Cooling Fan for Fatboy
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From: In the World
100% agree
Harley is starting to put more stuff in the bikes now....they have to so the can sell them. Times are super tough and the yuppie/kittie bike buying days are over for the foreseeable future. While I don't like to ride them...I am amazed at some of the technology that is on a big Honda for so much less than a Harley. We have to be honest with ourselves....we have been paying a high premium for the HD name.
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From: In the World
Test Results ... it works
Well ... I finally got to the fan effectiveness test today. I was going to record temperatures, RPMs etc ... but I'm watching over a sick dog and pretty tied up ... so .. I just did basic testing.
This afternoon at 72 deg C ambient ... I hooked into my Thundermax to monitor temps. Fired it up .... Let the head temp reach 225 and 275 deg C, respectively at idle - no air movement except the fan. Then I turned on the fan at 225 and watched it fall ... pretty fast cooling. Then I turned off the fan and let head temp rise to 275 .... and turned the fan on. Again, the temperature began to fall almost immediately. So ... the elcheap, "lacking in looks" gadget works well enough for this old biker. I set the low RPM/ low TP AFR a bit richer to allow some minor cooling via fuel tuning and lowered my engine idle to 832 RPM while I had a connection to the Thundermax... And that's that - ready for hot FL summer.
This afternoon at 72 deg C ambient ... I hooked into my Thundermax to monitor temps. Fired it up .... Let the head temp reach 225 and 275 deg C, respectively at idle - no air movement except the fan. Then I turned on the fan at 225 and watched it fall ... pretty fast cooling. Then I turned off the fan and let head temp rise to 275 .... and turned the fan on. Again, the temperature began to fall almost immediately. So ... the elcheap, "lacking in looks" gadget works well enough for this old biker. I set the low RPM/ low TP AFR a bit richer to allow some minor cooling via fuel tuning and lowered my engine idle to 832 RPM while I had a connection to the Thundermax... And that's that - ready for hot FL summer.
Tourer
Joined: May 2010
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From: N.E. Ohio
Harley is starting to put more stuff in the bikes now....they have to so the can sell them. Times are super tough and the yuppie/kittie bike buying days are over for the foreseeable future. While I don't like to ride them...I am amazed at some of the technology that is on a big Honda for so much less than a Harley. We have to be honest with ourselves....we have been paying a high premium for the HD name.
Road Master
Joined: Nov 2009
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From: 415/707
i read this thread when Dutch started it, & contacted him, as i've also been caught up in hella traffic, in the heat of the day, just knowing that my motor's cooking when i'm sitting there in gridlock. actually bought Dutch's spare switch, relay, ect & ordered a fan.
mounted it up today & gonna wire it up tomorrow, will mount the fuse/relay under the seat & mount the switch in the dash/speedo housing.
Thanks Dutch for the help
mounted it up today & gonna wire it up tomorrow, will mount the fuse/relay under the seat & mount the switch in the dash/speedo housing.
Thanks Dutch for the help
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From: In the World
i read this thread when Dutch started it, & contacted him, as i've also been caught up in hella traffic, in the heat of the day, just knowing that my motor's cooking when i'm sitting there in gridlock. actually bought Dutch's spare switch, relay, ect & ordered a fan.
mounted it up today & gonna wire it up tomorrow, will mount the fuse/relay under the seat & mount the switch in the dash/speedo housing.
Thanks Dutch for the help
mounted it up today & gonna wire it up tomorrow, will mount the fuse/relay under the seat & mount the switch in the dash/speedo housing.
Thanks Dutch for the help
Dutch
1st Gear
Joined: Apr 2011
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From: TEXAS
i have tried and tried to contact the people at lenale to inquire about the water issues regarding the fans they sell and have gotten zero responses, are these guys reputable?their product is expensive and their seems to be a lot of complaints by the posts i have read. anyone have an opinion? thanks
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Joined: Nov 2010
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From: TEXAS
Attached are pics of fan I built and installed today. A few months ago I got stuck in traffic (I live in Florida) and head temperature alarm was triggered by high heat condition > 350 deg C. Harley factory parade way too expensive and not sure I could install it on my softail. Emailed Lenale to see if they would powder coat their fan cover for me for extra charge – they were not interested in coating the fan for me and basically told me to buzz off. Lenale price for fan seemed too high considering parts and manufacturing. An eBay supplier of similar fan to Lenale offered one for about $170 – still far too expensive given what it is … but the guy seemed willing to powder coat one for me in flat black – then I never heard back from him after I tried to reestablish contact. After reading all the negative comments from folks who had installed Lenale fans – I didn’t want to waste any money on their fans anyhow. The Lenale and the eBay knock-off fans probably use 4.5 SPAL fans from what I could discern from their websites and pics. I’ve had reliability problems with the smallest SPAL fans in oil cooler applications.
