Juice

[Maximum]

Looking for a little of your collective knowledge, again. My '07 spent the winter nursing on its battery tender. Now that I'm riding (sporadically), I still plug it back in after a ride. Well, every time, the battery takes a charge--and not just for a few minutes. Hours. Doesn't seem right--or am I wrong. And if I'm right, how do I find out whether it's the battery or the charging system?

Thanks in advance.

Chris.

 

[maleko89]

Chris, go through the fault finding diagram. That'll help you fix whatever needs a fixin'.

 

[PATMAX]

Hi Chris, I could not tell if you are reporting a battery deficiency or just don't like to hook up the battery. Depending on which Tender you have, you get a higher amperage charge initially which in essence recharges the battery and then it goes into a maintenance or trickle mode to keep the battery peaked out. Batteries lose charge just sitting and hooking up the Tender ALL the time is preventing the dreaded sulfation occurring in/on the plates in the battery. Nothing wrong there, sounds like it is working as it should. Now if you are hooking up the battery all the time and have starting issues, you need to look at the battery and charger.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

A real battery tender is going to want to drive to voltage to close to 14.5-14.9 volts by using a constant current, once that voltage is reached, then it backs the current off to a small amount and holds the battery around 13.2-13.3 and keeps it there indefinitely.

Are you looking at the status light and seeing that it never gets to the float stage? or what are you looking at that tells you it's not finishing charging?

Before you can do anything meaningful as far as troubleshooting you need to get a digital volt meter.

Quite simply tho' if your battery is sitting at least at 12.6-12.7 after being left alone overnigh OFF the charger it's probably OK, if it starts the bike fine after sitting overnight that's another "good" indicator.

With the meter on the battery, takes note of the voltage, then watch the meter while you start the bike, if the voltage dives to less than 10.5-10.0 then your battery may be getting weak on you.

Once the bikes running the battery voltage ought to rise to at least 13.0 or higher which would indicate that the bike is charging it.

A perfectly healthy system on the Max really ought to make at least 13.4-13.6 at idle or just slightly above idle.

 

[Maximum]

Okay, then from what you guys tell me, it sounds like I was worried for nothing. The Max runs fine, and starts fine. The tender light shines green, but only after several hours of orange right after I replug after a ride. But if it is as you say, Rusty, it sounds like I don't have a problem. I've got a digital volt/ohm, so I'll check out the voltage and see what's what. Thanks for the help. I can turn nuts and bolts, but electricity is not my thing. Changing batteries in a flashlight is a big deal, to me.

Thanks again.

 

[113s&s]

tender i have will cycle 8 hours before showing its on storage weather its a fully charger battery or not...if i kill the power and turn it on again it cycles the 8 hours again before it goes to storage have a tender 6 amp charger

 

[Maximum]

tender i have will cycle 8 hours before showing its on storage weather its a fully charger battery or not...if i kill the power and turn it on again it cycles the 8 hours again before it goes to storage have a tender 6 amp charger

That's good to know--thanks.