Fitting electrical accessories to a DR350?

I'm going to Nordkapp early next year and I need to prep the bike up for freezingness!

I'd like to fit heated grips and a cigarette type socket to power a heated waistcoast. Thing is I'm clueless when it comes to electricals. Is it feasable to fit these items to a lowly DR350, in terms of, will the alternator (?) be up to the job? Any other issues I should consider? It only needs to last three weeks and we're talking spare batteries.

It's a '99 DR350SE which is the 'street' version, with battery.

Cheers.

i am doubtful that a little trail bike would have enough alternator output to power heated clothing.


what are the specs?

cookie said:

i am doubtful that a little trail bike would have enough alternator output to power heated clothing.

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My 400 DR-Z has been powering my heated jacket for three years.

Can't speak for a DR350 though.

Greg

cookie said:

i am doubtful that a little trail bike would have enough alternator output to power heated clothing.


what are the specs?

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What of, the alternator? Don't know It's says its a three phase AC generator . I'll see if I can find out more.

OK, I found this:

Charging coil 0.1-1.5 ohm (Y-Y)
Power source coil 350-650 ohm (W-Br)
Pick-up coil number 1 350-700 ohm (G-Bl)
Pick-up coil number 2 350-700 ohm (Y-Gr)
B=Black Gr=gray
Bl=Blue W=White
Br=Brown Y=Yellow
G=Green

Mean anything to anyone?!

Those figures are only useful to see if your alternator has broken. You need the output figures - according to ADVrider the output level of a 1998 DR350SE is 120W. I'd say that was marginal, particularly if you're going to be spending a lot of time with the headlamp on as well. You might want to consider getting a higher output alternator.

Check out Greg's recent thread about charging problems on his DRZ400, there is some useful info in there as well.

Tobermory Womble said:

Those figures are only useful to see if your alternator has broken. You need the output figures - according to ADVrider the output level of a 1998 DR350SE is 120W. I'd say that was marginal, particularly if youre going to be spending a lot of time with the headlamp on as well. You might want to consider getting a higher output alternator.

Check out Greg's recent thread about charging problems on his DRZ400, there is some useful info in there as well.

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Arse.

Thanks Tobermory Womble. I read through the thread but unfortunately most of it is greek to me: my brain + electrics = no traceable current.

Will I get away with running just one of the items? The grips perhaps? Or shall I just stock up on porridge

*Edit* I just added up all the wattage figures for all the electrics on the bike - they come to about 120, which is kind of the same figure as the alternator output stated above - is that the correct calculation to make, and if so, does it provide me with my answer?

Cheers.

Sergeant Pluck said:

Arse.

Thanks Tobermory Womble. I read through the thread but unfortunately most of it is greek to me: my brain + electrics = no traceable current.

Will I get away with running just one of the items? The grips perhaps? Or shall I just stock up on porridge

*Edit* I just added up all the wattage figures for all the electrics on the bike - they come to about 120, which is kind of the same figure as the alternator output stated above - is that the correct calculation to make, and if so, does it provide me with my answer?

Cheers.

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It's not doable, sad to say. Now, there are options. You can, as TW(at ) suggested, see if you can get a higher output altenator. You can fit muffs which will improve things no end even without heated grips. You can get one of the very highly rated BMW neoprene jackets (can't remember what they're called, someone will be along shortly). You can add an additional battery with a solar panel to help keep it, and then fully charge it at night.

Or you can freeze

Wizard said:

It's not doable, sad to say. Now, there are options. You can, as TW(at ) suggested, see if you can get a higher output altenator. You can fit muffs which will improve things no end even without heated grips. You can get one of the very highly rated BMW neoprene jackets (can't remember what they're called, someone will be along shortly). You can add an additional battery with a solar panel to help keep it, and then fully charge it at night.

Or you can freeze

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Yeah I've already got the muffs off my GS, will probably get a gaucho as well as some other 'hi-tec' cold gear, and I'm going to make a temporary screen too. I've done a search and drew a blank re. higher output alternators, and anyway as I said electrics are not my forte so I'll probably leave it if I can't make grips/jacket work with what I have. There's a landrover coming with us so carrying spare batteries etc won't be a problem.

