If two batterys are wired togather must be exacly the same.a strong batt. WILL kill a week batt. the dead batt will short out and drain the bigger batt. charging systems are calibraeted to a spacific amp hour a smaller batt. will over charge a larger batt.will under charge.35 years marine engineer.
I have a Motorvation Spyder on order to add to my Heritage Springer, from reading these posts it sounds like the thing to do is remove the HD battery and wire up a car battery mounted in the sidecar, I plan on installing a radio-cd player etc. in the hack, if I play these when the bike is not running, will I have to charge the battery, if the battery is down too much will I burn out a generator or reg.? thanks for any help, David.
Originally written by Jaguzzi on 4/16/2006 10:58 PM
I'm thinking about putting a marine or car battery in the hack for the ballast, extra cranking power, to save a few bucks, and so forth.
What gauge cable would I need to run to the tug?
Rich
I installed a car battery in my right saddlebag.I found one that fit at a local discount store. all I had to do was remove the battery,add 2 ' longer auto battery cables, and I was in business!
this setup allows me to remove the bike if neccessary, and still retain the original electrical system. ride it, or run it for tuning, whatever.
In the space where the old bike battery was I installed a Centech wiring junction box, with 6 spade type auto fuses. perfect! I also mounted a battery tender under there, permanently...just plug it in whenever needed.
If your bag has been removed for SC mounting, you can still make a box there and put the battery in it.
herea a couple pics of my saddlbag and battery.
Originally written by David on 5/11/2006 8:30 AM
I have a Motorvation Spyder on order to add to my Heritage Springer, from reading these posts it sounds like the thing to do is remove the HD battery and wire up a car battery mounted in the sidecar, I plan on installing a radio-cd player etc. in the hack, if I play these when the bike is not running, will I have to charge the battery, if the battery is down too much will I burn out a generator or reg.? thanks for any help, David.
David,
Do to concerns such as you expressed I typically carry a small charger along to plug in at campgrounds etc. But...LOL...have never used it and have never had a problem with a chraging system. I do ,however, stick a quick charge on the battery from time to time at home if the urge hits.
So, I have told you nothing I guess. Feel free to call sometime I am not far from you being about 50 miles north of Harrisburg. 570 837 5182
Having been a sailor most of my life i will say yes you can run two banks on the same rig. Now do you want to that is up to you. Below is a link to West Marine and what they use to do this.
Use something like this:
http://www.4x4store.com.au/Piranha-DBE-100S-Electronic-Battery-Isolator-pr-101101.html
Originally written by Al Olme on 4/19/2006 1:42 PM
Mark,
Yes, it can be done but I really don't suggest it. There are a lot of folks who can do a better job with the explanation than I can but it appears that unless you put some electronics in the circuit, if one battery goes down it will just draw from the other until they are both dead. Also, there is the potential to overcharge one of the batteries if the voltage regulator sees that the other battery is low. Please, someone who really knows the reasons, step in here. All I can say is that I tried it in my rig for a few months with the batteries wired in simple parallel and it wasn't all that satisfactory.
I understand that IF you use a circuit that is properly set up for two batteries, it works fine. The circuits are widely used in RVs and your local RV supply is the place to go for one. Good luck.
It can be done with a Ford starter solenoid. We used to do it all the time with our off-road trucks. I'll try to find my schematic.
greenguzzi,
Thanks for finding the reference for the right part to make the two battery thing work. That was exactly what I was referring to. Just one thing... the citation was to an Australian website so the $170 price tag seemed a bit on the high side since it was Australian dollars. I think you can find similar products in the US for about half the price (in US dollars).
For $170 I can buy 6 auto batterys....24 year supply...
just put the one in and forget it.
If you want to have two batteries one way is the purchase a Electronic Isolator such as a Piranha DBE100S. What electronic isolator will manage the charging of the main battery and then switch to the 2nd battery when the 1st is fully charged. I have used this setup many times sucessfuly. The good thing about it is that once installed you do not have to worry about any switchs.
However, there are other methods for hooking up dual batteries. This one is the easiest for me.
Bob
I cited an Ozzy site because I live in Australia. But I wonder if I could get it cheaper if I imported it? That would be odd as Piranha are made in Australia!
Originally written by Al Olme on 5/13/2006 8:58 AM
greenguzzi,
Thanks for finding the reference for the right part to make the two battery thing work. That was exactly what I was referring to. Just one thing... the citation was to an Australian website so the $170 price tag seemed a bit on the high side since it was Australian dollars. I think you can find similar products in the US for about half the price (in US dollars).
It's not a matter of cost, it's a matter of convenience.
By using two batteries and the Piranha Electronic Battery Isolator (or similar) you can use the second battery to power stuff when you are camping. If you use a deep cycle battery like the Odyssey for the auxillary battery you can run it flat without damaging it. The main battery will still be fresh to start the bike when you leave.
If you use a deep cycle battery for both you may never have to change a battery again.
(BTW, that's Ozzy dollars.)
Originally written by Bob in Wis on 5/13/2006 10:38 AM
For $170 I can buy 6 auto batterys....24 year supply...
just put the one in and forget it.
gg,
No offense to Australia. I made my post because the original question came from a guy in California and I didn't want to scare him off based on cost. I'm pretty sure that this sort of device is made in a number of different countries including some from the less expensive labor markets in the Pacific rim. A bit of searching could save some money.
BTW, I ordered a bunch of Ural shocks for a group buy from an Australian firm because I could save about 40% on them even after having them shipped to the US. The 'Net has made ordering from Australia no different functionally from ordering from Cleveland for me. I try to support a couple of local sources but I end up needing to mail order most things.
G'day,
No offense taken, I just wanted to explain why I cited an Ozzy site. 🙂
I also order from overseas when it's cheaper. I'm originally from England (a POM - as they call us here - a LIMEY to the Americans). So I'm a citizen of the world! I just bought an Alternator from Denver CO because it was the only place I could get the item I wanted.
It's odd, but the cheapest BMW parts are from the UK, and the cheapest Guzzi parts are from Holland. Crazy world! Like you say, all made possible by the Internet.
Free trade for all I say (except for our farmers, they need all the breaks they can get!) 🙂
The shocks you mentioned would have been Ikons (once known as Koni), good product I hear, hope they worked well on your Ural.
Cheers,
Steven (gg)
Originally written by SidecarMike on 5/13/2006 9:00 AM
It can be done with a Ford starter solenoid. We used to do it all the time with our off-road trucks. I'll try to find my schematic.
This page http://www.globalserve.net/~jrivers/aux-batt.htm explains how we did it, except that we used a 4 wire Ford starter solenoid instead of a relay. Pay particular attention to the wire sizes, as they play a big part in how well it works. The text below the drawings explains it better than I can.
My disclaimer is that we always did this with similar sized batteries, never with a bike one and a car one.
