heated liner harness/battery/trckle chrgr

[Aerodawg]

So today I bought the heated jacket liner and heated gloves..and was informed I should buy the dual thermo control by the HD rep, so bought it as well. Got home took off the seat removed the main fuse disconnected the battery terminals like the book said..hooked up the jacket harness, hooked the battery post back up, plugged the main fuse back in and put the seat back on started up the bike no problem. tested the gloves/jacket real quick to make sure it works was good to go. put away the clothing and hooked up the trickle charger usually turns green within 20 min.. got busy doing other things so a few hours later checked and the light was still red?? so it was midnight by this point... took everything back apart the same way as before removed the wiring harness reassembled everything and plugged in the trickle chrgr and within 20 min got the green light was back...anybody have a clue y the trickle chrgr didn't charge the battery up with the clothing harness on??..also one other thing.... the book states the jacket need to be used while at certain engine speeds so the correct amps is generated to chrg the bike battery..my question is..so if Im sitting at a redlight is this going to damage anything etc as the bike is not moving do I have to switch it off at red lights then?? thanks for any replies to this all comments much appreciated.. I have a 2010 fatboy lol.. thanks!

 

[Jennmarr]

Not sure why the light didn't change on your trickle charger. As to turning the heated gear off at a stop, that would not be needed. What they are telling you is that the possible amperage draw for the heated gear is above the bike's charging system output below a certain RPM level. What that means is that for the two or three minutes you are idling at a stop it is possible that your charging system isn't quite keeping up with the drain on your battery. As soon as you accelerate away from the stop the charging system will pick up and top off the battery. The answer to your question is "no", it will not hurt anything. The only possible negative would be if you turned the heated gear all the way up and operated the bike below the specified RPM level for an extended period of time, you could discharge the battery enough that there would no be enough battery reserve to start the bike.

 

[dbmg]

Heated gear pulls a lot of energy. With bike needing to be running above a certain RPM to not only get full performance from heated gear, but to also properly charge battery. Remember that a battery tender if that is what you are using will not charge a low charged battery. Removing clothing adapter allowed the tender current to go straight to battery and not through connection for heated clothing.

 

[Aerodawg]

thanks for the comments it clarifies a few issues... maybe my battery is low.. i will hook up the trckl chrger and make sure battery is chrgd then hook up everything again and see if the same issue happens.. what is throwing me is even with the harness on and nothing plugged in (heated clothes) why would the trickle chrger not work its a seperate plug? the clothes harness hangs off the left side of the bike and is attched to the pos/neg post on the battery itself and where the trickle chrgr plugs into hangs off the right side of the bike so its not even the same harness for both. I wonder if i should connect the wires for the clothes harness under the other wires already connected to the battery? that way maybe the plug for the trckle chrgr gets a better connect to the top of the screw/post for the battery.. looks like i will be busy sunday trying to figure this out... watch it be me needing a new battery...lol.. my biggest fear was messing up the bikes electrical system according to all the warnings in the clothing manual..thanks again for all the help you put my mind at ease.

 

[dbmg]

If battery is original, and with it being 4 years old the addition of heated clothing may just be giving you a warning sign of impending doom. Pull battery have properly load test and go from there. Again are you using a trickle charger or a smart battery maintainer? You can shorten life of battery if using a true trickle charger.

 

[Aerodawg]

good catch Dbmg... im actually using an automatic battery tender..not a trickl chrgr...plug it in 3 times a week. thanks for pointing that out.

 

[gator508]

Just to add, I have heated glove liners and I attached the pigtail for them directly on top of the battery tender pigtail to both battery posts. Never had a charging problem, but I only used them a couple of times. That was on a five year old battery, I had to replace the battery the following spring. Good luck!

 

[Aerodawg]

ok called Harley and techs were not there also have to call back Tuesday and the person I spoke with had never heard of this before. Today I made sure battery fully charged and battery tender light showed solid green. Hooked up the clothes harness with out hooking any clothes up etc... plugged the battery tender in to the pigtail that came with the bike solid red..10 min prior was green. searched internet and found something that said the clothes wiring fuse is higher (10amp) than the Harley fuse for the tender pigtail could this be blocking the other (Harley)pigtail then. also thought I saw something where I can buy a part that plugs into clothes harness and can then connect the battery tender to that and run everything through the clothing harness,, then I don't need the original pigtail that came with the bike any body know if this is correct? thanks!

 

[gator508]

This is starting to sound as if the pigtail for the heated clothes attaches with a non-conducting material. If you haven't already tried it, connect the heated clothes pigtail to the battery and check the plug with a voltmeter to see if you get a normal reading, ~ 12.7 on a fully charged battery. If the reading is not close, I would ask the heated clothes dealer for a new pigtail.

 

[Aerodawg]

Thanks for all the replies... Got it fixed.. took it to the dealer today they tested everything and hooked it up and installed the clothes harness. they showed me the battery was 12.72, and when we hooked the tender up to the Harley pigtail it went up to 12.77 we unhooked the tender and it dropped down 12.73 so the tender was working just the light remained solid red. We did put a different harness on it, we used the one that came with the gloves this time instead of the jacket harness (they pretty much looked the same). Anyway knowing the tender was working I was happy...plus while I was there got another thing fixed on the bike so it was a good day.
Tonight when I got home I plugged the tender back into the Harley pigtail and now 3.5hrs later it finally turned green.
Thanks for the help.
Aerodawg