Howdy all,

I've had a battery issue lately that I wanted to run by y'all for some opinions.

Lately my Harley AGM battery (part number 66010-97d) has gotten to where if I let the bike sit for 48 hours without a tender on it the bike won't start. I haven't had the thing for no more than a couple of years or so. The date code on it is May of 2018. It has always been plugged up to a Shumacher battery tender. The charging system is fine, volt gauge on the dash is always at 14v while riding and I double checked it with my phone linked to my Vance & Hines FP3 and the ECM reports 14.0 volts while riding. I have checked the parasitic drain with an amp meter and it is only a few mills. Also I should mention that the bike lives inside in my basement, so even on the rare occasions it gets real cold here the battery is not subjected to those temps.

In checking on the battery that came with the bike (an Interstate AGM) it only lasted about 3 1/2 years before I had to swap it out. That brings me to my first question; how long do y'all usually get out of an AGM battery given the pounding we give them with these amps?

So, given all this it looks like that HD battery is on its way out. I got one from HD because I liked the robustness of the battery terminals. I don't have room for distribution blocks so I just have a long bolt going through the four terminals on each post (two for the amps, one for the tender, and the main battery leads on each post).

My second question is I am looking for opinions from y'all as to what AGM battery with robust terminals would be a good deal. I don't want to get into the lithium arena at this point. The HD battery claims 405 CCA at zero degrees. I have seen some form online retailers like Battery Mart that claim similar specs at a good price but the terminals look pretty flimsy.

Sorry if all this seems a bit jumbled it's been a long day (I almost forgot about the hurricane that went through here today). Any and all opinions are appreciated.

 

What’s the amp output on your charger?
If it’s not a trickle it will cook the battery, I found that out the hard way with a Shumacker charger.

 

I probably should have mentioned it is a charger/tender. I drops to a tender function when the battery is fully charged. I'm not ruling out that unit as the culprit, but that's how it functions.

 

Lesson learned...if you leave one on the tender every time you park it, you're doing the battery more harm than good. Whatever battery you choose, use the tender on it for a day or so and take it off.

 

I've heard that said before but I haven't had a similar problem with my 03 Wide Glide. I put a tender on it because it don't have a kick starter. I don't worry about my Shovel cause it has basically no parasitic drain at all on it. On the rare occasion the electric foot on it don't work my size 13 will get it going in short order.

 

I cooked 2 batteries with a charger/tender. From what I read they turn on/off and keep charging too high.

 

My AGM batteries last 2-3 years, and that's with it sitting charged over the winter.

 

Get a Braille and roll on down the road.

T

 

With the battery tender hooked up to my bikes while in the garage, I get approx.3 to 3 1/2 years on the AGM batteries.

 

Thanks for the replies folks. Lot of good information there.

I got to thinking about the tender like y'all said. I'll try to check and see how high of a voltage it floats at. I remember decades ago I worked in a battery charger manufacturing plant. That was before the phrase "battery tender" was coined. They used to call them float chargers. Anyhow the engineers always tested the daylights out of every design with the customer's battery packs because they said it was critical that the chargers not float at too high of a voltage. They said it would greatly shorten the life of the battery.

The funny thing is back when I bought the Harley battery I was having trouble with starting the bike hot. On another forum everyone swore that my battery was the problem even though I told them I could hear the compensator sprocket clunking in the primary and the starter clutch screech when the comp kicked back due to it's slop. I think I replaced the Interstate battery that was in there to see if the Harley battery would magically repair the worn out comp and starter clutch. Lo and behold it didn't. To solve my hot start issues I had to replace the comp AND the starter drive. Once I did that all starting problems went away.

Soooo.... Last night I put that Interstate battery back in which hadn't been on a charger for over a month and the bike fired right up. So now what I'll do is try to stay off the bike for a few days to make sure something isn't periodically draining the battery. I don't think that is the case though because after sitting for a while the at rest voltage of that Interstate battery was noticeably higher than the Harley one. I think what I may do is get one of those tender leads that has the LED on it that flashes when the battery gets low. That way I will only plug a tender up when the battery actually needs a charge.

Y'all let me know if I am going about this wrong.

With all that in the works (keeping in mind I am not going down the Lithium road) what are some of y'all favorite brands for AGM batteries?

Thanks again for the help.