I have two bikes mine and my wife's bike both have batteries that are about 3 years old and we travel in places that are very remote. I was thinking of getting one of those small lithium ion battery jumpers just in case. If I have to jump the battery, I would like to use the trickle charger cable and make a adapter for the battery jumper to plug into the trickle charger cable on the bike. Hears the problem there's a fuse on the trickle charger cable to the bike battery, if I use this cable the jump, might pop the fuse. I thought about running a serrate cable to the battery with out the fuse.


what do you think?

 

I carry one, next best thing to a kickstarter on carb bikes, and necessary on efi bikes that require enough current to power the fuel pump. But - DO NOT use the battery tender cable to jump start, it's way too small a wire. I made a 10awg jumper for mine, and a 10awg adapter for the jumper battery. I haven't needed it on a bike yet, but also carry one in my van, and did need it once. Turned the V6 over faster than the big lead acid in the van did.

The cable to connect to the bike battery - you can cut the wires to fit the battery without having one longer than needed, why mine has unequal lengths.



Parts needed:
10awg wire
EC5 terminal (the blue ones)
Eztronics Corp? 5 Pair EC5 Banana Plug Female Male Bullet Gold Connector For RC ESC LIPO Battery
Sold by: eztronics corp
[I ordered 5 to make cables for some of my other bikes]

SAE 2 connector terminals - I bought 12" cables with connectors bonded on both ends and just cut one off - be careful you match polarity!
10 Gauge 2 Pin Quick Disconnect Wire Harness - SAE connectors (191894350070)
from maxsales_2009 - on ebay

3/8 black adhesive lined heat shrink
Medium / Heavy Dual-Wall Adhesive Heat Shrink 3/8" BLACK 3:1 Ratio
Sold by: Greg's Marine Wire Supply - on ebay

red heat shrink to identify the positive wire

10awg ring terminals - came with yellow plastic insulators I cut off with a dremel tool; they're covered with the black heat shrink
1 of: Install Bay Copper Ring Terminal Connector 8 Gauge 1/4 Inch 25 Pack - CUR814 Sold by: Amazon.com LLC

I got some woven plastic tubing from somewhere, used it just to cover the red wire and make it look neater.

It does take a real hot soldering iron or small torch to solder 10awg wire (and don't tin the wire first, it won't fit!). The woven tubing melts real easy if you shrink the tubing over it with a heat gun. I just ran the tip of the soldering iron over the shrink tubing where it covered the woven tubing.

Make an adapter for the battery to fit this by using another SAE connector/wire and an EC5 connector, again, matching polarity, or you'll smoke something. I didn't, but it wouldn't hurt to use an inline fuse on the cable connected to the bike battery.

 

If you don't have confidence in the batteries...why not just replace them...and not worry about some Rube Golberg contraption to facilitate jump starting?

Oh yeah...and don't ever permanently attach something tonthecbattery that isn't fused! If the wires abrade on something...poof...

 

If it shorts before the fuse, you still get... poof. I've had both cars and bikes do that. But a fuse is a good idea.

Even a new battery doesn't help if you pull the key out in the wrong position, which I've done a couple times over the years. Fortunately always in my garage, but I'd hate to pack up in the motel parking lot some morning and find I'd done it again. Carrying a jumper battery in a car has saved me grief several times. Backup for my phone, too, would recharge it several times. You can get tiny little air pumps they run, if you run tubeless and carry plugs. With the cables I made, it's just as easy to use as a battery tender. I'm surprised someone doesn't sell them commercially yet. With the alligator clips... yeah, anything with those is a pita to use on a lot of Harleys, the way they bury the batteries.

 

Imold that is a great idea, like the idea of 10awg it can take more current.

New battery $200 at dealer or lithium ion battery $300 My battery 12.78 volts, wife battery 13.4 volts battery's could last another trip and most likely last a few more years( trip 3000 - 4000 miles) why not buy hand jumper for $50 just to be safe, also you can use it to charge your phone, sena communicator, ipod and jbl speaker. I have one that does not jump a battery and use it all the time.

 

Another option is to just use the positive lug on the starter and any good ground when you need to jump a bike.

 

simple and effective , no extra hot wires to install or short out. It's not like you going to have to do it often.

 

This!

 

Nice idea on the starter, by pass the battery

 

If you can reach it...
Easy on my Tour Glide, close quarters on my 1200, in the realm of not possible on my 883. A couple of my metrics are really buried, too. I like having a battery tender pigtail, and the 10awg build was easy, makes any bike easy to connect if ever needed. I suppose the cable could be connected to the starter lead and anywhere else for ground, but the batteries are easier to reach and also keep the wires away from the hot area.