I'm in the final stages of deciding on which bike to get. Most likely it'll be the 2011 FLHTK. My questions are:
1) How do folks run heated gear? I've heard there is some sort of attachment HD makes that fits to the batter tender plug. Is this a fact?
2) Secondly, what if I want to run two sets of gear at the same time for two-up? Can both sets be run off that single plug?
3) Lastly, is the bike even capable of two sets at the same time?

If is a thread or two where this is already referenced, just let me know and I'll try searching again. Not trying to reinvent the wheel.
Thanks.

 

You can use the battery tender hook up but put a 20 amp fuse in instead of the 7.5 amp. Also any modern harley has plenty of juice at cruising speed to run two jackets and gloves. If you are just idling along you might run into some issues but maybe not. You cna get a controller that splits off of one plug in to run two jackets.

 

You shouldn't have any problems running a full set of heated gear for both rider and passenger. You'll be running about 150 watts for each set--but only if you have them cranked up to the highest setting, which would cook you in all but the coldest weather. Gerbing Jacket/liners are 77 watts, pants/liners are 44 W, Gloves are 27 W. If you are are running more than 15 amps, you would need two controllers, one for the driver, one for the passenger, if you run maximum heat. In 40 degree weather, we seldom have ours set higher than 50%.

But, use the wiring harness that comes with the gear, to make sure its heavy enough. Putting in a larger fuse in a harness designed for a 1.25 amp charger could be asking for trouble. Many of the Battery Tender leads only have a 3 amp fuse. It's covered in Gerbing's FAQ on their site @

http://gerbing.com/Info/FAQ.php

Q: My bike already has a pigtail for my battery charger/maintainer. Can I use that to power Gerbing's Heated Clothing?

A: Unfortunately, no. We understand the desire not to have any more pigtail leads poking out from under the seat than is absolutely necessary. But depending on the device, some of these battery charger leads are only capable of handling the 1-to-2 amps that such chargers deliver. Using them to power from 4 to 15 amps of heated gear can blow the fuse and, even with the proper fuse in place, can overload the capacity of these same wire leads.


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You can, however, remove the Battery Tender harness, wire in the heavier harness for the heated clothing, and with an coax/SAE adapter, plug your Battery Tender into that.
You can find one at the bottom of this page:

http://cozywinters.com/heated-clothing/

Note that this company's gear has different wattage than Gerbing's.

 

good point on checking the wire size from the tender some are plenty stout enough to handle the load others not.

 

I run my Gerbing's right off the battery. Even when it has been down in the teens, I don't think I have run it anywhere near wide open, the gloves maybe at times, but not the jacket liner.

I wouldn't buy anything but Gerbing's. They have a lifetime warranty and have replaced my gloves twice with a new pair. I sent them in after getting a RMA and a couple of weeks later, the new pair arrived.

 

Like the others said, not an issue. A lot of guys like Gerbings, I run Warm-n-safe jacket liner and gloves. They are the same thet HD sells (First Gear also) sans logos, much cheaper, excellent customer service. www.warmnsafe.com. I can't imagine not having them when temps hit the 30's.

 

"The year 1999 marked another stage of growth when the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company selected Gerbing's to be the sole supplier of Harley-Davidson label heated clothing. Another milestone is the beginning of the authorized motorcycle dealers program in August of 2001. Only top-quality, respected dealers who provide high levels of service for their customers are selected into this program".

I checked into buying some HD heated gear this fall,found gerbing was the supplier HD used for their line of heated gear.

 

Wife and I have two complete sets of Gerbring and HD, kinda mix and match, some came from the dealership and other straight from Gerbring. Socks or the heated soles, pant liners, jacket liners, gloves and glove liners. Not a problem at all running the two sets off the motorcycle, but did so with two different hook ups and two separate controllers. Now since I added the sidecar, I have plug in on the bike for myself and in the hack for who ever is riding there. We are running a extra battery in the hack trunk and also have a ac converter, to run an electric blanket and lap top, not a problem as of yet. Do have a red top optima battery in the hack got for a cheap price at auto zone. And I ride year round here in Georgia, only thing that keeps me home is snow and ice, then with three wheels it gets interesting to say the very least.

turtleman

 

Thanks for the responses, guys. I presumed that the bike has the capacity to handle the gear, but you never know... I'm coming off a bike that requires a lot of trade-offs when it comes to electrical and adding gear. Heated grips/gear would put me over the top without replacing all bulbs with LEDs and so forth.

I don't expect there will be too many 30 degree days that I would be able to get mama on the bike, but its nice to know I'll have the ability to do so when necessary. More than likely, it'll be just me running the gear in the cold months going to/from work. I should be able to eke out 10 months a year here the mid-atlantic area. Next I'll get smart on the heated gear options. I tend to follow the threads on heated gear, but have never dug deeply into the pro/cons of different systems.

Thanks again.

 

I got a question on the HD Pants liners. In the catalog it says that when wearing the vest or jacket not to wear it against your skin, wear a light shirt or whatever first then your heated vest or jacket. But with the pants liners it says to wear them like long underwear under your pants, this would mean you will be wearing them against your legs, is this right? Or do you wear something first against your legs like a light base liner long underwear then the heated pants liners then your pants.
Thanks