beamer_bear Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Hey gang, does anyone have any experience hooking up a Battery Tender to the bike? With my Triumph Sprint, I just hooked up the BMW plug on the Battery Tender into the accessory socket and it charge. When I hook it up to the accessory plug on the Beamer, the key has to be on to send current from the charger to the battery. Is there an easy way around this other than connecing an SAE plug to the battery? Thanks in advance for your feedback. Barry Link to comment
bobiverson Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Unless I don't understand what you are asking, you should just be able to plug in the battery tender to the accessory socket and it will charge/tend it. Note: The dealer has informed me that BMW has changed the type of tenders they use (with the new gel batteries) now twice. I just bought a new tender from BMW this spring for my 2000 (after I had a new gel battery installed), but this unit is NOT good for the R12RT. They claim that the only way I can use it is to attach the leads directly to the battery, and not use the accessory plug (which is what you might be getting at). Apparently, only the VERY LATEST battery tender from BMW will charge via the accessory plug. Who the hell knows why... BOB Link to comment
bmwscoot Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Bob.. As I understand this issue: The CanBus shuts off the accessory socket so the accessory socket is not a good choice for charging with a regular Battery Tender. The high-buck BMW battery charger lets the CanBus know you want to use the accessory outlet to charge the battery after you do the pre-dance routine....key on, plug in high zoot BMW charger, then key off. I think that is how it is supposed to work, but I have yet to try this. If you run a charger right to the battery, and avoid the CanBus wiring, you should be OK. Link to comment
bobiverson Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Hi, Jeff -- Thanks! So, I guess what you're saying is... it will only work if I give a bunch more money to BMW? Go figure... Thanks for the help -- now I know I have to save up again (foolish me, I just ordered 3 keys for my new RT, and it ended up costing me about 175 freakin' bucks. What is UP with dat?!?!?) Link to comment
MarcV125 Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 take out your battery and plug it up to a normal tender..then when your ready put the battery back in. Your fine.....A regular tender will not work through the socket w/ the canbus system, but the new BMW tender will work through it.. I say just keep your old tender and take the battery out... Link to comment
bmwscoot Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Bob... It's a BMW...cost bux! BTW, I just phone-ordered up about $1100 worth of farkles from Chi-Town BMW. Trunk, tank bag, charger, head protectors, bag protectors...and on, and on... Would have been $1400 at my dealer, as they don't seem to want to offer any discount...oh yeah, we also have 6.5% sales tax on the stuff here. And YES, I bought the BIG BUX charger, what the h*ll at this point. Link to comment
CopsRT Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Just add an additional acc plug in wired directly to the battery, and then plug in your gel type BMW charger as usual. This way you have a plug in for any other items such a camp lights, cell phones, etc that you want charging even after the bike is off. I have already added 2 extras for the above uses. Link to comment
David_S Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Ditto what copsRT said. I ordered a socket from powerlets and installed it in the mounting hole in the tail section. Looks factory except I ran it strait to the battery and use a tender with no problems. Link to comment
Brimoon Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 Does this help? it came out in June '05 and does not included information on the newest and most expensive ($200+) BMW battery charger. Sorry, I don't have any information on the new one. - Brian Link to comment
R4ND0M_AX3 Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 Does this help? it came out in June '05 and does not included information on the newest and most expensive ($200+) BMW battery charger. Sorry, I don't have any information on the new one. - Brian I posted that and check for new buletins regularly. I haven't seen anything for a different more expensive charger. Unless your talking about the shop one that hooks up to more than one bike at a time. Link to comment
Brimoon Posted November 13, 2005 Share Posted November 13, 2005 Thanks for posting that bulletin orginally - I'm sorry I didn't know to whom to give credit. I'm not sure what happened to the more expensive charger, but it was around about three months ago; my dealer actually had one which I saw and there was some talk about it on this list. I suspect that BMW Motorrad U.S. decided not to sell it here. In addition to being very expensive, it's native plug was the standard European two round prong type for 220 volts. However, it came with adapters for a N. American standard 120 volt plug and a GB three prong plug. Instead of colored lights, it had a little display screen that showed where it was in the charging cycle. That's my story and stick'n to it! Brian Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.