Battery Charger/Charging/Testing Modification?

[Gregory]

78GS1000 here....

Has anyone with a standard air box ever rigged up anything convenient for putting a charger to the battery.... without having to remove the airbox?

The only thing I have come up with is to use a needle nose vise grip, but it is a little precarious and easy to crossover and spark accidentally.

[cowboyup3371]

I'm not sure about the placement of the battery on your bike but mine sits on the left side. The charger has a cable that you can leave attached to the battery and then clip onto your frame rail. All I have to do is pull of the side cover and then clip the charger to the cable end.

[Gregory]

On mine the R/R and fuse box with large backing plate get in the way of accessing the battery terminals from the left side, and the airbox is in the way on the right side.

I can clip a needle nose vise grip to the top of the bolt that is on the end of a red wire (cannot see it in picture).

[Nessism]

It takes less than 1 min to remove the rear airbox section. I suppose you could connect your charger to the starter solenoid, but then you have to remove the side cover which is not much easier to remove than the airbox.

[koolaid_kid]

I use a pigtail, Hopkins #47965. You can find it in the trailer wiring section. I mount it to the battery using ring connectors, and my battery tender has the same type connector. When not using it, I tuck it under the airbox. To charge the battery, just pull it out, connect the tender, and you are GTG.

[Steel Toed Tank]

I have a 12v power outlet (cigarette lighter socket) wired into my battery with the positive wire fused and switched. It worked for powering my cooler bag, powering and charging my devices, and as I found out also works for battery tending.

[Gregory]

It takes less than 1 min to remove the rear airbox section. I suppose you could connect your charger to the starter solenoid, but then you have to remove the side cover which is not much easier to remove than the airbox.

For me it is much easier to remove the sidecover, than the stock airbox.

sidecover removal / replacement -

• one bolt/screw to remove
• one bolt/screw to replace

airbox removal / replacement -

• open seat/remove bolt/unscrew clamp/ take out breather (and bike does not run right with breather off)
• struggle to get breather properly seated in hose/ tighten clamp/ tighten bolt

[Gregory]

Those are good ideas.

Although, if stranded with a dead battery, how would you put standard jumper cables to it?

[posplayr]

I have a 12v power outlet (cigarette lighter socket) wired into my battery with the positive wire fused and switched. It worked for powering my cooler bag, powering and charging my devices, and as I found out also works for battery tending.

+1 , this is what I do.