Trickle Charging

[Disaster Area]

Hello,
I'm new to 1200 ownership and would like some advice on trickle charging my '08 GSA.

I realise that it has way more electronics than my previous bikes so just thought I would check about the best way to connect a solar trickle charger to keep the battery topped up.

Can I just connect it across the battery terminals like 'ordinary' bikes or is there a special way to avoid catastrophe?

Cheers,
DA

 

[GORILA]

If you want to charge the bike through the accessory socket you would need to use a canbus suitable charger such as the optimate 4 or the bmw charger.
Charging directly to the battery terminals you can use any charger!

 

[Disaster Area]

If you want to charge the bike through the accessory socket you would need to use a canbus suitable charger such as the optimate 4 or the bmw charger.
Charging directly to the battery terminals you can use any charger!

Thanks - that's the type of detail that I wasn't sure about.

 

[bhud]

I just upgraded my trickle charger to a NOCO genius 2 hard wiired to a new battery on a 09GS

 

[er-minio]

You’ve asked about trickle charging via solar.

I’ve been doing it for the last three or four years on all three of my bikes.
Fit an aux loom directly to the battery.
If you are using optimate they sell the entire kit, fused.

On my GS (the one I use and connect/disconnect more often) I installed a secondary hella socket on the right side of the bike. So I can just use that one to plug the solar charger.

The other two bikes have the standard automotive connector tucked under the seat.

 

[Disaster Area]

You’ve asked about trickle charging via solar.

I’ve been doing it for the last three or four years on all three of my bikes.
Fit an aux loom directly to the battery.
If you are using optimate they sell the entire kit, fused.

On my GS (the one I use and connect/disconnect more often) I installed a secondary hella socket on the right side of the bike. So I can just use that one to plug the solar charger.

The other two bikes have the standard automotive connector tucked under the seat.

Hi,
The problem is that nobody down here seems to sell the Optimate (or any other version) of solar trickle chargers. I've checked dealers, battery companies and caravan/motor home sites. So I use one of these: https://www.jaycar.co.nz/12-24v-10a-pwm-solar-charge-controller-with-timer-function-ip67/p/MP3756.

It seems to work quite well, although they're a bit temperamental. Not that there's a lot of sun around here at the moment.

 

[er-minio]

Optimate has a different brand name as well… can’t remember what it is though.

I had built a solar charger for one of the bikes (the shittiest: DRZ ) with a 20w panel and that exact pwm controller you show in the link. It seemed to work, but I replaced it with an optimate solar too, as they seemed to be slightly more sensitive in low light somehow.

Regarding the connectors: those sold by optimate are all standard automotive connectors. You can find them from other vendors as well (or kiwi amazon?)