[CoFRBrutus]

I did a search, but I didn't find what I was looking for.

I just got a battery tender jr. Following the instructions it says connect the positive to the positive battery post (this is assuming that the negative is attached to the frame, which I am assuming the 2000 K1200LT is) and the negative to the frame. OK, I get that, but I've seen a lot of motorcycles that have both clips attached to the battery. It also says that if you take the battery out of the motorcycle you attach the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative. Why is that different?

The other question is in the manual it says to remove venting caps, etc, but you don't do that if you leave the battery in the motorcycle.

I guess my question is, I want to hook up the battery tender when I am done riding, but I don't want to remove and install the battery every day. How do I go about doing it safely? I'm not sure what type of battery I have, I can't get one of the screws out of the top bar that holds the battery in place. Any suggestions?

I also lost a washer that goes between the two red rings that connect to the positive? I'm assuming it is ok to run it without it until I get another one?

 

[PATTERSON]

I did a search, but I didn't find what I was looking for.

I just got a battery tender jr. Following the instructions it says connect the positive to the positive battery post (this is assuming that the negative is attached to the frame, which I am assuming the 2000 K1200LT is) and the negative to the frame. OK, I get that, but I've seen a lot of motorcycles that have both clips attached to the battery. It also says that if you take the battery out of the motorcycle you attach the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative. Why is that different?

The other question is in the manual it says to remove venting caps, etc, but you don't do that if you leave the battery in the motorcycle.

I guess my question is, I want to hook up the battery tender when I am done riding, but I don't want to remove and install the battery every day. How do I go about doing it safely? I'm not sure what type of battery I have, I can't get one of the screws out of the top bar that holds the battery in place. Any suggestions?

You should have an electrical outlet somewhere on the bike.....the one I use is right in front of my left foot.....on the belly pan. Do you not have ANY outlets? My charger just plugs right into the outlet.......but then again it also has the BMW plug that fits into the outlet. Though I have another outlet on the trunk, the system is designed to shut that one off when the ignition is off........can't use it to charge, in other words. David Petersen at WWW.BESTRESTPRODUCTS.COM carries the UNIVERSAL plug adaptor (fits the American size cigarette outlet AND the BMW outlet by simply removing/adding a small adaptor ring thinga majiggie. Go to his website......in the left column click on "electrical" and everything you need will be right there.
You could also get a short wiring harness that you wire into the battery (permanently) and just plug into the pigtail that stays under the seat.....

And yes.....RED always goes to positive.....BLACK goes to Negative (or ground).

Not sure what kind of wires came with your charger................is it just alligator clips?? No other wiring accessories?

Pat

 

[dshealey]

On the LT you should either use one of the powerlet plugs, or hook BOTH leads to the battery. There is no reliable frame ground on the LT, as BMW does not use frame as ground, but runs brown ground wires to everything. Using the frame for ground for any purpose can lead to problems, or just plain unreliable ground reference to the battery. I learned that on my first LT, the hard way. Kept getting bad intermittent problems when trying to add devices and using frame grounds. Even if you get a ground, it may be a relatively high resistance circuit, or intermittent.

If you look behind the battery you will see a ground lug that has a couple brown wires on it with the negative wire from the battery, and you will also notice that it is INSULATED from the frame.

 

[CoFRBrutus]

Its a battery tender jr. It came with alligator clips and a set of rings. It doesn't have the post connector.

 

[lartross]

That's kinda weird...mine came with a set of wires to attach to the battery with a polarized plug and a cigarette lighter plug as an alternative. I just attached the wires to my battery and ran the plug under the seat and out the side where it would be handy to plug into my tender.

 

[lesn]

That's kinda weird...mine came with a set of wires to attach to the battery with a polarized plug and a cigarette lighter plug as an alternative. I just attached the wires to my battery and ran the plug under the seat and out the side where it would be handy to plug into my tender.

+1 Exactly as you said. Deltran does furnish both when you buy a new unit, I have mine attached to the battery terminals directly for many years of trouble free operation.

 

[Enduro]

I use this for the charger and my air compressor can plug into it too. I just carry it in the little trunk compartment.

http://www.powerlet.com/product/powerlet-basic-plug-to-sae-garage-duty-cables/315

 

[CoFRBrutus]

Thanks for the info. I was just being overly cautious. I knew what I was supposed to do, but reading the service manual and the directions for the tender had me spun up. They make it sound like your motorcycle is going to blow up. I ended up putting negative to negative and positive to positive. After 3 hours the battery is fully charged.

Enduro, before I saw your post I just ordered the exact same thing from A&S.

 

[Boatzo]

I won't reiterate the good comments above, but one additional thing you asked was about "removing the venting caps". The older "FLOODED" batteries had venting caps. Most likely you have a SEALED battery that doesn't have them, so not to worry.

 

[wa1200lt]

If you are going to direct connect to the battery you need to connect both + and - to the battery. The LT frame is not grounded.

Loren

 

[BecketMa]

I tried using the Cig lighter style jack to connect my bat tender.

It worked fine for a while. Then the tender would not go to the green LED.

Eventually I figured out that the plug and jack were not making a good connection. After that I just pop the seat and connect directly to the battery.

Bob