I have a 2014 street glide. Bought it brand new. Stock battery lasted me about 2yrs. Bought an amp of a buddy, and installed myself to stock radio. ended up blowing the outputs on radio, and having a shop re install aftermarket radio, and new amp. When I originally installed used amp, i went directly into front fairing, and tapped into some wires,after checking which ones did not have power when switching ignition to OFF position. Then wired in amp. Never had any trouble with the battery, until i installed amp. Now I am on my second new battery. Is it possibly that this is what keeps draining my battery. Harley said they couldn't find anything wrong with it? Afraid to take it a long trip!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You should post this in audio but the current draw on your typical amp far exceeds the capability of the wiring on your fairing. Your amps should always be wired directly to your battery with higher gauge wire typically 4 or 8 gauge with an on/off connection to your system on/off.

 

There might well be no parasitic draw when the bike is off, what is the draw of the installed amp? If the combined load of the other stuff on the bike plus the amp exceeds the output of the alternator, the battery will run down even when driving down the highway.

 

Sounds to me like you should find yourself a local indy who can see what you want to do and advise on what is practical. If your amp is drawing a high power output the stock wiring may not be man enough, in which case a relay might be a better solution. But you need to find out if it is practical to install your amp in the first place.

 

Some kind of Battery Maintainer, and put it on the Bike every time you park it at home.


John

 

Do a current draw test with the bike off. If nothing after market is hooked directly to the battery pull the maxi fuse and install an Amp meter in it's place. if you have accessories hooked to the battery you'll have to remove the positive cable and install the Amp meter there. Once the meter is installed see if it shows an excessive draw, if it does start pulling circuit fuses until you find the circuit pulling the high current then try to find the reason.
Your Stator is rated the same as the maxi fuse, 50 amps.

 

I'm still ol school me. Many will dispute this statement I'm going to make. I never put a battery on cement not even for a minute when replacing them it will ruin a battery causing it to not last but several months. If you have to put it on the ground put it on some wood blocks.

 

Similar to above, fully charge battery, then connect a known good digital meter to the installed battery, note battery drain. Pull maxi fuse, volt drop should stop. Reinstall maxi fuse, observe volt drop, pull fuses one at a time until you find the culprit.
Once you know the problem circuit, chase it on down.
Not that complicated.

 

Car batteries used to be encased in hard rubber, a substance that was porous enough that battery acid could seep through it and create a conductive path through the damp concrete, draining the battery. The cases of today’s batteries, however, are made of sturdier stuff that far better contains their contents than those of yesteryear. As well, time has brought technological improvements to the seals around the posts and the vent systems.

These days, the problem of car battery electrolyte seepage and migration has been all but eliminated. Says battery manufacturer Yuasa, “Nowadays, containers are made from a solid plastic that does not allow any current to flow through it, so the batteries do not discharge, even if they sit in a few inches of water.”

Interestingly, some experts (including Car Talk’s Click and Clack) believe that storing car batteries on concrete floors might actually be a better idea than keeping them on shelves or other surfaces because the cold of the floor works to slow the self-discharge (leakage) rate.

 

I’ve experienced the same issue. While I can’t speak to the specific cause, I do as recommended above - always put the bike on a trickle charger when parked. Also, make sure that you don’t have anything plugged into your low voltage outputs.

Wish I had better advice, but, this seems to work for me so far. I personally believe it has something to do with the Rushmore bikes not liking the after market amps...