| Author | Message | ||
     Ratbuell |
I've been riding for...well, for quite some time now, and own (and have owned) quite a few bikes. All V-twins, which applies to their crank-start functionality as far as this topic goes. My work truck is a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500, with the 24v Cummins turbodiesel - 5.9L inline six cylinder. Two batteries on board. I put new batteries in it last year (1/15) because during wintertime, I was experiencing a click....pause...crank situation. New batteries, new terminals, and added onboard wiring and a socket for a battery tender. Plugged it in when parked in the garage last winter, did the trick. Summertime, warm temps...no tender and no issue. Come cold weather again, started plugging it in again. This is my "work" truck - I use it to pull my gear trailer for sound gigs. It is not a daily driver, and it gets driven maybe once every week...sometimes twice a month (or less). It developed the click....pause...issue again this winter, even with the battery tender. I even had to use a jump box on it recently because it was click...pause...nothing. I have been "commuting" from Maryland to Florida for the last six weeks, tending to my father's final affairs, in my Jeep. Now all that's done, but I'm tired of being in the Jeep so I've been driving the Ram for the last 10 days straight. Even without the battery tender, and without the block heater (in 20 degree ambient weather with 20+mph winds)...she fires right up like a gasser. Key, crank once, running. Morale of the story is...don't bash the Buell charging systems for a pause-start situation, even if you're using a battery tender. Like the old S1 advertisement says - "just go ride the motorcycle". Running the charging system puts a deep (amperage) charge in the battery that a tender simply can't replicate, and it makes all the difference in the world. And, it's probably the reason that I was able to use the factory battery in my '06 Ulysses up until 2015. There's no substitute for being out on the road. On many levels  That's my random thought during icy-road season... | ||
| Ourdee |
So, to add to the lesson to be learned, if I am getting this. I parked my Jeep during the summer and rode my Buell. When fall came I went to drive the Jeep and the battery was dead. So, we need to just pick one vehicle. Get rid of the others and ride it all year. | ||
| Ratbuell |
or...and this is my problem...don't find one you love, and ignore all the others for too long. They all need regular attention  | ||
| Jolly |
Yeah.... Similar issues in my garage for sure!! I have switched from "battery tender" to "battery minder", which desulfates as it charges, they have many models to choose from, lead acid/AGM, and a specialty AGM like odyssey and such, and ones for the newer batteries, they even get into aircraft battery chargers which are more heavily regulated 24v volt batteries. I have even brought "dead" batteries back to service that a battery tender couldn't charge. http://www.batteryminders.com/ | ||
| Ratbuell |
Hmm...now THAT might be an option for the truck...especially since it's got a pair of batteries (BIG ones!) as opposed to a single. The bikes do fine (for me, I don't get torqued up about the pause-start) on the tender but I may go with a Minder for the truck. Good call, thanks! | ||
| Pwnzor |
How did a 12v Battery Tender ever work on a 24v system? | ||
| Ratbuell |
It's not a 24v system. It has (2) 12v batteries wired up to provide more CCA for the high-compression high-displacement diesel engine. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Ok I guess I got confused when you said it was a 24v Cummins. | ||
| Ourdee |
I think it has 24 valves. | ||
| Ratbuell |
 | ||
| Pwnzor |
LOL I didn't even think of that! | ||
| Ratbuell |
And nothing personal RD...we just don't have a "what he said" emoticon |
