Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[rayz1951]

I brought home my SEUC Dec. 31, 2007, so that makes the battery 3 1/2 years old.  It starts hard (grinding noise in starter, doesn't seem to have enough juice to turn it over)) when the bike sits for a week or two.  Should I be looking to replace the battery soon, or the starter.  Of course when I bring it to the dealer, to have them look at it, it dosen't do it.  They keep telling me it may be the battery. 

Ray Z

[VaEagle]

Bike batteries are much smaller than car/truck batteries so they don't last as long in general. Some mechanics have told me to replace the bike battery about every four years as preventative maintenance if you constantly use a battery tender on a daily basis, they say if you don't use the tender then you may have to change the battery every two to three years depending on you usage.
The batteries aren't cheap but it beats the cost of a breakdown on a trip.I would rather replace a battery at my choosing not in an emergency.
Your ride to the dealer may be just long enough to put a temporary charge on you battery.
Good luck.

[Rooster]

Have you upgraded to the SE Compensator Assembly yet. And do you use a battery tender. The battery tender alone will make your battery last longer and always ready to start especially when you have to let the bike set for a period of time. If you have the original Comp Assembly still the new SE version is a great upgrade and takes care of a lot of starting issues. But you should have an expert check it out for you.

[rayz1951]

I don't, usually, use the tender in the warmer months, because I ride every couple of days or so.  It's on it when I store it, or if I know I won't ride for more than a week.

It would be a good thing, probably, to get a new one just as preventive maintenance.  I would hate to get stuck somewhere.

Ray Z

[Cowboy2]

Hello Ray Z,
Battery technology and research is extreme in my Business with Outback Luxury live in Trailers called "Bushtracker" here in Australia.  We do all the R&D on this kind of technology and here is my advice for all of you HD Brothers to answer this:

First of all I miss the kicker days.  Even now I wish they had a decompression or spark retarding kicker system...  But anyway, if you are at say 3 1/2 years on a 4 year battery, and have not flattened it with a big stereo as a matter of course, then at 3 + years you have a gamble.  You do not want to run it until it lets you down and go into panic mode, so here is the cutting edge of when to go for it: Going into summer, you can gamble and run it, as an aging battery will often muddle through a summer start season.  But if your 3+ year old battery is going into the winter season, I would replace it.  The cold really affects them, harder starting, etc.  Sick and ageing batteries DIE in the winter, and that is when you want them the most...  When you calculate the cost of the battery over four years, and you are over 3 years say 3 1/2 going into winter, for the lousy $10 or $15 bucks it is just not worth the gamble...

  Hope this is a help.   Cowboy in Oz..

[Fired00d]

Hello Ray Z,
Battery technology and research is extreme in my Business with Outback Luxury live in Trailers called "Bushtracker" here in Australia.  We do all the R&D on this kind of technology and here is my advice for all of you HD Brothers to answer this:

First of all I miss the kicker days.  Even now I wish they had a decompression or spark retarding kicker system...  But anyway, if you are at say 3 1/2 years on a 4 year battery, and have not flattened it with a big stereo as a matter of course, then at 3 + years you have a gamble.  You do not want to run it until it lets you down and go into panic mode, so here is the cutting edge of when to go for it: Going into summer, you can gamble and run it, as an aging battery will often muddle through a summer start season.  But if your 3+ year old battery is going into the winter season, I would replace it.  The cold really affects them, harder starting, etc.  Sick and ageing batteries DIE in the winter, and that is when you want them the most...  When you calculate the cost of the battery over four years, and you are over 3 years say 3 1/2 going into winter, for the lousy $10 or $15 bucks it is just not worth the gamble...

  Hope this is a help.   Cowboy in Oz..

Is that taking into consideration of batteries being kept on a "battery tender"? I can understand them going bad in that amount of time if they aren't, but if a battery is maintained on a battery tender then it doesn't have the opportunity for the cells to die.

Everytime I read of posts like this makes me want to see just how long the stock battery on my 2004 (purchased 7/1/04) will last since it's been maintained on a tender since the day I purchased it.... but hell... I'm a thrillseeker... been running into burning buildings for the last 28 years when everyone else was running out.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

[Cowboy2]

Hey there Fired Up,

Look, you are the exception to the mean average.  In the other direction, someone that has run the battery flat many times running a big stereo on a Street Glide like mine, should be thinking 2 years.  In any case, if you have gotten far more than the normal battery life, even if you were maintained on solar like most of my Bushtracker Owners, at somepoint you should count your Blessings and replace it anyway.  Sounds to me like you are waaaaay out on borrowed time...  I mean in the scheme of things, what does a new battery and peace of mind cost?  I would certainly do it if I was leaving the area for a trip as it is parked up without the boost.   Otherwise enjoy the stretch, and do it at the FIRST sign of a sick crank over as you are on borrowed time. 

[Fired00d]

Hey there Fired Up,

Look, you are the exception to the mean average.  In the other direction, someone that has run the battery flat many times running a big stereo on a Street Glide like mine, should be thinking 2 years.  In any case, if you have gotten far more than the normal battery life, even if you were maintained on solar like most of my Bushtracker Owners, at somepoint you should count your Blessings and replace it anyway.  Sounds to me like you are waaaaay out on borrowed time...  I mean in the scheme of things, what does a new battery and peace of mind cost?  I would certainly do it if I was leaving the area for a trip as it is parked up without the boost.   Otherwise enjoy the stretch, and do it at the FIRST sign of a sick crank over as you are on borrowed time. 

Maybe... maybe not .. From the Battery Tender website...

