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Twisted Throttle/Bags Connection Wiring Defect

racer7

New member
Don't know if this is common but a reversed wire color code on an electrified Bags Connection tank bag adapter from Twisted Throttle caused the destruction of a cell phone charger. Perhaps some of the rest of you have run into this. Others who are buying electrified tank bags of this type should be aware that they may receive wiring adapters with reversed color code that could damage some types of items.

These bags use bullet connectors through a bottom hole that the owner has to drill in the interior plastic plate to pull the wiring through from the base that mounts around the gas tank. This allows the possibility for an error in polarity when connecting because there are two female connectors on the bag end of the wiring. Polarity is correct at bag side female connectors on my installation - red is positive and black is negative as is expected.

To supply power to an I Phone charger, I connected a bullet to SAE adapter to the tank bag and that is where the problem occured because its wiring color code is reversed. This connector supplied by TT had a brown wire that should be positive and a red wire that should be be negative to have correct polarity at the SAE end when plugged into the bag. (i.e. To be correct you have to plug a brown adapter wire into the bags red wire and a red adapter wire into the bags black wire. The adapter is wired reverse of normal practice.) The cell phone charger (not the cell phone) got destroyed because I simply matched color codes and plugged it in - so the charger saw reversed polarity until I unplugged the bullets and cross connected the colors as described above.

I call this a supplier mistake - one does not expect to have to verify polarity on commercially supplied items meant for 12V negative ground systems. It will be interesting to hear what TT has to say about it.

Anyway- a warning to those installing new electrified bags from TT / Bags Connection. While the bags appear to be wired OK you should be aware that you may get adapters with reversed wiring codes from them. (I'm betting these adapters come from a different supplier than the bags - its hard to imaging the bag maker deliberatly making a reversed color code accessory). Verify your polarities before connecting anything. This should also serve as a warning to avoid cell phone chargers without reverse polarity protection built in, even if its destructive to the charger. It is very likely an IPhone could been fried had the charger not cut out when seeing reverse polarity.

The bags have another property that owners should be aware of that is part of their normal design (that is not a defect). The bag connectors are electrically live any time the bag is on the connector if you have installed the bag harness to the bike battery as many do.
This adds to parasitic draw on the battery so the bag should not be left on the bike for extended periods unless the bike is connected to a charger. This property can be avoided by clipping the supplied ring connectors from the bag harness and simply installing it direct to switched power from a fuse block. In principle you could do the same by tapping into a switched bike circuit that can carry the extra 5A that the fuse for these bags allows. However, BMW bike wiring is often a gage or 2 on the small side of ideal so this is not a preferred approach.
 
I have not checked the polarity on my connectors, so thanks for the heads up! I sure do not like the constant drain on the battery by leaving the bag on the bike. I know it is a safety item, but it sure seems like a poor design to me, It sure looks tough to drop a wrench on those 2 little posts to short it out otherwise.

I like your idea of connecting them hot but switched. I can't see wanting to have anything in there charging while I am off the bike, I was just going to connect it hot all the time, but I might just connect it switched like you suggested.

John.
 
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