| Author | Message | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
     Chuckb |
I was riding with a friend today, he was riding my Uley. We had rode for about 30-40 minutes and stopped for coffee. Went to start the Uley but the battery was almost dead. We jumped it and it started and it made it home. I have wired my head lights to both be on when on high beam and I installed 2 extra running lights. I usually try and run with all on for more visibility. When I rode it the rest of the day I rode with only one light on and it never failed again. Does any one know what the minimum RPM is to keep the charging sys. at proper amps? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Froggy |
Higher the better, but anything above idle is good. A solid cruise on the highway will work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hughlysses |
An LED voltmeter is your friend. It will let you know you have a problem before you strand yourself like this. After installing one on my Uly, I find that at idle, fan running on high speed, high beam (just the one light) and auxiliary lights (2x55 watt bulbs), the voltage will drop to 12V (barely maintaining charge) at idle. If I increase it just the slightest amount above idle (+100 RPM), the voltage will climb back into the "green" range (~13.5V IIRC). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Schwartzkm |
Do you keep your bike on a trickle charger? I strongly encourage you to invest the $30.00 and purchase one if not. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rwven |
That combo of 4 lights will drain the battery. Last Sunday the ECM was turning off the aux. circuit every time I stopped at a light of stop sign. I was running both headlights, two 55W driving lights, my intercom system and the fan was running much of the time. At higher RPM's I was getting just enough juice to run everything but not enough left over to charge the battery. Turning off the driving lights and the high beam for awhile allowed to system to recover. I then turned the driving lights back on and all was well for the remainder of my ride. I plugged in to my Battery Tender when I arrived home and it charged for many hours before shutting down. I have ordered two sets of 35W HID's, one set for the driving lights (H3)and another for the low beam (H7). The high beam I will leave halogen because I run a modulator on it. Hopefully the 60 watt reduction in power usage will allow me to run everything. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gamdh |
I use this to "estimate"....it at least gives me an idea if I'm in the realm of reality. Then the voltage monitor lets me know for sure =) I have TrailTech HID (13watts each) and in the winter I have heated jacket liner and heated gloves. The only time I see the Voltage monitor go below green is sitting at idle with Fan/Lights etc. (my idle is around 950).. I just bump it up to about 1100 and it goes back to green on the led. Note this is for an '06.. (don't recall exactly but at some point the system output was decreased some?)
The Min Left/Max Left are based on what I currently use....
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rwven |
In '08 they changed the alternator from the 3 phase unit @ 481W to a single phase unit @ 405W. Using your calculations running 4-55W headlights would bring my total power usage, with fan and fuel pump running, to 454W. No wonder I was draining the battery. Shedding 60 W may not be enough... |
