I've had a Battery Tender go bad. Found out in the spring, when the battery was hooked to it all winter. There was no obvious sign it wasn't working. It still lit up green.
I have had several Tenders go bad over the years. Every once in awhile i check mine buy unplugging them for a day or so and then plugging them in again and checking the voltage with my multimeter. Making sure it goes to about 13.2 and then falls as it charges the battery up.
A word of caution! If you plug this into your bike's tender connector, the red clip will be negative, and the black clip will be positive. It should only be used to connect a tender to the battery posts.
It's wired that way to be used as a component of the tender. That way the is no confusion when hooking it up.
Using for some other purpose is what will get ya in trouble.
I have used those as a quick ck on if the battery is getting charged. The volt meter will read neg voltage if you don't reverse the leads
It's not really long enough to jump a bike. I guess if you worked at that hard ya might???? Then I have never tried to do that.
I replace my battery every two years, right before I head to Sturgis. Cheap insurance to me. By that time, the battery has at least 15,000 miles on it anyway.
For the past 20 Wisconsin winters, my Deltran Battery Tender has remained connected to a touring bike 24/7 in an unheated garage for 4-5 months during storage. Periodically (about once a week), I'll press the odometer trigger/button on the bike which briefly displays the mileage in the odometer window. When I do this the green light on the BT immediately turns red (charging). After about 30 seconds, it changes back to green (storage).
Is this an accurate, simple 30 second test to confirm whether or not the tender's circuitry is functioning as designed? IDK, seems plausible, but I don't possess an identical failed tender to compare the results between the two. In the meantime, old reliable stays connected until April.
It's wired that way to be used as a component of the tender. That way the is no confusion when hooking it up.
Using for some other purpose is what will get ya in trouble.
I have used those as a quick ck on if the battery is getting charged. The volt meter will read neg voltage if you don't reverse the leads It's not really long enough to jump a bike. I guess if you worked at that hard ya might???? Then I have never tried to do that.
WP
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You're right, not long enough unless the donor battery is very close. I've successfully jump started my dead bike by removing the donor battery from my lawn mower to get it close enough. If you zoom in, you'll see the clips are reversed on the donor battery's posts to get the polarity correct.
For those that claim this method will result in melted wires or blown fuses, the bike started right up with no ill effects to wires or fuses.
i just check my jumper cable that came with the tender. it is wired normal, when plugged into the bike the positive is where it should be on the red connection. mine has a fuse on the positive connection, but you are correct way too short to be useful as jumper cables, but would be easier to connect to than having to pull the seat off on the side of the road if needed a jump.
You're right, not long enough unless the donor battery is very close. I've successfully jump started my dead bike by removing the donor battery from my lawn mower to get it close enough. If you zoom in, you'll see the clips are reversed on the donor battery's posts to get the polarity correct.
For those that claim this method will result in melted wires or blown fuses, the bike started right up with no ill effects to wires or fuses.
Good idea. I'd bet if a person went to hook it up by the colors they would get enough sparks to make them back off.
Well I guess some might not tho LOL
11-11-2020, 10:05 AM
