Dead Battery

[V7Goose]

After all test (load and charging), it appears the battery may be going. I placed the battery on charge to ensure it was fully charged and 2 hours after taking it off the charger the DC volts reading was 12.6. 16 hours after charging it read 12.43V and almost 20 hours after it reads 12.41V

12.4 volts is below 50% charge for a VRLA battery (the type of battery used in the RSV), so if a fully charged battery is already below 50% in one day, that is totally unacceptable. A Lead-Calcium battery should take EIGHT to TEN MONTHS of sitting to discharge that much!

 

It seems that your best course of action is to replace the battery, and now start paying attention to the resting voltage to detect problems with keeping your battery at full charge that will destroy it long before its time. Good Luck,

Goose

 

BTW - since your bike is only a 2010 model, it may be worth your time to tell your dealer you expect this to be taken care of under warranty (note that I did not say "ask"). If you read the actual wording of the warranty, the only exclusion for the battery is if it is stored improperly (just going from memory here), so you have a very strong argument that there must be something either wrong with the original battery or the bike for it to have failed so soon.

 

Update:

Just went and checked the exact wording - the specific exclusion is: "Battery deterioration caused by improper storage or maintenance." And by their actually including this exclusion, they prove that ANY other battery problems ARE covered under the standard warranty. If they try to weasel out of it, they have to prove that the problem was caused by "improper maintenance or storage."

Edited July 30, 2012 by V7Goose

[ScottW]

thanks goose

 

That is my next course of action

[dacheedah]

I love it when a plan comes together, keep us posted on the stealers responce

[bamico]

ScottW,

 

I get ~2-3 years out of a battery on my RSV. I run passing lamps in the front, an Ipod and a GPS. It is not unusual after the first year for me to run into bouts of hard starts if the bike has been sitting 2-3 weeks. Just to make it worse, much of my riding is 2-3 miles, at low speed, so the battery often doesn't get a chance to charge.

 

Asked my indpependant bike mechanic about it and he suggested the trickle charger. Works great. I installed the pig-tail on the battery, and I plug in the trickle charger once a week or so. Keeps the battery nicely charged and now the bike always starts strong.

 

I believe the electical system on the RSV is pushing the limit of the battery. Especially with some of the accesssories I mentioned. If you poke around on this site, I'm sure you'll find a number of posts regarding this issue.

 

The Battery Tender was well worth the $. Interested to see how much additional life I get out of the battery now.

 

Hope this helps.

 

BobA

[ScottW]

ScottW,

 

 

The Battery Tender was well worth the $. Interested to see how much additional life I get out of the battery now.

 

Hope this helps.

 

BobA

 

I think I may go ahead and add that after I get a new battery.

[bongobobny]

Do you have a GPS on the bike?? If so where is it wired, across the battery or on the ignition switch?? I found out the hard way do not wire it across the battery, it will drain it within a week...

[ScottW]

Do you have a GPS on the bike?? If so where is it wired, across the battery or on the ignition switch?? I found out the hard way do not wire it across the battery, it will drain it within a week...

 

 

No GPS. The only thing I've added since I bought the bike new are the driving lights and the isimple. Itry to make sure the ipod is unplugged after riding. A few times this has been left plugged in over night. But, the next day the bike started up without any indication of a low battery.

 

I've been thinking of adding the Strobinator for the rear. I'm a little unsure of that because of the battery.

[Cougar]

Did I tell you how much I love my Battery Bug ?

and my new HO Stator and my new MOSFETs RR ?

I gots volts coming out of my now !

[ScottW]

Where did you get the HO Stator from and how difficult was it to install?

[Cougar]

Got it from Buckeye. and the install well lets say about an 7 on the hard scale

but I have tons of photos now still have not done the write up on it yet.

 

the RR can be had by SkyDoc or Buckeye..

 

The new RR will make the HO stator work like it should for its output.

 

Feel free to call me anytime if you ever do this project,.

 

As far as the Battery Bug it tells my 24/7 exactly what is going

on with my battery even with the bike turned off. it also shows

how much cranking amps are left as well. I am doing test with

the Odyssey and the Deka battery's now.

Jeff