Another question for all of you who are much smarter then me. Due to extra lights of side car and addition of radio/cd in car-----thinking I need more battery then what comes with Triumph rocket. best to put auto battery in car with wiring to bike battery, or do away with bike battery, and just use auto battery? Any advise is appreciated and thanks in advance.
You will be lot better with auto battery.
All another battery will do is allow you to go further before you have a dead battery assuming you are using more power then the bike can produce. A better option would be to make the bike use less power by going with LED bulbs as much as possible. Chances are your current set up will power every thing you ask of it with out changing a thing.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
If you use an auto battery, you're gonna have to put it somewhere because it won't fit where the OEM battery is. Which then means you have to run some gargantuan heavy duty cabling back and forth from the bike to the battery, which to my mind gets ugly in a hurry. I agree with Jay--get rid of any incandescent lights you have on the bike and replace them with LED's (except I'd probably leave the stock headlights), then get yourself a top quality battery. With a few minor changes, you should be able to fit an Odyssey PC625, which us GS owners like to refer to as a portable nuclear powerplant.
You can also get yourself an inexpensive digital voltmeter that mounts on your bars. Add all the stuff you want, but keep watching the voltmeter. If you're running 13.5 volts while going down the road then you should be in good shape.
Have owned 5 rigs but Rig #2 is my current one!
Although I am not an expert but will replacing the stator and voltage regulator with a higher output model remedy the condition?
Thanks much for all input-It gives me much to think about.
Group 51 or 51R(one is less $$$ then other) battery is small and can be install in a box mounted on the frame between bike and sidecar. Cables not long and can be routed along the frame. See no problem in it.
Jay's answer is key. Check the available output of your charging system first so you're not just draining down as you run down the road as that's the limiting factor. Then, you can do the math on your lights and accessories. You may be surprised what you can run, depending on the bike. I'll just add that with all the LED lights available today, you can get plenty of light for most purposes with less draw than what it used to take. I have great LED driving lights on one bike that take next to nothing to run.
Having said that, I run two (used to be 3) incandescent off-road driving lights almost all the time, plus brighter tail lights, plus LED tails on the sidecar, plus GPS sometimes, plus amplified stereo speakers for tunes. And, all that runs well within the output of my alternator on a 15 year old design.
We do many car battery conversions. Typically we mount the battery in an aluminum box between the bike and sidecar . Works very well. Plenty of reserve if needed, costs less than a bike battery is available all ove rht eplace if y aneed anew one , can be quick charged if needed, and some actually run some limited camp lights off of them. Is it th e 'only' way to go? Of cours enot bu tit is very popular and works well. Never ever have had one complaint from any we have done this conversion on.
Cables can be run down a mounting strut and do not look like clutter. In some cases we have put a 'floor' (for lack of a better term) between the bike and sidecar which works as a mount for th ebatte rbox and provides some additional storage space also.
Claude, your fingers are exceeding the speed limit on the keyboard again. Hope there's no speed trap ahead!!
Claude
I like this idea. Have put a boat battery in my Enfield rig (mounted in the trunk) and thought about putting a larger battery in the Yamaha/Velorex but did not want to give up the trunk space. This may be the answer. 😮
Mike in MS
Is there an off the shelf led replacement for the standard bulbs in Hannigan LT?
Thx,
Dave
