How much wattage can an XJ handle?

[LCS249]

An electric vest will draw in the 57 watt range while a heated jacket will draw around 77 watts.

Now that I'm back in New Mexico, the cold mornings and differing weather patterns have become ... chilly.

thanks,

Leon
1982 XJ1100J Maxim

[DiverRay]

The vest should be OK, the jacket may take the system close. The XJ WILL handle more of a load than my XS, and I use the electric gloves in the cold with no problems.

[TopCatGr58]

Getting LOADED...with electricity.

Hey Leon,

The Specs for the two bikes, XJ and XS are as follows:

XJ rated at 26 Amps @ 5k rpm; ~23A @2.5K

XS rated at 20 Amps @ 5k rpm!

So... like Ray said, the XJ's charging system is more "ROBUST"...isn't that right PROM ? *inside joke*

We know that the Ignition Box/TCI needs ~10.5 volts to work properly, but I don't believe anyone has been able to nail down how many AMPs it draws. Bulbs with wattage ratings are fairly easy to calculate their amp draw. Take watts, and divide by 12 volts for an approximation of amps.

But let's just look at the fuseblock for a clue. The Ignition system has a 10Amp fuse, the Turn Signals have a 20AMP fuse! The Headlights also 10 Amps, the tail/running lights 10 amps. Of course these are MAXIMUM allowed values of current flow for that circuit, so we can assume that the actual draw or load for each is quite a bit less, perhaps 50% !

Now, add up just running load on charging system:
TCI= ~5amps....again just a guestimate
Headlight at 60watts=5amps
Dual tail running lights 8 watts each + front running yellow lights, also 8 watts each, total 32 watts= 2.75 amps
Dash lights=3.4watts x 3=10.2watts=~0.75amps
License Plate=8 watts x 2=1.3amps

So far total load =~15amps....but this doesn't allow for the load of brake lights or turn signals.....hold on!

Brakes=27watts x 2 = 54 watts=4.5 amps
Turn signals=27watts x 2 also = 4.5 amps,
That's an additional ~9 amps, for total load of 24 amps !! Granted, this is NOT ALL THE TIME, but you get the idea!

Now, when you convert the tail and turn signals, license, dash lights to LEDS, each bulb is only 0.03 amps....brake/turn ~0.25amps, so instead of almost 12 amps of maximum lights load, you would only have about a total of 1-2 amps load.

So.....now you can see why there are suggestions about doing the LED conversions IF you want to run extra driving lights, or other accessories!
T.C.

[LCS249]

I can see the future ... and it's full of LED conversions ...

Thank you both for these very helpful replies.

I was going to get an electric vest, but a friend is sold on the Gerbings jacket ... and I may lean that way, however, wattage is a consideration.

And I definitely want to add driving lights at some point since I have such crappy night vision.

best,

Leon

P.S. Are the sins of excess wattage forgiven if one hooks up the trickle-charger each night?

[rockjok]

I've had electric jackets and electric vests and found that a correctly fitting vest was much better. Less power draw used more efficiently since it's closer to your body rather than heating more clothing. I've made a few pairs of electric pants out of Dickies flannel lined jeans. They were cheap but a bit of a PITA at times. Commercially made ones probably wouldn't be worth the expense.

I LOVE my heated grips tho'. I tried the Aerostich grip wraps and they were OK but I ended up installing Hot Grips with an electronic thermostat. With a light pair of gloves it's amazing how much warm hands help, even on below freezing winter rides.

Rob

[trbig]

A guy I know had an XJ that had something that would over-draw the charging system by a little bit. I think it was fog lights. He'd run them going down the road when he needed them. After a while, it would drop the battery down to a level that the ignition system started to not like, and it would start to miss a bit. He would turn the lights off and everything was fine. He put a voltage gauge on the dash later on and would just go by that to know when to turn it off. Probably a good idea to use one of those for anyone using add-ons that put extra work on the charging system. Better safe than walking..

Also, with lots of draining and charging a battery like that, make sure you check the fluid level of your battery more often.

Tod

[LCS249]

Thank you rockjok and trbig for the follow-up.

A friend has offered to install a volt-meter on the bike for me. He uses one on an older beemer that he's fitted with heated grips and fog lights, along with his heated clothing. He watches it carefully and shuts things down as needed.

Hey T.C. - can you point me to the LED conversion pages?

best,

Leon

[TopCatGr58]

We tried to duplicate the tech tips that are in the FORUMS into the drop down menus as well, so you can usually find them in either location, either the drop down menu at the HOME PAGE, XSINFO/TECH TIPS/MODS, etc. or just scroll down the Main Forum page to the MODS or other tech tips, and check them out.

They are a few years old now, and with the advent of newer bulb designs, you can probably do it a bit easier than the surgery I had to do. Some of the bulbs on the superbrightleds web site have separate LED array chips/plates that can be positioned inside the bulb/reflector housings with just some hot glue or such, and then plug the attached wire to socket plug directly into the OEM socket, no cutting/ splicing, soldering required, so it can allow you to go back to OEM if desired.

You don't have to use WHITE LEDS, but YELLOW with the turn signals, and RED with the tail/brake lights work just fine. There are small single bulbs for the instruments, but I did a little thread about the 5 led multidirectional type bulbs I used to better illuminate the inside of the gauge housing, as well as the license plate. The single colored ones are good for turn signal and hi beam, neutral indicator lights. Problems can occur with the bikes with a SINGLE turn signal indicator, because the current can cross from one side of the signal, thru the indicator to the other side, causing all 4 to flash! Use of a diode fitted "Y" wire at the signal provided by MikesXS.com will solve that problem. Don't forget you'll need an electronic/combo type flasher, not the OEM and not a THERMAL flasher to get them to work due to the neglible load on the flasher with the LEDs.
T.C.

[TopCatGr58]

Here's a link to a thread I made about when I posted the TACH gauge face MOD/Repair, I added the LED bulb upgrade to it, along with the rubber Oring gasket repair as well, just updated the damaged photo links, they were Photodump, now moved to Photobucket, all are visible now!

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9130&highlight=led+license

T.C.

[LCS249]

awe-inspiring. Thank you for the follow-up and link to the other postings.

The XJ's Jetsons-style instrumentation [kind of like digital watches from the 70's] may make it easier to upgrade. It was so futuristic back then... I've grown to love it, though, since everything is laid out so clearly and I always have a pretty good idea of how much gas I have left.

Thank you, T.C. You make this site well worth watching.

best,

Leon

[RUSH]

I have a Gerbings jacket and driving lights. Running both at the same time will overcome the charging system and result in a dead battery. The only l.e.d.s I have are the in the tail light.