Need to prep properly as we're going during the winter so it's likely to be extremely fecking cold!

Cheers.

Change all the bulbs to LED's and fit a HID, 120W should be enough then. I've reduced my 400's consumption by about 80w (180w stat).

snoopy said:

Change all the bulbs to LED's and fit a HID, 120W should be enough then. I've reduced my 400's consumption by about 80w (180w stat).

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I've read this several times, and can think of no reason I don't deserve a good slap for not considering it myself.

Wizard said:

I've read this several times, and can think of no reason I don't deserve a good slap for not considering it myself.

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Perhaps because you're a tosser?



Go one step further and ditch the front sidelight altogether - that'd save another 4-5w.

The HID headlamp is a great idea, but I wouldn't off-road with the light on when you might drop the bike into water. 50k volts in a deep puddle that I'm also sitting in might be interesting!



Greg

Wizard said:

I've read this several times, and can think of no reason I don't deserve a good slap for not considering it myself.

Click to expand...

Let me oblige

Tobermory Womble said:

Let me oblige

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Er.............

Just a light reference to the TW(at ) dig, no offence meant

Tobermory Womble said:

Just a light reference to the TW(at ) dig, no offence meant

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Yeah, I'm really offended. That's why I posted this , and not a few ounces of green marzipan

snoopy said:

Change all the bulbs to LED's and fit a HID, 120W should be enough then. I've reduced my 400's consumption by about 80w (180w stat).

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Snoop - can you tell me which HID you got and roughly how you fitted it, and when you changed the other bulbs over to LEDs, did you need to change any of the light fittings or did you find direct replacements? Never used LEDs before.

Thanks

...anyway, back to elastictrickery.

Working with electricity capacities is pretty simple - add up the number of watts and when it's more than the alternator can supply, you're going to be draining the battery. That's what happened Greg when his alternator was failing and was unable to keep up.

We did some sums a while ago and a fairly typical heated vest will draw around 60W.

Realistically, you're going to have to work very hard to get a purely electrical solution to this: Snoopy's bike can produce 180W, so finding 60W means saving 1/3 of the available power - but with a 120W alternator, you need to save 1/2 of the available power, and that's hard.

The most obvious savings that you can make are with bulbs, but only focus on the bulbs that are on for long periods. First consider changing the headlamp for a 35W HID - there will be more light and less drain for the cost of around £70 plus fitting. That's 20W saved, and just don't drop it in a puddle

After that, see if you can get replacements for the sidelights and the instrument lights, but you may have to shop around to get a decent price. Don't worry about the brake lights or the indicators, they won't make a big difference overall.

You must remember that the times that you will want the heat most are the times when you will want light most as well. That's alright once you've started in the morning, but last thing at night, draining too much power will mean that you're going to be parking with a partially charged battery. This is particularly important since, cold batteries don't work as well either

I definitely wouldn't bother with heated grips, do what Wiz says and get some muffs for your hands, and a gaucho would be a good idea too. Do go for the heated vest though, but keep it under as many layers as possible so that you keep your core warm. Following on from the hiking maxim that the best cure for cold feet is a hat, try to keep your head warm too.

You need to sit down and do some sums though. There are a whole variety of solutions, particularly if you can charge the batteries from the Landy.

I bought a H4 of ebay for £60. Make sure you get a UK one as my Solonoid bulb fecked twice and needed replacement. Here are the savings based on turning a corner with brakes on:

HID - 20w
LED pilot bulb - 3w
LED tail - 17w
LED indicators - 30w (based on two being on)

The DRZ also comes with LED instruments but I'm not sure about the 350. If it's bulbs then you can probably save another 15w if it's anything like the 1150GS.

Roughly you can save 30w for night time driving and double that when braking / using indicators excluding instruments.

Hope this helps.

Another solution may quite simply be to buy a DRZ-S. The value in-between is something like £500-800 because the market is saturated. You'll get better mpg, 60w more from the alternator and have better cold weather performance if you leave the emission kit stuff on.

Not that I'm bias.