years ago I've being using Antigravity batteries with excellent results, some have a restart if they go dead. Two years ago, I'm trying Ionic Start battery in my Ural so far good. One part I like you can turn it off and on with BT. I just turn it on to check it its being off for five months. Turn on check out good, turned it back off for a couple more months until the roads clear. As far as regular battery's Yuasa my go to.
Does anyone have experience with UPS for electronic devices? Does using a LiFePo4 work there better than a n AGM? I’ve had to replace the battery in mine several times.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
Does anyone have experience with UPS for electronic devices? Does using a LiFePo4 work there better than a n AGM? I’ve had to replace the battery in mine several times.
I have no experience with them, however I just read an entire thread on this subject on the forum I sort of bad mouthed here earlier. Are you familiar with The Garage Journal forum? The thread I speak of is in the Free Parking sub forum there, which is hidden until you become a member there. It may help answer your question.
Just ordered a Shorai battery for the R1100GS rig. I've never tried Shorai before, and am looking forward to see how it works out. Was a pretty reasonable price from Battery Stuff dot com.
What made the decision easy is the difference in weight between it and a standard AGM. Now I feel more confident the rig will remain within the proper GVW even after large meal lunch stops. 😎
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Does anyone have experience with UPS for electronic devices? Does using a LiFePo4 work there better than a n AGM? I’ve had to replace the battery in mine several times.
Sorry Thane, thought I posted this earlier...
On your UPS it will depend on two things:
- If the UPS has a charging routine you can select to match the battery chemistry. Or...
- If the Lithium battery of choice has a BMS that is designed to work with a Lead/Acid charger routine.
What kills Li-Ion is being left on a constant charge, like we do with lead acid. As an example laptop computers and cell phones have a charge routine that will turn off the charge when the battery reaches 98%-100%, It will cycle on again once the charge depletes to a predetermined level. Some UPS devices have the ability to run a Lithium charge routine. Older versions do not. Some Lithium Ion batteries have a programmable BMS that allows programming to shut off the constant charge input of a charger designed for Lead Acid batteries. Some Lithium Ion batteries are sold without a BMS, and one can be added after the fact, then programmed to the charge routine. The downside to using the BMS for controlling the charge routine is single point of failure. My subjective preference, after seeing the results of such a failure, is to use a device with the proper charge routine, and use the BMS programming as a back-up if available.
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Thank you! Good to know. For now I will continue to use AGM for it when I replace the battery for the fourth time in the UPS. The older Battery Tender i have will still be good for the cars.
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
Shorai Battery showed up yesterday. Nicely packaged. Compared with other name brands I've had experience with, this is impressive.
Lots of adhesive backed foam panels surrounding the battery. According to instructions the foam panels are to help fit the battery into different size battery boxes. Came with a nice lug mounting kit. Included great instructions on proper use and maintenance, along with the all important sticker pack.
BMS has an interface plug. Haven't checked for available interface units yet. Battery won't get installed until the engine swap is completed (probably sometime next month). Plenty of time to look into what options, if any, are available for programming.
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OK, Totally off topic but a battery story and to prove that I am an idiot and not always on top of my game.. So to start, I converted my Camper over to Solar charged Lithium battery set up.. I used the SOK Marine batteries which are not self heated. Cheaper. The key point here I removed the generator and was able to fit 4 100 AH batteries, Invertor, and necessary shunt and wiring in the space.. Being smart I insulated and reinforced the box. Now seeing as it is a pain in the ass to remove the batteries for winter storage I didn't bother but also don't want them to freeze to bad, they can handle a bit below zero C but not -20 so well.. They do have a BMS that shuts off at zero C and I have set the other chargers to shut off at 2 C. So no issues that way,, it works fine.. Still I fuss about our few weeks of -10 and colder we get.. Here's where it gets fun.. I had about a 4 inch hole from the Camper basement into the generator box to pass wires through. So in my thinking I placed a small electric heater in there thinking heat would flow.. Well it doesn't,, on a cold day I checked battery temps, - 7 same as air temps even though it was warm in the camper basement.. So I get the idea to drill a hole in the top of the generator box into the cabin of the camper it's self, you know, chimney effect.. Still no real change.. Hmmm.. There is no real space to put the heater in the box its self, what to do? So on a walk, I remember the heating pad I have on an old dry sump oil tank from the race car project.. Perfect.. I get busy and repurpose it onto a chunk of aluminum I have, heat sink, right.. I test. seems good but gets hot, I better insulate it.. So laminate on two pieces of plywood.. Test again, perfect. ( test not long enough, so some of you might guess 🤣 ) So, I rig said heater in battery box and leave for a bit.. It's about - 5 c out so a good test.. I go back and look at temps in about half an hour. + 2 c, Nice, but let's just see in the box. SHIT, IT'S ON FIRE !!!! I remove quickly, inspect, no damage, whew, that was close. AND, of course my chimney effect worked really well, Filled the entire camper with acrid wood smoke.. I'll let the laughter die down a bit 😆 Any ways, after much airing out and the fact that I am now the proud owner of an Ozone generator the camper is fine. You can hardly smell any smoke and don't tell Dear Kathy. LOL I also learned that a cheap battery blanket works fine and is self regulating..Keeps it just about perfect temps when things drop below zero C
Next time I will buy self heating RV batteries and won't be such a cheap bastard.. And yes I probably fuss for no reason.