battery tender issues

[Brent]

cold

Freezing a wet cell battery is a good and quick way to destroy a battery!

Batteries with a good charge will not freeze... At least not in the deep south, but dead batteries will.

[natemoen]

Batteries with a good charge will not freeze... At least not in the deep south, but dead batteries will.

Freezing in the deep south and up north are very different, you are not going to see sub freezing temps for months at a time down there. It can only hold out for so long.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Cold

Cold is the enemy of your battery, your cold cranking amps are reduced at lower temps. If charged, it shouldnt freeze, but will lose cranking power. A charge inside with good ventalation will bring it up to max power, if you have a bad cell, it will show up and it is time to replace the battery, as long as the cells are covered with distilled water and your charger is working correctly

[motoman]

If you are talking about running in series, that should only be done on batteries of same capacity.

If setup in parallel, you need an auxiliary batt///////////////not true in either case John! Series adds volts........parralell adds amps. If one was to do that the additional battery(and it does NOT matter what amp capacity), it HAS to be hokked into system parralell! If not, guarentee the magic smoke WILL escape somewhere....period. Just know this and automotive/ large truck systems as this is PART of what my job entailed before retiring. The OLD large trucks used to use a 6V system with 4 batteries(6V) hooked in paralell to have the cranking amps and also had a series-parralel switch to make 12V to starter. Anyway, whole point is in first statement, and would hate to see some one wear battery acid cause of wrong info!

[natemoen]

not true in either case John! Series adds volts........parralell adds amps. If one was to do that the additional battery(and it does NOT matter what amp capacity), it HAS to be hokked into system parralell! If not, guarentee the magic smoke WILL escape somewhere....period. Just know this and automotive/ large truck systems as this is PART of what my job entailed before retiring. The OLD large trucks used to use a 6V system with 4 batteries(6V) hooked in paralell to have the cranking amps and also had a series-parralel switch to make 12V to starter. Anyway, whole point is in first statement, and would hate to see some one wear battery acid cause of wrong info!

So would it work in your opinion?

[DeanR]

My bikes are always plugged into a Battery Tender Jr., all year long, when they're in the garage (unheated). Never any problems.

[motoman]

Sounds good Nate, but found out from 3Phase the smaller capacity battery would wind up overcharge, as in boil the electrolyte out.......BTW John, you ARE correct on the isolator...

[oldyam80sg]

Ok so the battery sat on a charger 15 hours and was reading 12.6 volts when the leads were removed.I installed it back in the bike-nothing-no lights or power.I took it to the advanced auto parts store and they load tested it-0 CCA and 10 volts.So i bought a AGM battery and will install it tomorrow after work.My question is this-why no indicator lights?is it because the battery is under 12 volts? when i went to start it the other day they worked but bike would not crank.Fuses including main are good.

[bikerphil]

Sounds like maybe the ignition switch plug is burnt inside the headlight bucket or maybe the ign. switch itself.

[oldyam80sg]

OK then answer me this-how many volts does it take for the indicator lights to come on? would the bike still crank with 10 volts and now less due to it cranking?I thought you need at least 12 for the TCI to work.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Yam,

I'm not sure that Phil saw the ZERO CCA that they found during the load test, and that after the test, the volts dropped to 10!

The bike will turn over/crank with less than 12 volts, usually a bit slower, and if while cranking the voltage to the TCI drops to below 10.5 THEN the TCI won't work even though the engine will still crank/spin!

It takes fairly few amps to run the lights, but still takes a few when you add up the running and dash lights, and with NO=ZERO CCA's, the battery just had a little surface charge, but there was no depth/capacity at all, so that's why there weren't any lights.

After charging the new AGM battery, put it in and you should be good to go.
I can't remember how old this old Walmart battery was? But they can get dead cells/shorts easy enough!

T.C.

[oldyam80sg]

I believe the Wal-mart battery was purchased last year maybe the year before.No cranking at all and no indicator lights.Hope the new battery does it.Really bummer since this was my first ride after my finger incident.

[bikerphil]

I'm not sure that Phil saw the ZERO CCA that they found during the load test

Yep, missed that. New battery should solve your issues, oldyam80sg.

[oldyam80sg]

New AGM battery did the trick.I installed it and bike started right up.Tomorrow i will ride it to my Moms garage for a winter nap.