Hello All! (RT questions)

[wardyRT]

I've finally tired of my love/hate relationship w/ my GT. The decision (after 30K) to terminate our acquaintance was reached at a stop light yesterday with gasoline from a faulty fuel sensor seal streaming down the side of my hot motor. This after oil leaks, clutch replacement, burned out headlight bulb, My questions (finally) are: Can you wire directly off the battery to power an Autocomm and a GPS? Also, an extra powerlet maybe as I see the stock ones only bear 5 amps? My second choice is a new GS, minus the tupperware, the maintenance is the same, no? Looking forward to your responses, thanx.

[David_S]

I came off the battery to a marine grade fuse box powered up by a relay tapped into the rear accessory wire so the fuse box is powered on and off with the key. XM & V1 came off the fuse box. Additional power outlets could be powered from here also.

GPS comes off of the battery. I installed a rear power outlet direct to the battery so I can use a tender rather than the high dollar BMW charger. Gerbings is powered from the battery also via a permanently mounted controller and comm system (RP1) is battery powered. Pretty much anything that works on the 12RT will also work for the 12GS as most of this stuff I took off the 12GS I traded on the RT but there is more room for adding stuff on the RT.

[cranezilla]

www.casporttouring.com offers a fuse box connector which attaches directly to the battery and uses a relay to turn it on and off with the ignition, it contains one circuit that is turn off with the ignition on and on with the ignitioon off to attach a battery tender.

It contains six additional circuits. I have one on my Harley for 2 years now and have ordered one to install on the R12RT for all the additional circuits I might need.

Makes just one connection to the battery and six additional idividually fused circuits and a battery maintainer circuit.

[David_S]

Another option would be theTPS 15 CAN Bus Output Helper. It's made for the GS but should work fine for the 12RT

[wardyRT]

Thanks, guys. Those are all good ideas. I especially like the idea of not having to wire in a fused pigtail directly to the battery or fusebox (as I have now). It gets confusing sometimes keeping the wire tangle straight.

[PaulW42]

Both my GPS (done by dealer) and Autocom (done by Autocom)are wired into the wires leading to the accessory sockets. Saves extra fuseboxes, etc.

 

Paul

[David_S]

Both my GPS (done by dealer) and Autocom (done by Autocom)are wired into the wires leading to the accessory sockets. Saves extra fuseboxes, etc.

 

Paul

 

I like to have the GPS wired to the battery so it doesn't go off at every stop.

[JamesB]

FWIW, I think David_S made a particularly good suggestion. I bought the higher priced charger through BMW to charge the battery through the front accessory outlet. I find that the system shuts off its access to the battery after charging.

 

IMHO, having a charger appropriate for a gel battery, a relay controlled accessory bus and a rear outlet that can handle higher amps (and also give the charger unfettered access to the battery) is a much better value.

[ahllev]

I find that the system shuts off its access to the battery after charging.

 

 

what exactly do you mean when you say "I find that the system shuts off its access to the battery after charging"........I too am using the BMW charger and was unaware of problems

[David_S]

I find that the system shuts off its access to the battery after charging.

 

 

what exactly do you mean when you say "I find that the system shuts off its access to the battery after charging"........I too am using the BMW charger and was unaware of problems

 

I may be wrong but I think what he means is that after the battery is charged the bike shuts down the circuit to the charger (accessory socket). It makes the BMW battery charger a very expensive charger but will not allow it to act as a maintainer like a tender. Makes it pretty much useless to me since the only time I use a charger / maintainer is during winter storage.

[JamesB]

This may be "unique" to my bike, but as David said, after the battery is charged and the charger should go into tender/maintenance mode, the lights on the charger seem to indicate that it has lost connection with the battery--implying that the bike shut off the circuit.

 

With an older style of gell approved charger, once the one minute shut down had passed, the bike cut connections and wouldn't even let it charge the battery. So, the expensive charger is an improvement. But on my bike, it doesn't seem to continue with its "tender" (versus calloused) function.

[Ken H.]

Run a charging lead directly to the battery and be done with it.

 

All this BMW hokeyness with shutting down the accessory socket, special chargers to keep it open, etc. is just that. Simple solutions for simple problems I say!