Choppers man. Fuck. They keep you on your toes. As I said in my last post, I've killed 2 AGM batteries in 1 year. It could possibly be that I have a draw somwhere in my wiring...but I've been reading up on trickle chargers lately. You see, for the longest time I've been using a trickle charger on my batteries when I'm not riding. Now, from what I've read that's all good on a lead acid battery that needs to be maintained...but AGM & gel cell batteries are "maintanence free" as in once the acid is in them you don't fuck with em'. You see, a typical lead acid battery can discharge as 30% or more of it's charge in a month just sitting. But AGM/Gel cells are only using around 3% in that time...now of course temperature changes can cause that to be more or less. So apparently if your using a trickle charger that is putting out 2amps, even going into a float mode, it can overcharge and kill a good battery. They make special trickle chargers for AGM/Gel cell batteries that put out between 900mil amps to 1.5amps to keep from cooking them. The trickle charger I've been using is a Yuasa(not a cheap Wal Mart or Harbour Freight) supposedly a "smart" trickle charger...only puts out enough to keep the battry at full charge. Should be fine. Well, when I put a new AGM battery on it the "charging" light came on...I let it sit for a bit, still said "charging"...took it off & hooked it to my full size charger on full charge setting & the "charged" light came on....tried it on the float charge setting, still says "charged" & reading the correct Volt/Amps. Hmmmmmm....could I have been cooking these wonderful batteries while thinking I'm doing what's best for them? I'm thinking fucking maybe. I know it's not my badass Cycle electric Genny, I rode 2hrs home with no battery & the headlight/brakelights working. They would dim when stopped, but it kept the bike going. Oh by the way, I was 97mi from home when I left Conte Kustoms at 5:22pm on Sat. I got home at 6:28pm...on a dead fucking battery. Who was hauling ass? This guy! Here's some more pics of me wrenching.
Loaf,
ReplyDeleteDo you have the regular or low-output Cycle electric setup? It's possible a regular setup could be contributing to frying those batteries?
Mike, It's the DGV-5000. My Ironhead is an '82 so electric start only. I'm really leaning towards the constant use of the trickle being the culprit. After asking many others, the only time they're using them is winter, & even then just for a day every month or so. I just got in a bad habit of always having it connected when not riding.
DeleteAh, gotcha. Mine is kick only, so I'm running a tiny ballistic battery. With that tiny battery comes the need to charge it a little slower, so I opted for the low output setup. Haven't had any problems so far! Anyways, thanks for the chrome rocker boxes, they look great on my bike!
Delete