What is the expected life of a H-D battery?


Proper care is the key to battery longevity. Laboratory tests have shown that consistent use of any Deltran Battery Tender can add as much as three to four times normal battery life (five to seven years is not unusual). What the lab tests can not prove is how vigilant one is about battery maintenance (if watering is required) and how much shake, rattle, heat, and cold the battery has been subjected.

If it were me, and I had five years of good service out of my battery, I would be hunting for a new one. What would I replace it with? Our theory is "if you have to fill it, forget it." In other words, stay with sealed maintenance free, most of the new maintenance free AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) batteries like the new Harley original equipment batteries are excellent. They never require watering and they come from the Harley dealer fully charged.

[/b][/i]
 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

[spydglide]

And remember that HEAT is more detrimental to batteries than COLD.  And big price increases in batteries, not just HD, guess it has something to do with petroleum.....so, get a battery tender, keep it hooked up if your not riding every day and even then if the rides are only a few miles in length.  My batteries last 5 to 7 years since I started following this regime.  spyder

[Cowboy2]

Fired Up,
It sounds like this "Battery Tender" is a fully automatic trickle charger switching on and off to keep the battery fully charged, like on an emergency crash cart at a hospital on a sealed battery.  If it is kept in this fully charged state, you are going to be in good shape leaving from home, and can quite conceivably get a couple extra years out of it.  To test it, try leaving it unplugged for a week to ten days and see if it drops off dramatically.  A lot of batteries will start if kept on a "tender" but when they are aged they will not "Hold" their charge as they get older.  It would progress to the point where in the aged state it would still start after hours down town, but overnight be down enough to be having problems, and a few days would not start the the HD.

If you were always leaving it on a full maintenance charge, you are right and you might get a couple of extra years out of it, alway starting there from home on the tender like your fully maintained fire trucks ready to go.  But a trip away off the tender, and it could be losing 1% of its charge per hour or more... Where a new battery might only lose 1% every couple of days and be OK for a couple of months and still start.   You get what I mean?  Start there from home OK, but on a trip it might let you down not plugged in..  

Spydy: You are right on excessive heat, called "heat degradation" and that shortens battery life as well with the wrong kind of charger.  It has to shut down or taper off the charge to nil, or the battery has to dissipate the energy you are pumping into it, by giving it off in heat.  That kind of wrong charging will also dramatically shorten battery life.  I hope this is a help.  We go through alomst a million a year in solar systems and R&D on this kind of stuff....

We have to be careful about these things in the Outback, and depend on solar more for that kind of maintenance.   If I had to stretch a battery life on a Tourer for some reason, my "battery tender" would probably be a Tour Pack rack mounted small solar panel and solar regulator to do just this same function keeping the battery tickled up if I was away on the road.         Hope this is a help..  Cowboy in Oz...

[rayz1951]

Thanks Cowboy,

I think I'll be stopping at the HD dealer and checking out their batteries.  It's like stretching out the life of a tire, how much is peace of mind worth? A few months more or less is not going to break the pocket book.

Ray Z

[Chains]

I got lucky, the last battery I had to buy died while I was at the dealer.  Had been having issues and kept trying to make a go of it.  Went to the dealer to pick up some parts, 45 minute ride.  Came out to leave and dead as could be.  Sure beat being broke down out in the boonies at night somewhere.

[Rooster]

This is year 8 on the battery on my 96 Wide Glide always left on the tender. Bike fires right up still. However it may be time to get a new one just because.

[Twolanerider]

AP Newsfeed (digital retinal feed via optinet) 23 Apr 2176

The Guiness Book of InterGalactic Records today has added one Firedood of old Virginia to its listing for having the longest lived AGM type old fashioned hard shell battery still in operation.  Mr. Firedood, operating keenly after only his second longevity treatment, credits this long life to a Battery Tender device.  There is a downside to Mr. Dood's maintenance of this antique system.  While all of the AmeroCanBritish Confederation on most of the rest of old earth has long switched to the EnviroPile of onsite sustainable local energy production for power generation Mr. Dood's "Battery Tender" device will not run on The Pile.  So he and he alone in the Confederation refused to accept the Government attempts to terminate the old fashioned electrical grid.  Since that divestiture, like the cessaation of all old tech programs, required Universal Acceptance under the plans passed by the New Progressives in 2077 maintaining Mr. Dood's Battery Tender has bankrupted three utitility companies, two state governments and costs the Confederation 10% of it's GDP.  We welcome Mr. Dood to Guiness World Records Family.

[spydglide]

AP Newsfeed (digital retinal feed via optinet) 23 Apr 2176

The Guiness Book of InterGalactic Records today has added one Firedood of old Virginia to its listing for having the longest lived AGM type old fashioned hard shell battery still in operation.  Mr. Firedood, operating keenly after only his second longevity treatment, credits this long life to a Battery Tender device.  There is a downside to Mr. Dood's maintenance of this antique system.  While all of the AmeroCanBritish Confederation on most of the rest of old earth has long switched to the EnviroPile of onsite sustainable local energy production for power generation Mr. Dood's "Battery Tender" device will not run on The Pile.  So he and he alone in the Confederation refused to accept the Government attempts to terminate the old fashioned electrical grid.  Since that divestiture, like the cessaation of all old tech programs, required Universal Acceptance under the plans passed by the New Progressives in 2077 maintaining Mr. Dood's Battery Tender has bankrupted three utitility companies, two state governments and costs the Confederation 10% of it's GDP.  We welcome Mr. Dood to Guiness World Records Family.

Here comes da bus.    har.  spyder