I figured I could scrounge the parts off the internet and my parts bin and come up with a 5 ½ inch fan for $75 or so. I bought a SPAL fan for an Arctic Cat oil cooler off eBay for $35 shipped. And I had some aluminum plate left over from other projects. I bought a waterproof switch and relay off eBay for $4.00 shipped. I made a bracket for the fan from 3/16 inch plate and a switch box from 1/16 inch plate – then coated the assembly with 1500 deg silicone baked paint I had left over from another project. I wired it up and sheathed the wires in high heat resistant split loom (also from other projects). I had a spare connector from a battery tender to power the thing. I can install it and remove it in less than 5 minutes and use the battery tender connector to power the thing when its installed.
I guess if you added up all the parts costs it would sum up to about $80.00 for the assembly. It took me a solid hour and ½ start to finish putting it together – not counting 45 minutes of 400 deg C heat saturation for the flat black coating.
I moved my air horn to the right front frame rail and mounted the fan assembly where the factory cowbell horn used to be – I removed the OEM horn as soon as I could after I took delivery of the bike. The fan does transfer quite a lot of heat – you can feel it on your right leg as it blows through. The fan sound is drowned out by the engine/intake/exhaust noise on my bike. At idle (about 840 for me) you can just barely hear the fan – almost like a small turbine noise but not annoying and at lower octaves than a turbine whine. At running speed – I can’t hear it all.
I figured I could scrounge the parts off the internet and my parts bin and come up with a 5 ½ inch fan for $75 or so. I bought a SPAL fan for an Arctic Cat oil cooler off eBay for $35 shipped. And I had some aluminum plate left over from other projects. I bought a waterproof switch and relay off eBay for $4.00 shipped. I made a bracket for the fan from 3/16 inch plate and a switch box from 1/16 inch plate – then coated the assembly with 1500 deg silicone baked paint I had left over from another project. I wired it up and sheathed the wires in high heat resistant split loom (also from other projects). I had a spare connector from a battery tender to power the thing. I can install it and remove it in less than 5 minutes and use the battery tender connector to power the thing when its installed.
I guess if you added up all the parts costs it would sum up to about $80.00 for the assembly. It took me a solid hour and ½ start to finish putting it together – not counting 45 minutes of 400 deg C heat saturation for the flat black coating.
I moved my air horn to the right front frame rail and mounted the fan assembly where the factory cowbell horn used to be – I removed the OEM horn as soon as I could after I took delivery of the bike. The fan does transfer quite a lot of heat – you can feel it on your right leg as it blows through. The fan sound is drowned out by the engine/intake/exhaust noise on my bike. At idle (about 840 for me) you can just barely hear the fan – almost like a small turbine noise but not annoying and at lower octaves than a turbine whine. At running speed – I can’t hear it all.
Click on this.
Last edited by JIMSFBL; Apr 2, 2011 at 09:18 AM.
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I have the lenale fan Have put a lot of miles on with it.
I had one that went bad lenale stood by it replaced it with a newer version.
I just took it off my 07 when I trade it and am installing it on my 2011.
I like it.
And the fan has no problem with water it is a magnetic type fan
I had one that went bad lenale stood by it replaced it with a newer version.
I just took it off my 07 when I trade it and am installing it on my 2011.
I like it.
And the fan has no problem with water it is a magnetic type fan
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Joined: Oct 2009
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From: In the World
i have tried and tried to contact the people at lenale to inquire about the water issues regarding the fans they sell and have gotten zero responses, are these guys reputable?their product is expensive and their seems to be a lot of complaints by the posts i have read. anyone have an opinion? thanks