in all the yrs Ive been reading in here I'd say the average is 4-5 yrs.. but.. it does seem like a lot of owners of the newer bikes -- 2010 and newer have had more failures and a lot of guys have replace their batt after 3 yrs??

I had to replace mine after 5yrs almost to the day I bought it new and that was 3 yrs ago.
My Sons 10 Street G. needed a new Batt at the beginning of last summer.. it was about 3 1/2 yrs old..

And yes we both use the Batt Tender during the winter storage.


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The biggest killer of batteries is cold. If you leave it outside during the winter with no tender 2-3 years is the norm...if you keep the battery on a tender all winter long 8+ years is the norm. A charged battery will not freeze...a discharged battery will...if it freezes, game over. If you ever allow a battery to become completely discharged from say leaving the key on...it will never be the same, even IF it takes a charge after.

 

Other way around. Heat damages the battery, cold just produces less energy.

blah blah

Boring reading

Another

In FL, wife's lasted 1.5 years. Mine is okay at 3 but slowing.

 

Heat has little to no effect on a lead/acid battery IF you keep it topped off...if you allow the level to get below the plates, battery damage will occur ...you can add water to many "sealed" batteries buy simply removing a sticker and prying off the cap...heat will shorten the life of AGM batteries.

 

Anything over 3 years is good going, and those with substantially more than that have taken good care of it using a tender when they should and never allowed it to get lower than the critical charge level for lead acid batteries.

Those reporting short life spans may have incurred a deep discharge, and it takes only a single deep discharge incident to trash these batteries.

 

my original factory battery was in my bike seven years and i gave it to a friend i replaced it because i figured it was time. I kept it on a tender during the winter months. i bought a new one from the harley stealer and it only lasted two years I'm on my third now

 

Mine just died, but my Indy let it die when he had the bike for 3 weeks. It was almost 6 years old. Battery tenders are great. I couldn't get it to recharge properly with the tender, it was too dead.

 

Back in the seventies up to the early eighties I've owned six different big fast jap bikes and (NEVER) had to replace a battery ! In the middle eighties I bought 4 new Harley's and also never had to replace any batteries .
Twenty seven years later I decide it was time to get back on a Harley .
My twinky twin cam W/G has had to have the battery replaced (FOUR) times . Leaving me stranded (three) times . It seems when they go they go all at once with no initial warning . They start & run fine until the last time you killed it and "click" , dead as a hammer ! Harley's EAT batteries !

 

06 Deluxe...original battery.....tender only in winter.

 

This.

Life is too short for bad batteries.

I keep mine on the tender every night.