Battery Maintainers
 

Hi everyone, its starting to get cold & I'm contemplating winterizing my bike. I realized yesterday my very old charger is for lead-acid batteries. So I've got 2 questions. What maintainers work best, & in a very cold climate is it okay to leave the Batt. in the bike or is it best to put it in the house for the winter ? Thanks everyone.

Hi John , I use one of these . They cost around $50 and all I do is plug it in and leave it until spring . I keep my shop heated throughout the winter so I just leave the battery in the bike . If your keeping your bike in a non heated area I would suggest taking the battery in the house .

I still use the one I bought 8 years ago . Bike fires up first try every season . . . :tup:

http://products.batterytender.com/Ch...12V-0-75A.html

I use a Shumacker maintainer I buy at Walmart.
Have 4 bikes and a Ferris mower.
They sit in an unheated garage all winter with the battery still in them.
I leave a maintainer on each of them all the time and never start the bikes or mower once they are put up for the winter.
I fill them with non ethanol gas and use Stabil gas stabilizer.
I live in the Tug Hill region of central NY and never had a problem with any of them starting in the spring.

I have a garage full of schumacher floating chargers. Pay shipping and I will send you one on the house. They work ok, some I have been using for decades, some are 10 years old new in the box as I bought out a dealer in distress and bought a moving van full of motorcycle parts/tools. When I bought my previous bike (Goldwing F6B ) it came with a CTEK (56-865) .8 amp charger installed by the dealer. I was leary of it but it was able to bring back batteries that died with various schumacher and "battery tender" brand chargers connected to them getting another couple seasons of battery life out the installed batteries. They also make an extreme weather model that I use on my generator that is permanently mounted outdoors.The connectors are not the standard type used on other chargers and are a bit more expensive. I have converted the four motorcycles and Charger SRT8 in my garage to CTEK chargers also over the last year.

I've got a couple, the Battery Tender brand as well a s Schumacher. Bike is in a non-heated garage with the battery left in it. Also keep my diesel yard tractor as well as my zero turn the same way, battery in and always plugged in.................Mike

The Schumacher maintainers have served me well for years.

As did mine up until last year.
I had a 6-12V model and somehow during the winter, the switch screwed up and it was only delivering 6V. New AGM battery was dead as a nit and wouldn't even start the tender, had to hook it up to a 2A charger for half hour or so to get it going. It came back (with a new maintainer) and has worked flawlessly since.........Mike

I use a battery tender junior from amazon $26 on the 900 since I don't drive it much, didn't do it last year and ruined the battery, I drive the voyager year round so don't use one on that bike

Johnny Y, your charger is on the way.

Very nice of you Gunner :tup:

Thanks.