Last night due to a strong storm here in the area a tree fell across the power lines near my home knocking out power. Little did the power company know, it also broke the neutral going to my house. When the crew reenergized the line the resulting surge and no neutral caused snapping and popping from outlets and electronics all over the house blowing almost every appliance with a logic board and even frying GFI outlets with nothing plugged into them.

When I ran down to the garage, smoke was billowing out from the Battery Tender on my Street Glide. There was also a lot of smoke that appeared to be coming out from under that side of my bike cover. I'm not sure if that was just battery tender smoke that rolled up under there or something on the bike?

I have been told in the past that a bad battery tender can kill the stereo but how I don't know? The ignition and gauges all power up but I haven't tried starting the bike yet. Any thoughts from you electronic or power types based on your knowledge of such things, as to whether the damage is likely contained to the now dead Battery Tender or if I'm going to see other issues later on with the bike electronics? Thanks, Rick

 

First thing to do is start the bike and make sure everything works. If you find something fried then you got your answer. If everything works then there's no way of knowing how much of a jolt the bike took. Stuff may only last 6 months or it may go 6 years. Is the power company making good on the damages?

 

Thank goodness that a 12v battery is a pretty good surge protector. Most likely all with the bike is ok but it sounds like you and the power company/insurance company have a lot of discussions coming. WOW.

 

Insurance Company said they wont be paying because the trouble occurred before the meter socket so its the power companies liability. The power company says its Homeowners? Let the fight begin. Im already into this for some big dollars starting today.

 

at worst it should have blown the fuse on the tender harness. or the p&a fuse if its a post 14.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Those breakers should have saved you're house as well.

 

Nope.Fuses and breakers will do nothing to help you in this case,a whole house surge suppression device may have had a chance but perhaps no help either.
This is a tough one,it will be hard to prove what actually destroyed the OP's electronics-the lines being pulled down by the tree or the POCO making an error,sadly it will be a lot of finger pointing and posturing by those ****** but the OP's insurance company should be making good and taking on the POCO on his behalf.

 

It's unlikely the battery tender caused any problem to the bike.
When you powered the bike up and noticed the gauges energizing, did you happen to look at the voltage gauge? If there was an issue, you would have seen the results there.

This sure sounds like an insurance claim to me. If it turned out the power company was at fault, they would surely recoup their loss from them.
If it were me, I'd escalate the issue at the Insurance company to get the claim started.

If you run into a dead end with them, there is such a thing as the Insurance Regulatory Authority, who is there to help you for stuff like this!

 

The breakers won't necessarily flip in that situation. The breakers flip due to too large of an amperage draw, not voltage. I had this happen in a travel trailer once. Typically, you have two 110 hot wires and a common ground feeding your breaker box. This way you can wire 1 hot to the common ground to make a 110 circuit, or wire both 110 wires together to get a 220 circuit for larger appliances. All of the grounds for both 110 circuits are tied together in the breaker box. If you cut the ground before it gets to the breaker box, the two 110 hots back feed through the ground wires of anything that is plugged in, creating a whole house 220 circuit. The amperage draw doesn't necessarily increase enough to flip the breakers. But the extra voltage will melt things.

 

And that's exactly what seems to have happened. I can file an insurance claim and the agent said they would send an adjuster to look. If in fact they do decide to pay and go after the power companies carrier, they will elect to not renew my policy. I've been with the company for many years so I have a decent premium because of my lack of any claims on home or auto. The Power companies position is its an act of God and that's what Homeowners coverage is for. The agent says these days if a claim isn't 10k or above and catastrophic, people should just eat it. Yeah, we are all wealthy enough to do that! Sad state of affairs things are in these days!