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Connection for heated gear/Battery Tender - Synergy heated gear question

GliderDoug

GliderDoug

Member
Hey Experts! I need some confirmation I'm on the right track and also have a question.

1. I bought a Synergy jacket liner and gloves (work great) and would like to clean up the wires coming off the battery for my Battery Tender and the electric gear. My idea is to use the Synergy pigtail with the coax plug direct off the battery (has a 15A in-line fuse) for the heated gear. Then, in order to use the Battery Tender when parked, I'm thinking of rigging up a short male coax to Battery Tender trailer-type plug adaptor. The Battery Tender pigtail is a 7.5A in-line but I think the 15A which will be there on the new setup will still work OK. Does this all make sense?

2. In the manual for the Synergy gear it says - "WARNING: Shut off the vehicle’s motor and remove the ignition key before connecting Synergy™ garments to the Synergy™ power lead. Failure to do so may create a power surge that could damage the vehicle’s circuitry and the garment’s heating elements."
This is not my normal MO. I would normally fire up the bike and let it warm up, then hop on and plug in the electric gear. Seems to me that any surge that could damage the electric gear or the controller would happen during ignition. I'm not an electrical expert so would be interested in any comments.

Thanks for all and any input.
Ride safe!
 
GliderDoug,

1) Using a Battery tender plug w/ 7.5A in-line fuse should be fine (to protect Battery tender, in the even of a short ckt, the 7.5A would blow before the 15A)...but your heated gear should not be in series with that 7.5A fuse of course, because your heated gear probably draws close to 5A and may blow the fuse prematurely.

2) Other heated gear manufacturers have a "control box" to handle the surge and adjust the heat. The problem with hooking up ANY accessory to a plug is both a surge and sequence issue. If the + gets connected first and then the - a spike can actually reverse voltage the downsteam device; while heating elements are normally not polarity sensitive, the solid state (electronics) IS. Follow the manufacturer's instructions on this, as I do not know what they have inside their garment. JMO!
 
Thanks NewHD.......
1. I was planning to use only the 15A fuse as protection between either the heated gear or the Battery Tender. This would be the right fuse for the heated gear and I assume the 15A would be fine when the Battery Tender is used - right?
2. Good info and I guess I'll follow the instructions although it's a bit awkward. Since the power to the heated gear is directly off the battery it seemed to me it would make no difference if the bike was running or not.
 
GD...you should have the Battery Tender side of the harness protected with a 7.5A fuse, the 15A is too large to protect it. Matter of fact on my Sporty all the fuses in block are 15A, so I would directly fuse off the battery connection AND have an inline switch like Widder and some of the other heated garments have.

If you want to sequence the power (which I would recommend, i.e. turn ON only after everything is hooked up and ready to to go and engine is running. The extra loading at starting typical of Harleys is the headlights on, and all accessories are on and then hitting the starter is loading the battery is likely very close to the limit, as Harley's are notorious for being hard on starters (high compression load, etc.) as I am finding out and not necessarily a good thing. Metrics (at least my Yamahas) had a "Run" relay that had everything OFF except the starter when you hit the "Start" button, and once the engine was running, it would switch on, headlights and all accessories...which is ideal.
 
Give Harley another 20 years or so to get with the relay, they just now (07) fitted the clutch with the neutral switch on the civilian models. They'll be getting the idea shortly :D
 
OK. As I'm waiting for it to warm up enough to ride even WITH the heated gear.......................
Would it make sense to leave the battery tender pigtail with 7.5A fuse for use with battery tender, then when using the heated gear plug into the tender plug with a home made adaptor that has a tender plug on one end, another 7.5A fuse inline and the coax type connector for the heated gear. Shud give me total 15A between battery and the heated gear - right?
Sorry if this is a bit clumsy but difficult to explain.
 
GD, if your heated riding gear is fused with 7.5A NORMALLY that would be fine. But putting 7.5A fuses in series with the whole works only gives you 7.5A hold capacity, not the 15A you seek. Normally each garment is fused separately) adding them up separately as they are in parallel to each other (think of the circuit as the letter H stacked, leg in the middle each fuse & garment), not series (think of dashes ---strung and single opening as open fuse for spaces) power and ground at the very ends. Parallel the current capacity increases, series the current capacity is less than the least so to speak...welcome to Electronics DC theory 101...sorry about this complicated post.
 
NEWHD,
Now I remember! V=IR. It's been a while!
Glad you pointed that out. The result would have been me complaining about the heated gear not pumping out enough heat.
Thanks. I'll keep working on this.
 
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