Flyinfool

I went the other way. I replaced every bulb on the bike and trailer with LED, The stock system now has plenty of spare power. With everything on the bike turned on it is still charging at idle. The electric brakes take less power that the Electric Anti Dive on the bike. so if you have gone progressive springs and unplugged the EAD, there is the power that the brakes need. How is that for swinging a hijack back on track?

Yes it will need a controller. I found a brake controller that I could mount on the trailer tongue in a water proof box. It has a wireless remote that I can put on the handle bars. This way I do not have to have the controller on the bike all the time when I am not using the trailer. Most of my riding is without the trailer. Brake controllers have a 4 wire hookup, power, ground, brake lights, and wire to the brakes. Power I can get from the running lights since they are on anytime the bike is running, Ground is obvious, brake light I can tap off of my high center brake light. Technically if you have trailer brakes you are supposed to have a breakaway switch (or device if you have surge brakes) and a battery on the trailer so that if the trailer ever comes off the hitch and the safety chains do not hold, it will lock the trailers brakes. I have not decided if I will do that or not. I may since I normally pack a battery for powering stuff in the tent. Having the battery wired in, it will be charging while traveling.

With the O-Rings it is an age thing, some of the 2nd gens are getting old enough now to start exhibiting age related issues.

There is another possibility. A slipping clutch. Get the bike going around 60 MPH in 5th gear, crack the throttle wide open. The tach and the speedo should both rise at the same rate, If you are getting a bit of slip or creep the tach will rise faster than the speedo.

Those nice square packs will also have a lot more wind resistance and you will notice that at the gas pump.

I still want to build a new axle for my HF trailer. It will then use standard bearings and seals available everywhere, and it will have electric brakes.

I have not heard of it on 2nd gens YET. But on the 1st gens when the O-Rings on the drain valve and thermostat get old they will get hard from age and leak only when the bike and air temp are cold. As soon as the bike warms a bit the O-ring gets soft and seals just fine. Mine would only leak when the temp got down under 40. It is only on cold days of the bike sitting and being ignored it will pee on the floor to try to get some attention.

I understand the time is money thing. But I do not think that U-haul or a topper shop have a line of vehicles waiting to get done where they can not afford the extra 5 minutes to do it right. Odds are that there is no next job lined up. On the day of my install I was the only customer in the place and the phone never rang for the whole 2 hours that I was there. So they really had nothing else pressing to do. and it is not like this was a cheapy, it is their most expensive model and it has almost all the options available. This was 3 years ago, so all but the glass shell is long out of warranty. Otherwise I would have gone back to make them do it right.

As Michal pointed out, you can sift these bikes without using the clutch. It does not take long to get the hang of just how much throttle to hold during the shift, up or down. If you are after heavy acceleration then you still want to use the clutch as the gears do not like being slammed in under full power. Once you learn to match RPMs to speed and gear, shifts will become just as smooth and noise free as when using the clutch. Like Michal mentioned, start out learning in the higher gears and then work your way down until you can do the 1-2 shift with no problems this will save a lot of wear and tear on your thumb. I used it a lot when I had a torn ligament in my left arm and barely had the grip strength to lift a 12oz can of soda. Another thing that can help is once you get a car or 2 behind you for protection at a red light, shift into neutral so you can let go of the clutch. OH! and stop hitting your thumb with the hammer while hammering leather.........

The speedo is driven off the front tire. So a different size front tire will change the speedo. A different rear end gear or tire size will have no effect on the speedo but will change the tach reading for a given speed.

I have to wonder if you some issue going on inside of the tank. With one bar showing in reality you have at least 1/4 tank of fuel remaining. My 88 has no issue running on the side stand with the bike pointed up an incline, and the warning light on. If that incline was causing an issue then you would have a fuel starvation issue during acceleration which can slosh the fuel back a lot farther than that incline.

