| Author | Message | ||
     Alershka |
I bought my Ulysses in June of 06. I've had intermittent battery problems with it over the last few years. This year, it has let me down a number of times, specifically if I'm an idiot and leave the lights on. Leaving the lights on for as little as 20 minutes requires me to jump the battery. I've also had a few situations where I jump the battery, ride for about 30 minutes, then it's dead when I try to start it up again. Any thoughts on how bad a problem this is? Should I take the trip to the dealer or just suck it up and buy a new battery? I only have 3700 miles on the bike and I do put it on the charger a few times over the winter but I don't want to be doing that all summer. Thanks. Jeff '06 Uly in PA} | ||
| Etennuly |
Batteries are a wear/useage item. Two years.....just buy a new one. I tried to get them to warranty mine when it was a year old because it was, and has been weak. It would never show more that 12.3 volts when fully charged and the book says to not even test the bikes electricals unless the battery is up to 12.6 volts minimum. My bike runs fine and will just barely crank over some cold mornings, but it has always started and has never left me stranded. A friend of mine, with his '06 Uly, had struggled with poor running issues from new until it was a year old. He put in a new battery and it ran much better than when it was new. There are several threads that speak of good batteries to replace it with in the knowledge vault.  | ||
| Hotredjohn |
I keep mine on a battery tender when I am not riding. The fan draws quite a bit of wattage and if you have other draws on power it can be problematic. The charging system doesn't put much out if you are under 2500 RPM. | ||
| Luftkoph |
I agree if mine isn't running its on the accumate charger.it's an 06 nary a batt prob. | ||
| Maximum |
Mine was doing that between 14,000 and 19,000 miles. I had the battery replaced and within a couple days it was doing it again. I put a voltmeter on the battery while idling and it was only producing 9.1 volts, it took 4,000 rpm's to get it up to 12 volts. It turned out to be the stator slowly failing to to low side. After it was replaced all has been well for the last 6,000 miles! A voltage monitor, like the one Ft_bstrd wrote about a few months ago, is money well spent! | ||
| Orangeulius |
If its not what Maximum said then its what my bud ETennuly said. Marginal batteries suck. HD won't replace em. Trickle chargers don't work. As much as it sucks, buy a new battery and enjoy life again. Best, Orange (aka ETennuly's friend) really! | ||
| Daveymac |
A voltage monitor, like the one Ft_bstrd wrote about a few months ago, is money well spent! +10 on that!!! I put them on both my bikes Uly & R1100RT. | ||
| Reepicheep |
+20. That little volt meter recently turned what could have been a major CF into a fairly easy to solve problem. Rider didn't even miss breakfast. Now I need to put an oil pressure indicator on my KLR >  | ||
| Alershka |
Well, I bought the new battery. $100 for the HD AGM replacement. I guess prices have gone up fairly substantially over the last year. I thought I saw a $50 price somewhere on the board. I also hugged a tree, then paid $4 to have them dispose of the battery. I also picked up the Supersmart Battery Tender. I bought the harness too, only to realize when I got home that my dealer had already installed one when I bought the bike new. Turn the key and now the bike sings like it was new. With the old battery, it was more like a dying yak when I turned the key on. Thanks all for the help and advice. Jeff '06 Uly |
