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Buell Motorcycle Forum » XBoard » Buell XBoard Archives » Archive through September 23, 2007 » Polygrip heaters. « Previous Next »

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Pso
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 08:39 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

I installed the grip heaters in my Uly bars and wired them through the cigar lighter circut under the fly screen. They work great, are inexpensive, and are a nice very clean install on my Uly. My fiance' has a Scg and would like to have heated grips. Is there a good wire source to use under the fly screen for the hot lead?
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Glitch
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 08:41 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

There's that little light in between the headlamps. It's used in Europe as a parking light, the socket is empty on the US models.
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Ft_bstrd
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 10:08 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

I ran a thick fused lead back to the battery and ran the relay off a vampire connection on the cigarette lighter.

The issue is going to be the wattage draw of the heaters.
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Reepicheep
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 10:17 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

There are a few good leads, the one Glitch mentions, and the low beam lead.

I ran my polly heaters off the low beam wire, but I had previously installed a HID light (that runs off a relay and the battery), so that wire was not being used for current going to the bulb anymore. No problems so far.

Lets do the math... 15 amp accessory fuse, right? In theory, thats 180 watts at your disposal. I think the Polly heaters are what, 15 watts on high? And the headlight is what, 80 watts? So there seems to be room there.

And say the wire carrying the current to the headlight is 2 feet long, and has a resistance of .1 ohm per foot (probably way high). In that case, to supply the 80+15 watts, the wire is carrying 8 amps.

At that resistance, the wire will need to dissipate about 1.6 watts... Thats a lot, but I don't think its enough to melt insulation or threaten the wire, it's 1.6 watts along 2 feet of heating element. And that's worst case. In reality, I bet its less then 1/4 of that.

So it's getting close to where it may be an issue, but I bet its fine, even with both the headlight and the polly heaters coming in on the same wire.

Cool! I did a google search, here is a neat little table of "how much current can wire of gauge N carry?". It's a fairly conservative table, and again it looks like that 8 amps could be carried by a 21 guage wire, and I'm sure that wire is bigger then that (16 guage?).

So either that third lamp, or the headlight lead, either would probably work fine. I had already tapped off that third lamp lead to power the GPS.

Geesh. I'm adding a lot of farkles to this bike : ) All functional farkles though.
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1324
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 01:28 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

For what it is worth, I just ran my wiring back to under the seat where I housed the relay and stealthy mounted the switch. I just used a wire coming off the positive battery terminal and the relay is triggered by the running tail lamp. Works like a charm...actually used them for the first time on Sunday and I'll never own a bike without them!
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Tq_freak
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 02:54 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Reepicheep- I don't know what it is but something about your post just screamed engineer to me

Thanx for the Info and can you forward me that table you found if you still have it? that would come it very handy for future projects / work
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Glitch
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 03:37 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Them's fightin words!
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Tq_freak
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 03:53 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Haha, no fightn words intended. Im an Enginnerd too. electro-mechanical to be exact. But my job has me doing almost no electrical it caught my attention cause I still find it "fun" to run thouse calcs.

Damn, I just realised what I said, I am a nerd....
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Ccryder
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 04:06 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

It's TRUE, U R 1, and so am I.

We have our fair share of engineers and nerds around this place Heck we even have a construction worker or 2, right Court ;+}? (Actually he has a degree or 3, so don't let that construction worker line fool you, oh yeah, he has worked as a construction worker too.)

Time2Work, as an engineer.
Neil S.
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Reepicheep
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 04:08 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

If the shoe fits... ;)

My undergrad was electrical engineering technology, then computer science for masters work. Then I ended up in information security, so I don't use any of it, except when I am farkeling motorcycles : )

Sorry, meant to post the link to the table:

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

It looks way conservative to me...
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Metalstorm
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 09:42 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Since I no longer have the stock pipe and do not need the servo motor, I used the servo circuit to power a relay that I put in the far rear of my 12Scg.

There were three wires coming out of the servo socket. The orange was power so I removed the other two and ran the orange to the relay so the servo on/off is fused by the horn/muffler fuse. I ran a wire with an inline fuse from the battery to the relay for the power and a long wire from the relay along the wiring harness to the very front to the switch.
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Chadr81
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 12:39 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

I just put the Polygrip heaters on over the weekend and I used the hot wire for the headlights. If I recall correct, it is a orange/white wire. Spliced it in right before the male/female connector under the flyscreen. Worked out pretty darn good.

Chad
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