ive seen a lot of discussions on the forums about using/ not using a trickle charger. well, my father decided to use one on his lowrider. soo.. this means im buying him one for his birthday..

here is my question...

there is a plug hanging near the ignition key that seems to be for a trickle charger.. what charger will hook up to this plug(im assuming itsa stock plug?) or even better, what plug will fit it, allowing me tosplice the plug to a generic(read: cheaper) charger?

thanks a million!

-wes

 

Got a pic?

 

Go to a Harley Dealer, they sell one for about $40.00

 

If you have a sealed AGM battery you should look at a smart charger. You can add a compatible connector.

Multi Stage charging cycle

Stage 1: Deep Discharge Charging Pulse Mode
The Charger starts charging at 0.5V and give pulse current up to 5V. This has effect of removing loose sulphation formed during deep discharge state of the battery.

Stage 2: Constant Current Mode (CC)
The charger changes to constant current 3A. When the battery voltage reaches to 14.4V, the charging stage changes from (CC) Constant Current to CV (Constant Voltage) mode.

Stage 3: Constant Voltage Mode (CV)
The charger holds the battery at 14.4V and the current slowly reduces. When the current reaches at 0.5 C (C= Battery Capacity), this point called the Switching Point. The Switching Point is one of the great features of this battery charger that it can adjust the current automatically according to the battery capacity. Other chargers without microprocessors are not capable to adjust the current automatically.

Stage 4: Standby Voltage Mode
The charger maintains the battery voltage at 13.8V and current slowly reduces to zero. Charger can be left connected indefinitely without harming the battery.

Recharging:
If the battery voltage drops to 12.5V, the charger changes from any mode to Constant Current mode and restart charging. The charging cycle will go through Stage 2 to Stage 4.



Link to Smart Charger

 

thanks all. i dont have a pic, i figured it was a stock plug. its basically a side by side plug, similar to the plug in the lower right of this pic: im just not sure which is + and which is negative.


this is a pic from the smart charger page above, so i assume it comes with the correct charging plug.

thanks all.

 

On the battery end, the exposed connection will be negative. If the plug is free swinging without a protective cap, the exposed connection has an opportunity to hit the frame or another path to ground (battery negative). So for sure this connection will be the negative. This is a standard. You can go to the stealer and pay them extra money, or just buy a BatteryTender (same guys that make the Harely unit) for $10-20 less.

Also - Wally World used to have a really nice tender made by "Shumacher" for $17.88 - really quite a steal. I think they were just getting rid of them so they are probably gone by now, but you might get lucky.

Make sure you get a battery maintainer, not just a trickle charger. The maintainers will tell you if it's hooked up backwards and will not do any damage.

 

right on. that totally makes sense about the +/- terminals. i should have thought of that. i would have just thrown a meter on there to find out.

thanks for the info on wally world, but i dont support that store.

roger that on the battery tender. i have a couple options im going to let him pick from. any other brand suggestions out there? maybe with special features, or anything as such? i think im gonna pick one up for my old ironhead too.

 

Don't want to over complicate the issue - Battery Tender will work fine, but since you asked for more info, here's an older article with lots of technical detail - enjoy :

http://www.wingworldmag.com/archives...e/battery.html

 

hey, well, i did ask for more info. and thats definetly it. thanks for tonights reading material!!

 

I thought if you have a sealled battary you have to use a different charger a small trickel charger.