Trickle charging more than one bike | GTAMotorcycle.com

Trickle charging more than one bike

jemberlin

jemberlin

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For those of you with two or more bikes, how do you deal with trickle charging the over the winter? Do you have a charger on each bike?

I have the Battery Tender Jr on one of my bikes but picked up another one early in the Spring. Is there a splitter I can buy so this trickle charges two batteries or do I need to buy an additional charger?

 
I'm not a huge believer in constant trickle charging. If you believe in trickle charging and assuming there are no underlying gremlins that should have been fixed, flipping the charger to the other bike every week or two should work well to keep both ready to go.

You could put multiple batteries in parallel but the charger obviously can't tell them apart so if one is having issues it may absorb all the current (or none of it).
 
Yeah, I think you would be best off just swapping the battery being charged every two weeks.
 
I have a separate smart charger for each battery. I no longer use the traditional 'trickle' chargers as they supply a constant charge which I have been told can lead to over-charging.
 
I use a splitter cable that allows both my bikes to stay on trickle ... checked Amazon and can't find something similar and can't recall where I bought it from at the moment.
 
The chargers are cheap enough and the Battery Jr ones come with a pretty decent SAE lead. I just left the battery to SAE lead plugged in and tucked it away under the seat. There are also lots of 12V accessories you can put an SAE lead on, like USB chargers. Most chargers like the Jr have float mode which is different from just overcharging the battery as it monitors battery voltage. At .75amps max draw, you can just use a normal surge strip/power bar and plug in a bunch of the chargers, one for each bike. However, depending on the always on electronics of your bike (ie, keyless, gps/theft, etc), you shouldn't need a battery maintainer from Nov -> March.

Keep in mind, we're talking lead acid AGM and if you have a LiPo battery, then you should look at LiPo specific long term storage solutions(ie, unplug it, take it inside and it'll still have enough charge come spring).
 
An "automatic" battery charger regulates it's output dependent on the internal resistance of the battery.
If you hook two batteries up to it, it's output uses an average of the two batteries resistance, so it over charges one battery and under charges the other. (< overly simplified explanation)
There are multiple output chargers, but the regulator circuits on a battery charger is the most expensive part of the charger, so they're NOT cheap.
 
I have multiple street and track bikes, and I don't own a trickle charger.

All of them have lithium-ion batteries.

When I'm done riding the bike for the last time each season, I switch the bike off and park it.

The next year, I put some gas in the tank, and start it. No trickle-charging needed. If it needs a boost to get going (usually not), so be it.

I'm convinced that trickle-chargers kill more batteries than they save.
 
bitzz said:
We spend WAY TOO MUCH time and effort on "maintenance free".
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And money. A multi-hundred dollar multi-head charger probably costs more than it will ever save in extended battery life and that's not even looking at the power required to run it.
 
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Brian P said:
I'm convinced that trickle-chargers kill more batteries than they save.
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Well, not in my experience. I've used a BT Junior smart charger on the ST for 18 seasons. OEM Yuasa lasted 9 seasons, its replacement 8 seasons. Both replaced as a PM item, not because they failed. Pretty good for the $30 I paid in 2003, now about $40 I think.

Trickle charger and smart charger are not the same thing. Never leave a battery on a trickle charger.

Purchased a new Optimate on sale at GP earlier this season for $53, taxes in as the old BT Jr. went with the ST.

If I had 2 bikes I'd just get a second smart charger vs. having to remember to switch them every week or couple of weeks, but that's just me.
 
I use a smart charger occasionally over the winter. I put it on the battery in the bike and as soon as it switches from Charge to Float Mode, I remove it.
 
Buy a separate pigtail plug in for each bike and rotate them with your battery mate. Once the green light goes on, move to the next bike.
 
Definitely get a smart charger that automatically adjusts the amps and volts based on battery charge level. Battery Tender is a brand name by Deltran. I have a few of those in various sizes, but tend to prefer my CTEK 3300 which has more advanced features and a reconditioning mode.
 
I have four smart chargers (One car, one boat battery, two motorcycles). They only come on when the battery drops below a certain voltage. I only use my trickle charger (its a setting on my auto-booster/charger) if I'm bringing a battery that has been run way down back to life. The Li-ion batteries are the way to go now, if you have a more recent bike because they don't lose their charge for a long, long time.
 
I don’t touch my batteries, I do start each bike and let it run till warm at least once a month.

My batteries last years. My fjr is on its 8th season, never had the battery out of the bike, my Vstrom is in its 5th season, still on its original battery.
 
Relax said:
Definitely get a smart charger that automatically adjusts the amps and volts based on battery charge level. Battery Tender is a brand name by Deltran. I have a few of those in various sizes, but tend to prefer my CTEK 3300 which has more advanced features and a reconditioning mode.
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FWIW, I have a lawn tractor battery on a small CTEK to run the lift in the garage. It was homebuilt and built is a 12V lift. I don't want the battery to be dead when I try to move it. Battery went in almost two years ago and so far so good.
 
jemberlin said:
For those of you with two or more bikes, how do you deal with trickle charging the over the winter? Do you have a charger on each bike?

I have the Battery Tender Jr on one of my bikes but picked up another one early in the Spring. Is there a splitter I can buy so this trickle charges two batteries or do I need to buy an additional charger?

Click to expand...

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