The person that did the work was the owner of the business. No one higher up to complain to. Other people farther down in the food chain refused to believe that I had the work done there until they looked up the record to see who did it, at that point they just said oh, the boss does not normally do installs unless some one else did not show up that day and he was filling in on the shop floor, nothing they can do to over rule the boss. You almost had me back in rant mode. I just deleted an hours worth of typing from this post...............

This is starting to sound like a fish story to me.......

I hear you. My idea of storing the bike is some ethanol free gas with some Sea Foam, so it is ready to go at a moments notice. But this year it got put away for the long haul, last week it ate a front wheel bearing. So I have added that to my winter list of things to do. One never knows when we might sneak in a nice day or 3 around here.

Cowpuc, WHY do you even know that????

I did get the Clear View almost a year ago, at the time they had good reviews. I finally got around to installing it over the weekend, I can see where I do not think it is going to last real long the adhesive on the copper is not that great. But at least the hard part is done, running all of the wiring and doing it right, I brought in a heavy fused power buss right from the battery to a new terminal block under the dash. From there I tapped of another fused circuit thru a relay that is activated by the key. But at least now I have the terminal block for adding in other goodies down the road. But I am very interested in what you did for a rear wiper on your cap, That is my next project on the truck. I have almost all of the parts that I think I will need, A lot of the remaining is to get the courage to drill a big hole in the back of the window frame. Yes I know better than to drill tempered glass. Normally I do do it myself. Unfortunately there are some things that you do not have much choice, A pick up topper is one of those. The only way to load it on a pickup to bring it home is to install it. So by default they have to install it.

Knowing me WHY would You ask WHY?

I HATE when pinheads work on my stuff that don't know what they are doing. I went to install a rear window defogger on the rear window of the topper on my Pickup truck. While working on it I turned on the interior light of the topper. It did not go on. first thing to check is the bulb. bulb was black inside so I figure burnt out bulb, no big deal. Bought a new bulb, put it in, 2 minute job. flip the switch an it is still dark. Break out the volt meter and there is only 1.6V at the light socket. This is where the fun starts. I start checking stuff and the other end of the wire has 12V just like it should. After much checking all around I finally found it, the bozo that installed my topper did not have a piece of wire as long as my truck. He used a scotch lock as a wire splice, under the truck right where it will get blasted by salt spray all winter. Yup it was all corroded and that was the voltage drop. then I looked at how the wire was routed and decided that it was going to get snagged and ripped out anyhow. so I had to pull it out and replace with a new wire run correctly, I needed to run the wire to the back for the new defroster anyhow. It is just as easy to run 2 wires as it is one. BUT and we all know there is always a BUT. While running these new wires I found where this same installer tapped in for the High center mounted brake light....... Yup, more scotch locks, and the control module all located where the would get blasted with road salt. Right BEHIND the rear wheel. All the connections completely unprotected and very corroded. Another project to fix before I loose my brake or turn signals. I spent all day yesterday and today cleaning up the mess and getting my defroster installed. And I was able to do all this electrical work without using a single scotch lock. Go figure. Ok Rant Off........

And I ate some of a large dead animal for dinner tonight.

The factory pump does have 2 check valves, but they go the wrong way to prevent flow when off.

Why did this thread come back to life AGAIN?

You are definitely on the bleeding edge of where you are going with your Venture. I have been learning a lot following your adVentures. I have also been called a fool for trying to fix something that I could just buy new. I guess that is why my name is fool. But I can totally understand the why.

If there is someone that does not like the fact that you are a vet, just put them on ignore, and you will never see another one of their posts. As far as what you ride, just tell them right where to stick their opinion.

Those 2 check valves are what make the pump pump. As far as I know the factory pump does not have a positive shutoff because the float valves can stop the flow from the tank IF they are working correctly. I agree that having a pump with a positive shutoff will add a layer of safety, but if I have a problem with the floats overflowing, I will use a band-aid approach to get me home, but shutting off a valve, whether the petcock or a valve in the pump, is not a fix for the leaking float valve. The leaking float valve can cause issues even while running.

If there is brush to contend with I will be launching either a 438 grain or a 875 grain projectile.