Re-Poat

[chuckycheese]

Well, as some of you may recall, I'm getting ready to go on my annual trek to SE Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam and the Philippines) and will be gone until early March.

I plan to park both bikes in a garage and remove the batteries and put them on charger. Can I put them in sequence on one Battery Tender?..... or is that a bad idea?
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1980 GS750L...my 11th (and favorite) bike
1980 GS1100E..my 'new' (and possibly favorite) bike!

[bonanzadave]

Maybe in parallel. ???

Not in series.

[Steve]

I agree with parallel, rather than serial, but wonder what that would do to the batteries?

If you have a proper maintainer (not just a charger), it monitors battery voltage. With two batteries in parallel, if one battery has a higher discharge rate, it is going to drag down the other battery and kick on the charger.

I guess it would work, but since they are relatively inexpensive, why not just treat each battery to its own tender?


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[chuckycheese]

I agree with parallel, rather than serial, but wonder what that would do to the batteries?

If you have a proper maintainer (not just a charger), it monitors battery voltage. With two batteries in parallel, if one battery has a higher discharge rate, it is going to drag down the other battery and kick on the charger.

I guess it would work, but since they are relatively inexpensive, why not just treat each battery to its own tender?


.

Probably, not a bad idea, Steve...that Battery Tender Plus that I've been using has sure saved me at least a few batteries! I wish I would have bought one when I was in high school...(although, I feel sure they weren't invented yet!!)

[rphillips]

Wouldn't hook both to the same charger. For only a month or 6 wks, would rather hook one up & just let the other sit, that amount of time shouldn't hurt a thing

[chuckycheese]

Yeah!

Wouldn't hook both to the same charger. For only a month or 6 wks, would rather hook one up & just let the other sit, that amount of time shouldn't hurt a thing

Yeah, I suppose you're right. I guess I'll just have my Cutie switch them a time or two!

[Matchless]

Actually, using one charger is not an unusual way to charge a bank of batteries and there are two ways of doing this.
1) If you use a 12volt charger, then the batteries must be in parallel (pos to pos & neg to neg) and the charger will share its charging current with both batteries. You must use an intelligent charger and if the charger has the output capacity to trickle charge a larger capacity battery, as you now have 14 A/H time 2 = 28A/H and both batteries are in good condition you should not have any problems.
2) If you put the batteries in series then you need an 24v charger, which is not always so easily available off the shelf.

[bakalorz]

Well, as some of you may recall, I'm getting ready to go on my annual trek to SE Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam and the Philippines) and will be gone until early March.

I plan to park both bikes in a garage and remove the batteries and put them on charger. Can I put them in sequence on one Battery Tender?..... or is that a bad idea?

Assuming that both batteries are in ok shape and pretty much charged to begin with, you can charge them both in parallel no problem, see the battery tender faq question # 14 http://batterytender.com/faqs.php?os...bbf9939fccc5b9

[chuckycheese]

Thanks!

Thanks, to all of you!!:-D

[pntrdave]

Ok so would someone educate me. If he's only going to be gone a month to 6 weeks or so why not just pull the battery out of the bike set it on a shelf and when he gets back stick it on the charger for a bit and he's good to go. Although that still baffles me, my battery sits in my bike year round. When it's to cold to ride it sits there, as soon as the weather gets warm I go out and hit the button and it fires up and I go for a ride. Longest it's sat without starting is probably 3 weeks though. Even if it's to cold to ride I'll go out to the garage just to sit on it and warm it up every once in awhile.

[Matchless]

Ok so would someone educate me. If he's only going to be gone a month to 6 weeks or so why not just pull the battery out of the bike set it on a shelf and when he gets back stick it on the charger for a bit and he's good to go.

Actually you make a good point here. Putting a fully charged battery on the shelf for even 2 months or maybe more does not necessary mean that it will be too discharged to start the bike and then giving it a top up charge will bring it back to new again. On the other side of the coin it is quite amazing how much abuse (that is normally a theoretical no-no), a lead acid battery in practice can really take.

Most people just keep it topped up with battery water, give it a separate charge if not used every couple of months and replace when it starts giving starting trouble on cold days. Even so they usually get a good few years of service from a battery. They are supposed to be a consumable anyway. Some properly looked after batteries again can fail after a year or two and need replacement.