LOL he's saving the world, one battery at a time.

When I store my bikes/vintage cars they are left on a tender 24/7 for 6 months at a time. Typically get at least 5 years out of a battery in a climate where storage temps often drop below minus 20.

Of course I only have 3.5 decades of experience doing this as opposed to his 4.5, so WTF do I know?

 

my experience, over 20 plus years, multiple bikes. all bikes, except 1 on tender when not riding.

average battery life is approx 6 years. examples

2010 stock battery, still in service. will replace in spring
2012 CVO, stock battery still in service. started 110, starts 120R now.
2004 road glide, 2 batteries over bikes lifetime. owned bike since new.

despite others advice, always buy the factory stock battery from mother HD. never a problem, if any potential issues on road, always have documentation of purchase and warrenty info.

 

i have four battery tenders hooked up right now and i just checked them, running at 13.0 volts. i do unplug them once in awhile. seems to be working fine for now. i would get 5 to 8 years out of hd batteries in my heritage, but no radio or clock crap to run it down, without ever putting them a charger. so who knows ? i'll keep using these tenders for now.

 

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Your corect evenj qualty battery can fail early,my point is that i have been tracking battery failures for a few yrs from mult sources and a common theme has come up being i often find a manit / float charger was ebing used 24/7 or often in many cases of permature battery failure.

Thats what prompted me to chk float rate voltage to see where it was at and found it was holding my AGM battery (with a lot less electrolyte/fluid in it by design) making it much easier to overcharge @ 13.2v's for days/wks/months on end when AGM bike batteries full charge voltage is 12.8v's (12.9v's) depending on what mfg you ref.

Yes we know batteries often come off full charge rate @ high 13v range to even 14v's once in a while which short term doesnt hurt anything..

But when you hold an agm batt with less electrolyte in it @ 13.2v's for days/wks/months on end that slowly over time dries the battery/overcharges it leading to premature battery failure.

Older gen lead acid batteries that are fully flooded with acid/electrolyte are far less sensitive to overcharging not to mention you had easy access to adding dist water if required too so plate would not dry out & warp too.

as for somment on been doing for 4.5 decades thing.

I ALREADY TOLD YOU GUYS I DONT MENTION IT TO BE ***,I MENTION IT SO YOU KNOW WHAT I AM POSTING IS IN FACT COMING FROM SOMEONE THAT HAD WALKED THE WALK TALKED THE TALK FOR MANY YRS SHARING HIS 1ST HAND EXP SO YOU KNOW YOU KNOW ITS NOT JUST BS/OPINON LIKE MORE THEN A FEW PEOPLE HERE THAT IN FACT HAVE LITTLE TO NO EXP POSTING MOSTLY OPINION AND WITH LITTLE 1ST HAND ESP!

And with that said how many of busting chops have been tracking battery failures over the past few yrs from 3 diff sources to see how many had maint/float chargers associated with the premature battery failures?

More then likely none!

Also,how many of you have been testing float rate battery voltage your maint/flaot chargers are holding you bike batteries at days/wks after the battery had reached full charge?

More then likely none!

I can tell you 1st hand that the pattern i found was approx 85-90% of the premature battery failures (in 1-1.5-2yrs) i obtained info on from 3 diff sources (2 were motorcycle related & 1 was classic cars) over the past few yrs were in fact using a maint/float charger used on their batteries 24/7 or often.

Thats where all this is coming from and not just that i saw 1,2 maybe 3 premature batt failures associated with float charger use which isnt the case at all,it's a real issue in some cases ,plain & simple.

But i in fact have done a lot of legwork on the battery vs maint charger subject for a few yrs now along with a ton of leg work on oil research for 9-10yrs too which gives me the background /1st hand exp along with many yrs wrenching under my belt to stand on too when posting here and more then a few guys that have done little or nothing on any of those subjects post its NG or doesnt happen etc when they dont know what they are talking about for reasons already stated.

You guys can poo poo everything i am passing along because i really dont care what you think of me or the info i am sharing trying to help out here when half of you guys have no idea what your talking about when you never tried it (like checking float voltage) or havent done the research required to gain the proper info on said subject like on oil & AGM battery tech too.

Not that you care but you can rest assured i am not posting just BS & or opinion with little to none 1st hand exp to back it up like the BS i get from many guys here (for example when posting the great benefits i got when cooling my HD) from guys that never ever tried using the same 2 cooling mods i installed on my bike that reduced oil temp 50deg f in summer heat that that i also installed on couple other hd's and rec others do too.

You guys are being as a good friend of mine put's it " CEMENT HEADS!/LOL!!!!

Happy Motoring for those that think all this is just BS on your HD's in summer heat roasting you off the seat with low oil pressure and ticking valves & motor sometimes detonating loosing significant pwr & trq in summer heat too for those saying HD's dont need or benefit from cooling though HD spent millions developing cooling on newer gen HD's many of you that never tried cooling your HD say its NG or not needed at all . And add to that some of you also slowly roasting the AGM batteries in your bikes to a premature death when using (some but not all!) maint/float type charger 12/7 or often too!

Scott

 

FLOAT/MAINTENANCE CHARGING: IS IT REALLY NECESSARY?
Here's what Battery Tender says about it.
http://www.batterytender.com/Float-Charging/

 

Last sentence in 1)A didn't they mean 1.5 instead of .15? I'm keeping my bikes on a tender.

 

go Cubs

 

No...they're referring to a 10% change, not 100% (1.5)

 

Thanks, trying to watch the series and read the Technical Discussion.....
0% =11.4V
100% = 12.9V
10%=.15V

 

top of 10th...are the Cubs going to blow this one?


EDIT: 9:48 PDT ...guess not...blowing it, that is
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