Battery Drain

[john_aero]

i have just put a cheap set of heated grips on for thoes cold morning. i have also ordered a 12v power output and also going put on some 55watt mini spots from halfords to the front.

will this be too much drain on the battery?

Ring Micro Cruise-lite from Halfords Price £25.99 Extra 10% Off When You Add To Basket

http://www.motorcycle-grip.com/china/hot-grips.html


http://www.touratech.com/shops/008/p...53bbb51455a207

[Threewheelbonnie]

You've got 110 Watts of lighting on order, 15 Watts of heated grips, plus whatever load you decide to plug into the auxilliary socket (GPS? it's about 5W). You need to know your power output and start a list from there. Sorry if i'm teaching granny to suck eggs, but for the Bonneville I run a list as follows:

Alternator 27 amps, approx 300W (working at 12 volts, 12x27 is 324, but if it's cold or the road is slow you'll loose the 24 in no time)

Ignition 30W (guess based on 30A fuse, probably on the safe side but the Bonnie needs it's carb heaters)
Lights 62W continuous (headlight, tail light, sidecar markers), 108 W intermitantly (indicators, horn, brake lights etc.)

Sidecar spot light 55W
Fog lamp 21W
Heated jacket, grips and visor 130W intermittant (on switches)
GPS 5W

Adding this up gives 183 W continuous load, so the battery will charge.
The whole lot comes to 365 W, so at that point the battery would start to go flat. I run a 50 ApereHour battery, so with 65 watts used over what's going in, would get about 9 hours fun before it was flat. After say 3 hours at this load the batteries discharge level would limit the number of cold start attempts though.

In other words I can run all the continuous loads I need, but need to take care not to have all the toys switched on all the time. I tend to turn off the heated jacket and grips for as long as I can stand when forced to use the lights and always run the last hour without heat to get some charge into the battery for the next day.

I think you need the numbers for your bike to see just how long you can run those lights for. If you are short, maybe get an LED tail light to save 5W.

Andy

[john_aero]

well i must check that out tonight, have the grips on only now and again and on verycold mornings, the fog light and grips would be on together as when its cold here then fog is going to be around. as for the 12v power i was not going use it much, just for charging items while riding but not all the time as dont use heated vest or anything.

can the alternator be upgraded easily on bikes?

[Frank Warner]

Originally Posted by john_aero

can the alternator be upgraded easily on bikes?

No. Not usually.

----------------------------
You are best off monitoring the battery voltage ..

For 10 minutes before you stop the battery voltage shoiuld be over 13.5 volts, this ensures you have enought energy stored in the battery to start the bike the next morning.

[john_aero]

Originally Posted by Frank Warner

No. Not usually.

----------------------------
You are best off monitoring the battery voltage ..

For 10 minutes before you stop the battery voltage shoiuld be over 13.5 volts, this ensures you have enought energy stored in the battery to start the bike the next morning.

have heard of a lad near me with a 2002 kle that has run what i want to put on and has no problem, but i just want to find out now if he has same alternator and then i will just hook it all up and see what the drain is

[Threewheelbonnie]

It isn't an accurate measure, but you can always hook everything up and get a voltmeter on the battery. The battery should sit at 12.5 volts with the engine of, settle at 13.5 or so just above idle and stay in the range 12.5 to 14.0 regardless of what you turn on after a few minutes to sort itself out. If it drops to 12 it's probably discharging but you don't know how quickly, if it shoots up to 15 and stays there, the VR is trying to take the strain but is probably loosing.

For an alternator upgrade on anything thats not a flat twin you need to find a rotor that'll fit from a bigger set up. Given most bike manufacturers don't even think you might do this, it's almost impossible unless you stumble across the right part.

Andy

[john_aero]

Originally Posted by Threewheelbonnie

It isn't an accurate measure, but you can always hook everything up and get a voltmeter on the battery. The battery should sit at 12.5 volts with the engine of, settle at 13.5 or so just above idle and stay in the range 12.5 to 14.0 regardless of what you turn on after a few minutes to sort itself out. If it drops to 12 it's probably discharging but you don't know how quickly, if it shoots up to 15 and stays there, the VR is trying to take the strain but is probably loosing.

For an alternator upgrade on anything thats not a flat twin you need to find a rotor that'll fit from a bigger set up. Given most bike manufacturers don't even think you might do this, it's almost impossible unless you stumble across the right part.

Andy

well that means i am left with 2 options, be a real man and dont bother with ehated grips, grrrrhhhh. or else just get them hooked up and see how it goes from there.

does anyone have specific specs for the kle alternator from 1998? think its made in 1996. rang kwak dealer and they have not yet bothered get back to me.

if i know that the alternator is producing enough then i will feel bit better about hooking all my gadgets up with out killing the battery

[Ruud]

I've had my Oxford heated grips on for a while and they have worked fine, however I took the bike out for a run this morning and they would not stay on longer than a couple of seconds.

Most of the ride was through town, with short stints above 60mph later on. Bike did about 15 miles in the wet at around 2-5 'C. Is it the carb heaters working overtime or am I in need for a new battery?

[ShaunJ]

Hi
don't know if this will help its from the manual for an '04

Charging System

Alternator Type Three-phase AC – – –

DC Battery Charging Voltage 14 ∼ 15 V @4 000 r/min (rpm) – – –

Alternator Output Voltage 46

∼ 64 V @4 000 r/min (rpm) – – –

Stator Coil Resistance 0.37

∼ 0.46 Ω (× 1 Ω) – – –

Regulator/rectifier

Type Load dumping regulator with full-wave
rectifier
– – –

Resistance in the text

[Ruud]

I'm sure that makes sense to someone! Can anyone decipher that and give me a numptys answer? Cheers for your input Shaun!

[ShaunJ]

dunno how accurate this info is

KLE500 Alternator output - ADVrider

[Threewheelbonnie]

On AV rider they give the KLE500 alternator at 350 Watts, giving about 70 spare after the carb heaters etc. If you can't run a pair of heated grips at 15W you have an issue.

Lights at 110W are flatening the battery. You are pulling just over 9 amps (110W/12V), so divide that into the Ah rating of the battery and you know how long you've got. I'm guessing it'll be under three hours.

The info above is fault finding only.

What you need to know is:

Voltage x Current = power Volts x Amps = Watts

Find two (you always know you've roughly 12V) and you can calculate the other. The fuse ratings (Amps) tell you the absolute maximum that circuit will ever see.

So, 12 volts through a 15 amp fuse means at most (12x15) 180 W available at the end of that wire.

Andy

[Ruud]

Guess I've got an alternator problem or just a new battery? Cheers guys.

[Threewheelbonnie]

Originally Posted by Ruud

Guess I've got an alternator problem or just a new battery? Cheers guys.

Charge the battery and leave over night. If it's sat at 12.5 to 13 volts the next morning it's a good 'un. Under 11.5 it's toast.

Start the bike. If the battery is seeing 13.5 V at just above idle it's charging and the alternator and VR are OK.

One that's often forgotten and will give hassle this time of year in the northern end of the planet: Make sure there is zero volts (not even 0.1) from the negative battery terminal to the frame/forks/engine. Half a volt lost warming up a bad earth will cost you more that what the heated grips take to get above luke warm.

Andy

[john_aero]

hey thanks a million i will try compare mine to that