Cheap digital voltmeter

[midnightventure]

I was wondering around Wal-Mart today looking at clearance items. They had a Minnkota digital battery gauge for $9.00. It was designed to touch one probe to the hot and one to the ground to test a battery. I opened it up and soldered a red and a black wire into the right places, hooked it up to that worthless outlet under the seat and velcroed it to the tank bib. I now have a digital voltmeter with LED lights for $9.00. I had been wanting one so I could tell if I was overloading the system when I was using my electric vest and gloves with the passing lights but I didn't want to spend as much as a system like the Kuryakin costs. The Minnkota was built to monitor a trolling motor.

[Eck]

Sounds like the price is right to me....

So are you over loading your system with all your heated clothes?

[midnightventure]

Voltage not running with no passing lights or heated clothing.12.5v

Voltage running with no passing lights or heated clothing.13.7v

Running with passing lights.13.5v

Running with passing lights and heated vest 13.2v and then the voltage kept slowly dropping. Within 10 miles it was down to 12.2 v so I started turning the vest off some. The battery has never gone dead except for when the original was almost 5 years old.

3-16-08

I disconnected the carb heaters yesterday. Today I went for a 220 mile ride and ran the electric cloths all the way. Stayed at 13.4 to 13.6 volts all day.