Yesterday the weather was fairly good so I went out to tthe garage and started my FLH and let it run for a few minutes. It sounded a little weak at first, but started right up... So, while that's running, I went over to the Tri Glide and it's dead as a doornail. Both started just fine two weeks ago, but not yesterday. So today I'll hit the local dealer and pick up a couple of battery tenders... Will I need to charge the battery first, or will the battery tender take care of that? And the next question is, with the factory security system, Lojack, & anything else I missed, what is the voltage drain on the battery with all these things running and the trike shut off?

 

The battery tender will charge em,but it'll take awhile.

 

It might and might not. If you want put the battery on a charger get it to charge up some. Then go with the battery tender.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

A little advice:

If your bike is being stored for more than a few weeks you should make sure you have a battery tender on it or at least charge the battery once a month to keep the charge up.

Also going out and starting your bike every couple of weeks while in storage is one of the worst things you can do. If you put it away for storage change the fluids and connect the tender and leave it alone. Every time you start it up you end up creating moisture in the engine and acids form in the oil slowly internally eating away at it from the inside out. Unless you can start it and get it up to full operating temps to burn off the moisture you are actually doing your bike harm.

 

If your battery is not completely drained, a battery tender may “eventually” charge the battery. However, battery tenders are not designed as “battery chargers”; they are intended to maintain a charge.

The practice of starting your bike and only letting them run for a few minuets, probably does more harm than good.

Jim

 

The security on my flhx has a little drain on the battery. I keep both on a tender all
the time.

 

CWdoc; Deltran manufactures a dual bank charger/tender...little spendy, but might be good fit for two scoots...

http://batterytender.com/motorcycle/...emisphere.html

 

I bought this one http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-022-0165-DL-WH-12-Volt-Management/dp/B000NCOKV0

 

Actually the Battery Tender brand maintainer and most other maintainers are both a charger and a maintainer.

The Junior model will charge at 0.750 amps while the Plus will charge at 1.25 amps.

The maintenance current will be in the milliamp range depending on the vehicle and the drain coming from things like security systems and your Lo Jack.

Battery Tender maintainers will not charge a battery if it is discharged below a certain voltage which I think is three (3) volts. If you have a very low battery, you would need to disconnect it from anything draining the voltage and see if the battery will come up or connect it to a charger long enough to bring the voltage up to the cut off point.

I would suggest you connect your bikes to a battery maintainer anytime they are parked in the garage for more than a day or two.

A lot of people use the Junior model but I recommend the larger Plus version because of the higher charging capacity. If you every have the need to charge a battery and not just maintain one, the Plus model will charge the battery more quickly. Additionally, they both will charge the battery and then automatically switch to the maintenance mode so you do not have to switch from charger to maintainer. If you already have a 1-2 amp charger then the Junior version may be adequate for your needs.

You might want to go www.batterytender.com and read some of the articles and instructions there about charging and maintaining batteries.

I hope this helps.