pglaves
#13338
This sad tale of misadventure is only indirectly related to our BMW motorcycles but it is instructive nonetheless.
I have a Chevy Colorado pickup truck. In said truck I have mounted a GPS. The GPS is powered by a plug in to a cigarette lighter style outlet. This is not switched power. I only drive this pickup every two or three weeks, if that often. Normally we ride bikes or take the car.
So just the other day, after not using the truck for a couple of weeks, we were headed out to some 4WD, high clearance roads in the Big Bend National Park. I went out to start the truck. I turned the key: nothing, no ding, no gong, no instrument lights, and for darn sure no cranking the starter. I had left the GPS turned on and plugged in the last time I used the truck. The truck battery was pretty stone cold run down.
So, I went and got battery charger #1, a good "15 amp charge - 3 amp maintain" charger. The battery was sufficiently dead that this genius of a charger wouldn't start charging the battery. For all its little brain knew it was connected to a chunk of iron or a rock or fence post or something.
Next I went and got charger #2; my 30 year old 2 amp dumb charger. No sophistication here. Hook her up and let her charge. Make sure it is set on 12v and not 6v. I started in the early afternoon. By about 6:00pm I was seeing some sign of battery life: battery voltage was in the upper 10v range. I hooked up my bigger smarter charger #1 and it seemed to take off charging just fine. I decided to let it charge overnight.
In the morning the charger was found to have quit trying and battery voltage was down to 3 volts something. Oh, no, the battery is shot. Oh well, I'll get a new one in town next week. Live and learn I told myself.
After a while for a totally unrelated reason I needed but couldn't find my truck keys. When I looked in the truck the keys were there and the ignition key was in the TURNED ON position. I had been charging the battery with the ignition key in the "ON" position. During the day it gained some, but this truck also has "smart" headlights, and in the "Auto" setting the headlights and tail lights and such come on when it gets dark. Or at least they try to do so.
So voila - the genius owner is trying to charge a battery with the truck key on, and the automatic headlights trying to come on every now and then if the voltage got high enough. The end result is that the smart charger gave up and quit, and the key-on truck ran the battery back down even more.
I have a simple suggestion. Don't do this. Not on your car, your truck or your motorcycle.
After carefully analyzing the situation I retrieved my keys from the truck, thus leaving the things/stuff turned off. After several hours the charger dropped out of charging mode and lapsed into maintenance mode. Battery voltage one hour after I unhooked the charger was 12.9 volts. A couple of hours later the truck started just fine. Maybe the battery is going to survive its owner abuse. I hope.
All expressions of sincere sympathy, and even energetic guffaws are graciously accepted.
I have a Chevy Colorado pickup truck. In said truck I have mounted a GPS. The GPS is powered by a plug in to a cigarette lighter style outlet. This is not switched power. I only drive this pickup every two or three weeks, if that often. Normally we ride bikes or take the car.
So just the other day, after not using the truck for a couple of weeks, we were headed out to some 4WD, high clearance roads in the Big Bend National Park. I went out to start the truck. I turned the key: nothing, no ding, no gong, no instrument lights, and for darn sure no cranking the starter. I had left the GPS turned on and plugged in the last time I used the truck. The truck battery was pretty stone cold run down.
So, I went and got battery charger #1, a good "15 amp charge - 3 amp maintain" charger. The battery was sufficiently dead that this genius of a charger wouldn't start charging the battery. For all its little brain knew it was connected to a chunk of iron or a rock or fence post or something.
Next I went and got charger #2; my 30 year old 2 amp dumb charger. No sophistication here. Hook her up and let her charge. Make sure it is set on 12v and not 6v. I started in the early afternoon. By about 6:00pm I was seeing some sign of battery life: battery voltage was in the upper 10v range. I hooked up my bigger smarter charger #1 and it seemed to take off charging just fine. I decided to let it charge overnight.
In the morning the charger was found to have quit trying and battery voltage was down to 3 volts something. Oh, no, the battery is shot. Oh well, I'll get a new one in town next week. Live and learn I told myself.
After a while for a totally unrelated reason I needed but couldn't find my truck keys. When I looked in the truck the keys were there and the ignition key was in the TURNED ON position. I had been charging the battery with the ignition key in the "ON" position. During the day it gained some, but this truck also has "smart" headlights, and in the "Auto" setting the headlights and tail lights and such come on when it gets dark. Or at least they try to do so.
So voila - the genius owner is trying to charge a battery with the truck key on, and the automatic headlights trying to come on every now and then if the voltage got high enough. The end result is that the smart charger gave up and quit, and the key-on truck ran the battery back down even more.
I have a simple suggestion. Don't do this. Not on your car, your truck or your motorcycle.
After carefully analyzing the situation I retrieved my keys from the truck, thus leaving the things/stuff turned off. After several hours the charger dropped out of charging mode and lapsed into maintenance mode. Battery voltage one hour after I unhooked the charger was 12.9 volts. A couple of hours later the truck started just fine. Maybe the battery is going to survive its owner abuse. I hope.
All expressions of sincere sympathy, and even energetic guffaws are graciously accepted.
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