06 Venture overcharging.

[Steve S]

I have an 06 Venture Trike that is overcharging. On a 160-mile trip yesterday, I shut the bike down to go shopping. When I tried to start it, the battery had NO voltage in it at all. A very kind gentleman was kind enough to go home, bring his truck and jumper cables back to get me going. Since the battery is only a month old, I knew it shouldn't have died. I came back to the campground and parked it.  This morning I jumped it off to go the NAPA store to get a new battery.  The fuel light came on when I stopped last night, so I turned to tank to reserve to make sure I got to the store figuring to fuel after the battery change. Well, I didn't make it to the parts store before it shut down. I coasted into a used car lot and asked for some help. The mechanic there was kind enough to give me a gas can so I could walk next door and get gas. After putting gas in and checking everything out, I jumped the bike off and it fired right off. The mechanic got his voltmeter and checked the voltage, and it was charging at 18 volts.  THAT is why the new battery died so quickly. An alternator is to charge at 13.7 volts max. 

I didn't go after the battery. I brought the rig back to the RV and loaded it on the trailer.  I don't want to get stranded a hundred miles from home like we were yesterday on our ride.  I feel we were blessed to have made it back to Durango before the battery failed.  

Steve

[PastorCurt]

Have you switch to all led lights? My sister in law put a led headlight on her Honda and all was well until she went on a long ride. The battery failed and swelled up from the heat of overcharging. Got a new battery and 150 miles down the road the same thing happened. They figured out that the regulator couldn’t dump enough power so it failed from the heat as well. Answer to the problem was to move the regulator into the air stream and add a couple more lights. 

[Steve S]

I have switched to all LED.  I will check that out before I do anything drastic. 

Thanks.

Steve