Adding electric equipement
 

l want to add a load of electric equipement to my 3AJ's battery
pocket pc on handlebar, gps, heated grips, 2x100W H4 lamps as replacement to originals,
along with the allready installed 12V oil temp indicator and 12v accessory socket for recharging of laptop etc,,,

How do l know that this won't be too much for battery or alternator and does anyone have any numbers of available amperage for extre stuff on 3AJ?

Any suggestion greatly appreciated,

Matt

I think the alternator is 300W [depending on rpm] so you can calculate more or less what happens. One thing is that these accessories do not constantly take current. Maybe you can turn the lights off when you do other things.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

Matt

My 3AJ struggles to support two 60W H4's at lower speads! I think our bikes were intended to use 35W bulbs, I seriously doubt they will manage two 100W,

I was considering adding a switch to allow me to switch between 1 or 2 headlights on (other stll has pilot bulb on), alowing me to turn one off in town and when going slow generally.

I have heard romours that the later XT600E alternator has a greater output, but to ulalise one of those would require chnging from CDI ignition to the 600E's electronic ignition

LED tail lights could be another way of freeing up some extra power, but I'm not sure hoe the bulb holders would cope long term with the extra weight of the LED units bouncing around if you take the bike off road

I'll be interested to hear how you get on

Good luck

Mark

UK import XTs had two 35w bulbs on constantly on dip and full beam. I am currently running 35/55 bulbs with little problem on UK headlights. The Italian import headlights that are common in most recently imported bikes in UK (mine came with them) ran a 55w on the left and 60/55 on the right. With the full beam only of 10 watts more and being only the left hand light lite on main beam.

I will send you the orginal manual if you want drop me an email.

The wairing harness on the italian bikes are different and are only rated at this if you put more powerfull bulbs in you can overload and set fire to the harness or melt the plastic reflectors in the lamp.No way would it cope with 2x 100w lights and heated grips you will really strain the system and could set it alight.

Remember the XT is a cheapish trail bike designed for reliability and not a BMW GS with a beefy alternator and massive battery and loom capacity. They are not designed to power loads of add ons like the BMWs.

I think you are being very ambitious with you power expecations of the bike with 10 year old or more electrics. The 55w/35 set up give adequate light for night driving. Though most overlanders never travel at night as it is far to dangerous.

The other Items you mention will probaly be fine the GPS will take very little as will the laptop but I would have a system using recharable batteries and run them off those rather than have everything on line all the time.

Bike electrics are not filtered and can produce nasty voltage spikes when bulbs blow or you start the bike that can fry electronic components.

Beware if you bike is a electric start only that XTs tend to need alot of cranking in cold damp weather on full choke to start and therefore you battery needs to be in good condition at all times.

Charlie



[This message has been edited by braindead (edited 10 January 2005).]

A thing you could fit to manage your power consumption is one of these guys and manually plug stuff in or out as you need it charged.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...945465833&rd=1

Charlie

Thanks all for the replies and good advice,

I found my 3AJ owners manual and saw that my "french" bulbs are 36/36W and 60/55W and not 35/35's as the UK ones,
maybe it would be a good idea to "downgrade" lights and save a few watts/ampers for other circuits.

Though l would very much enjoy more cruising lights, especially when thinking of an escaped circus cow that appeared in the middle of the street and almost invisible at night, big scary situation and avoided in "extremis", I do think there's many unimaginable/unpredictable dangers with night driving and even in Europe so a bit of extra visibility would make me feel safer.
But yeah the ténéré ain't a BMW with all the "beefy" equipement he he!

Then comes the question; would it be possible to add a condenser or one of those small wünderlich mini 12V batterys?
For example make a paralel conection -/- +/+
get more amper hours for temporar supply of ampers without overgoing the new total capacity and this way keeping it recharged by alternator,
maybe one must also fit another regulator supplying more Ah?
l think 300W sounds enough, but l could be wrong.

Matt

After some further research on the subject:

lf one wants to have improved electricals on the bike, you should change stator to a high output one, available on the market, along with regulator and a little longer battery, it will fit in without modification and give you 4-6 extra Ah,

Speaking about batterys, mine was leaking and had no acid left in two compartements, so that explained my system was weak,
Now l have mounted 2x H4 55/60W bulbs and they give a much better light, so far no problems with this,

Matt