I have never had a battery tender on my bike. It has the original battery and has never been jumped and has always started. It is a 2003 with almost 20,000 miles on it.


I was given a slow trickle battery tender/charger. The guy who gave it to me said he had his boat battery hooked up to it and it worked fine. My question is,can you hook it right to the battery,while the battery is in and connected to the bike? Or does the battery have to be removed and disconnected from the bike? Also what exactly does it do? Does it keep up the charge,or does it just keep the battery from going dead?

 

You keep the battery in the bike hooked up. A tender and a trickle are different. A tender will sense will the battery is fully charged, and shut off. A trickle will just charge until you unplug it.

 

Thanks Schu

I will ask him exactly what he gave me.

 

Yeah, most battery tenders come with a pigtail that you connect directly to the battery (1 pos. and 1 neg. eyes). Then you can put the sidecover back on the bike with the connector hanging out. I routed mine to come out at the back of the seat where the fender support is. Then all you have to do is plug the bike in when your not riding it. Keeps is fully charged. Also, a side benefit of that pigtail is that heated clothing can be plugged into it also.

 

Battery Tenders prolong the life of your battery as well. It's a good habit to always plug it in after you park it.

 

As long as a lead acid battery is never allowed to fully discharge and the acid is kept up it will last indefinately.