Charging the Battery

[slast]

Here's a simple one for the tech experts over here. Can I safely charge the battery using the leads that come out from under the air box? Do I need to disconnect a fuse or anything to the rest of the electrical system? Or do i have to fully remove the battery?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[black knight]

i do it this way all the time with my optimate charger

so yes you can of course pay attention the 2 leads don;t touch

cuz that can happen

 

[YammyRX1]

The Optimate also comes with a connector that you can attach right to the battery so you just plug it in without using clamps- very handy.

 

[black knight]

every time i have the battery out i think to instal the clip with the wires for the optimate
then my wife starts talking to me and i forget.
She's the devil.

 

[Blue Dave]

I re-wired my 12V socket direct to my battery with an inline fuse so that I can use my GPS with the engine off. This allows me to use the Optimate cig. lighter socket attachment to charge my battery.

 

[TBay Sledhead]

every time i have the battery out i think to instal the clip with the wires for the optimate
then my wife starts talking to me and i forget.
She's the devil.

She shouldn't be allowed in the garage except to bring refreshments.

 

[Ratpack]

Actually, if she bought him a fridge for the garage that would take care of all the problems. But then by the end of the night, he would forget to put the battery itself back in. So after careful thought, skip the fridge.

 

[Fusion]

I re-wired my 12V socket direct to my battery with an inline fuse so that I can use my GPS with the engine off. This allows me to use the Optimate cig. lighter socket attachment to charge my battery.

Very slick.
Wanna do mine - I'm only about 350 miles away probably.

 

[Ratpack]

Actually, if she bought him a fridge for the garage that would take care of all the problems. But then by the end of the night, he would forget to put the battery itself back in. So after careful thought, skip the fridge. But seriously, that is what those leads are for.

 

[black knight]

blue dave when i first got the sled she thought i should call the dealer and tell them that the sled was missing the cigaret lighter for the hole.
I said yah and this model was also suppose to have an ashtray shaped gas cap......
I better stop or I'll get nothing for x mas.

 

[Blue Dave]

I re-wired my 12V socket direct to my battery with an inline fuse so that I can use my GPS with the engine off. This allows me to use the Optimate cig. lighter socket attachment to charge my battery.

Very slick.
Wanna do mine - I'm only about 350 miles away probably.

Bring your sled over and I will take care of you! Seriously it is very easy and you can do it yourself if you have some basic electrical skills. Your local Radio Shack or any auto parts store should have what you need.

As you can see in the pictures I cut the wires to the stock accessory socket connector and I spliced on a two piece polarized connector. The other side of the connector is wired directly to the battery with an inline fuse on the positive wire. I always solder and heat shrink all of my electrical splices. I also could have cut the wires on the other side of the stock connector and used both halves of the stock connector but I wanted to add some extra length to make it easier to remove this panel. In line fuses hidden under the air box are a PIA to change so as you can see in the pictures I wired my inline fuse connector so that it is easily accessed by simply removing the right side panel.

Having the accessory socket hot all of the time (rather than only when the engine is running) is nice for using GPS or cell phone chargers while the sled is shut off. Before I added GPS to my sled I used to plug my heated shield into the accessory socket with an adapter as shown in the pictures. Having the accessory socket hot all of the time allowed me to keep my helmet shield hot and defrosted during trail stops. I have since wired in a dedicated always hot RCA jack connector for my heated shield.

 

[yamadoo]

Blue Dave that is so slick.

I love your organized shop as well. I wish I could get and stay organized like that.

Thanks for all the great tips

Yamadoo

 

[Fusion]

I re-wired my 12V socket direct to my battery with an inline fuse so that I can use my GPS with the engine off. This allows me to use the Optimate cig. lighter socket attachment to charge my battery.

Very slick.
Wanna do mine - I'm only about 350 miles away probably.

Bring your sled over and I will take care of you! Seriously it is very easy and you can do it yourself if you have some basic electrical skills. Your local Radio Shack or any auto parts store should have what you need.


Dave - you have a certain level of genius going on with that install. Very, very nice and quite convenient. You have talent.
I get anxiety attacks when attempting stuff like this, unless I have a very detailed instruction with a lot of study time before-hand, so I generally don't do it on my own.
I did install the Yamaheater on the '09 Vector, and that wasn't to bad. I didn't even screw anything up amazingly!