Yeterday the wife and I were out on a short scoot on the Road Glide. I thought we'd plug in her electric heated vest just to see how well it worked. i noticed right away when I started the engine, the engine light was on. It didn't connect right away that it might be because of the vest being plugged in. I started off and only made it about 200 yards, the engine was running but wouldn't deliver any power. I stopped, popped it in neutral, and tried reving it a bit, It just wouldn't rev, maybe 2k but that's about it. So I shut it down, unplugged the vest, tried it again. No engine light, ran normal, no more problems. What's up with that? The vest is a piece of crap or what? I don't understand. If it was shorting it should have blown the fuse, but didn't. I don't get it. Anyone else know what's up?

 

What did you plug the vest into? Mine is plugged into the jack I hooked directly to the battery, through a fuse of course, and it works fine. I've never heard the heated vest or jacket liner described as a POS.

 

The wife and I have used heated vests on all 3 of our bikes and never had any problems with it ( on the ultra we have both been on with vests on and still no prob ).
Have you tried it again?
Are you wired right to the battery? ( shouldn't make any difference )
Other than that maybe replace the fuse ( might be faulty )

Good luck

 

I plugged it into the factory installed jack that's hanging out from under the seat. I traced the wires, the hot wire is fused and both go directly to the battery terminals. The term POS is my acronym for Piece of ****.

I suppose I should try it again, now that I'm at home, if the thing burns out the ignition at least I won't be stranded.

 

That plug is a quick disconnect for a charger (Battery Tender) and can be used for a heated garment. I suggest you also remove your seat and double check all your battery connections. make sure they're clean and tight. On my brand new 09 when I got her home and did the once over, I found the connections almost loose. That might not be your problem but it's worth checking and elimating.

 

The connector under the seat on my '08 is for a battery tender and doesn't have a large enough fuse to handle my jacket and gloves. I installed another connector with the right fuse. I can't see how the fuse could disable the electrical system, it should just blow the fuse.

 

ok I tried it again, in the controlled environment in my garage. I cannot duplicate the problem. However, when it happened on the highway, my wife tole me the vest was just cooking hot. Too hot. She was ready to tell me to pull over so she could take it off. This was only after it was plugged in for about 2 minutes. Now the vest hardly get's warm, actually I can't even tell if it's warm or not.

So I think maybe it was drawing too much current the computer detected a low voltage and effected its systems. The vest plug has a 10 amp fuse. I didn't notice the voltage on the gauge when this happened.

I suppose I have to take it in. It only has 1100km on it and is due for it's first full maintenance at 1600.

Any thoughts or comments?

 

...am I missing something here?...on my 05 Eglide the factory connector under the seat is for accessories like heated-vests, and is bigger than the recharger connector...the battery recharger connector I had to install from the "Battery Tender" kit..

 

Sounds like a bad vest, intermittent. My wife and I have used ours a lot with no issues.

 

He's talking about the battery tender pigtail that comes out underneath, not the accessory plug directly under the seat. The tender plug can be used in conjunction with an adapter unless the heated clothing is already wired with a two pole flat connector, but most are wired with the single jobbie.