Garmin 85 R80RT

Last summer I installed a motorcycle type Garmin on my bike. This winter I have come to find a dead /low battery 3 times. The Garmin is wired directly to the battery. When I pushed in the starter switch the motor would turn over once or twice then the solenoid would click. When I released the button the Garmin would be on. Figuring that I had forgotten to turn it off and that had drained the battery. The third time this happened I knew that I had been more careful to be sure it was turned off. I turned it off again and pushed the starter switch. The solenoid clicked and the Garmin came back on. This does not happen every time I use the bike (dead battery). If the bike starts the Garmin has to be turned on. So my question is when I push the button on the Garmin to turn it off, When the screen goes blank is it off completely, or do I need to hold the button in longer ?As the colder weather is now coming I think I will pull the unit soi I don't ruin the battery. Any thoughts? Frank Coleman

I use a Garmin Colorado 400t for hiking. It sucks the electrons out of the batteries pretty quick. Not very power efficient. It could drain a bike battery in a couple weeks.

If I recall, if you have it plugged into an external battery by a cable, it continues to run. Garmins don't like to start tracking in different location then previous stored tracks. It can lock up the unit. So, if it is powered up all the time, it will work better.

My guess is that your Garmin is draining the battery. You could also try to download the latest software from Garmin.

32317: Thanks for your input. The weather has been quite pleasant for awhile, so the bike is used frequently. The battery can go dead over night or last through a cold spell of more than a week. I figure that I will Keep taking the Garmin off the bike when not in use. It is used as a speedometer. With the snow and cold on its way tonight, the bike will sit for awhile. Hopefully this will expose another intermittent short or drain on the battery. Maybe the clicking of the solenoid is sending an impulse to the Garmin and causes it to come on. Looking at a symptom as the cause, so to speak. Thanks again for your post. If I find out what is causing the battery drain, I'll post here, it's cause. frank coleman

I have the garmin 276c and it will continually charge itself and drain the battery. Either disconnect the power lead or put a switch in to accomplish the same thing. My zumo 550 does not seem to draw very much from the battery so it does not make a big difference. One other thing you could do is just put the bike on a battery tender, that will do the trick too.