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Battery Tender (Optimizer) Yes or No???

J

JOHNNYREDPEN

Member
When I bought my RK new in 2009 the HD dealer gave me an optimiser and said "Put the bike on it every time you get home and leave it on all the time".. which I pretty much have done. However another mechanic recently said "You only need to put the bike on the optimiser if you are not riding it for about two weeks and put it on in the winter when the bike is off the road."
my bike is now 51/2 years old and it still has the original battery which is still working perfectly.


I would appreciate your views on the above conflicting statements please.
Thanks
Johnny Red Pen:dknow
 
WOW,

5 1/2 years is GREAT BUT close to The time it MAY go ??? You Know....:rofl

I would agree When you are riding your bike every day or two or even once a week, You'll find the battery stays up... (I Do) and Not needed on a trickle Charger... I would only hook up after a week sitting...

Now Many Riders will disagree with me (fine) and Will hook up every day and that is Just THEIR way... :s

I ride so much, (warm Az.) I Don't even have a hook-up on my 09 King..

But Different on my my 06 Sport 1200 R... seldom ridden and Kept on the Trickle Charger full time...:D

Your Battery at 5 1/2 years IS about Over Due... No Matter how it was kept charged... Don't get caught miles out and the Battery goes DEAD:small3d023:

signed....BUBBIE
 
I've always hooked mine up after every ride. the tender will bring it back to a full charge and keep it there without overcharging.

1st guy is correct.
 
I pretty much do the same as Bubbie. My original battery started getting weak after 5 years (still works fine in the lawn tractor), and Deka batteries only get me about 2 years. I would continue doing what got you 5 yrs. of service, it seemed to work.
 
Interesting. I may just have to keep my battery on the tender all the time now. I ride almost daily and usually is 1 1/2 hours minimum so I don't worry about a couple short hops draining the battery. If I'm not riding in more than 3 days, though, I put it on the tender and also change the battery out at the beginning of every other spring regardless.
 
I believe in keeping my bikes' batteries on a tender - especially large touring bikes with lots of electrical demands.

Having said that, all my previous bike up to this one have usually switched from red LED to green LED after a few hours of charging after riding home from work. This bike's battery ('12 UC) does not switch from red to green, even after being on for a couple of days!! I even tried taking the negative lead off the battery and hooking up a charger for an hour to make sure the battery was completely charged.

Is that an indication that the battery is getting close to the end? Never had this issue before.

Cheers,

TQ
 
TQuentin1 said:
I believe in keeping my bikes' batteries on a tender - especially large touring bikes with lots of electrical demands.

Having said that, all my previous bike up to this one have usually switched from red LED to green LED after a few hours of charging after riding home from work. This bike's battery ('12 UC) does not switch from red to green, even after being on for a couple of days!! I even tried taking the negative lead off the battery and hooking up a charger for an hour to make sure the battery was completely charged.

Is that an indication that the battery is getting close to the end? Never had this issue before.

Cheers,

TQ
Click to expand...


Have You checked Your fuse on the pigtail to Your battery?
 
TQuentin1 said:
I believe in keeping my bikes' batteries on a tender - especially large touring bikes with lots of electrical demands.

Having said that, all my previous bike up to this one have usually switched from red LED to green LED after a few hours of charging after riding home from work. This bike's battery ('12 UC) does not switch from red to green, even after being on for a couple of days!! I even tried taking the negative lead off the battery and hooking up a charger for an hour to make sure the battery was completely charged.

Is that an indication that the battery is getting close to the end? Never had this issue before.

Cheers,

TQ
Click to expand...

My tender has red/yellow and green. When my battery went south on me it went from solid yellow to flashing yellow which indicated the battery was junk.
 
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