I'm starting to use my heated riding gear. I tested it out yesterday (low to mid 30's) for about 90 miles. I was plenty warm.

Now, here's the problem. I stopped for gas and the battery didn't have enough juice to start it... I had to pop start it. Now I rode last winter with my F4i and found out if I get the RPM's above 4500, I didn't have this problem. Yesterday, I kept the 1KRR above 5-5500 rpm's and evidently that wasn't good enough.

Would a higher capacity battery help? Do they make such a thing? Am I hurting anything by possibly running to much electrics?

 

I think the battery will be a band aid fix ifanyone even makes a higher capacity one. I think you have a stator problem. Not that there is something wrong with it, I just don't think Honda engineered that bike in mind of riding with "gadgets". And your heated suit probably draws alot of power. At least the Wing has heat.

 

What it means is your gear is using more power that the bike can produce, so its also drawing from the battery. I would guess that it can shorten the life of the alternator, because under normal use its not charging all the time. Maybe you could get a meter on the power cord and determine what the gear is drawing ? Find out how much over the bikes output you are. That should give you an idea about if you can make it work. As far as the battery, I don't think there is even another one made that will fit in the lil shorty battery box our bikes use. You might also want to have the battery tested, even if its new/newer. A bad one might act fine, but start causing problems at a higher load, such as w/ heated gear. If you like, you can stop by the shop and I can load test it for you, compare it to mine, also can test to see what your gear is pulling (amps) Shouldn't take very long.

 

Alot of the touring guys get the alternator rewound for more output... might be worth considering. I'd guess that the bike has everything at bare minimal for weight savings?

What gear do you have? How many watts?

I only use 34 watts for my vest - and I only turn it on when I'm running the engine well... I'll sometimes ridea gear lower to really get it cranking.

Do you happen to have a voltometer on the bike - it's not a bad investment if you're going to be running accessories. If you're careful you can flush mount one and it'll look nearly stock.

 

Well here is what the specs are on each piece...

Jacket Liner
HeatGHC High Density Heat Source12-volts DC Current6.4 amps Watts77 watts Surface Temp135°F +/- 5°F at 32°F
Pants Liner
HeatGHC High Density Heat Source12-volts DC Current3.6 amps Watts44 watts Surface Temp125°F +/- 5°F at 32°F
Gloves
HeatGHC High Density Heat Source12-volts DC Current2.2 amps Watts27 watts Surface Temp135°F +/- 5°F at 32°F
Socks
HeatGHC High Density Heat Source12-volts DC Current2.2 amps Watts27 watts Surface Temp135°F +/- 5°F at 32°F

So that's 175 watts. The low beam which is always on is another 55 watts. I don't know what else there would be, but that is a total of 230 watts.

The owners manual says the generator is .433 kW @5,000 rpm. So doesn't that mean that it puts out 433 watts?? Shouldn't I have an additional 203 watts left over? I can't imagine it takes over 200 watts to run the rest of the bike. Am I thinking about this all wrong?

 

I don't think it's a watts problem. I think it's the total amps the stator is putting out to feed the total amps of the suit and powering the bike. I need to do some research.

 

Fatguy check this out.
https://cbrforum.com/m_219053/tm.htm

 

Yeah, I knew there were/are stator problems, but is that why I'm running down my battery now?

How many amps does the bike put out? I couldn't find that in the manual anywhere... anybody know that?

 

Amperage is wattage divided by voltage.

Solve for X

X = 433 Watts / 12.6 Volts (or really, something like 13.4 but meh)

X = 34.4 Amps

 

Thanks KnightSlugger...

So according to the numbers above, my heated gear is 14.4 amps, so I should have 20 left over.

I guess I just don't understand why it won't work. I'll just have to experiment around and see how much I can connect before I cause battery draining issues. [&:]