[MrCobraman]

Hi Guys,
I have a '03 Honda Trx350tm which is not feeding the battery. I have a lightbar on the front, otherwise standard.
First night run, I lost the lights after about 30mins of use. I wasn't using the lightbar that much and the speed was low (over fields). Battery drained low, but I could still use the pull cord starter to get home (thank god for my head torch!).
Charged up battery and had it tested, all okay
Checked diodes on rectifier, all okay
Checked stator coils for resistance, all okay
Checked earth connections, all okay

Battery still not getting a charge.
Replaced rectifier & still no charge!

Any thoughts would be welcome

Cheers!

 

[cmanningjr]

With the bike running, check your voltage at the battery...

What size lightbar are you using?? How many watts??

And did you have your battery load tested or just check voltage??

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[b52bombardier1]

^^^ What he said ^^^

Rick

 

[MrCobraman]

Voltage at battery 12.6 (engine running - idle)

12 inch light bar (72w)

Battery was load tested (neighbour has pro tester) & ok???

Thanks for helping!

 

[b52bombardier1]

A 72 watt additional load on a bike that might only make 250 watts at maximum and then only at perhaps 5000 RPM is an enormous additional burden for the bike.

I'd be curious what the running voltage at the battery is at idle and at maybe half throttle. If you are not seeing voltages above about 14.3 at half throttle, the power has to come from somewhere . . . draining your battery.

It would appear to me that the bike simply isn't putting enough juice back into the battery, especially below half throttle.

Rick

 

[cmanningjr]

A 72 watt additional load on a bike that might only make 250 watts at maximum and then only at perhaps 5000 RPM is an enormous additional burden for the bike.



I'd be curious what the running voltage at the battery is at idle and at maybe half throttle. If you are not seeing voltages above about 14.3 at half throttle, the power has to come from somewhere . . . draining your battery.



It would appear to me that the bike simply isn't putting enough juice back into the battery, especially below half throttle.



Rick

^^^^this^^^^ And are you running your stock headlights with the LED's?

The lightbar is adding around 6 amps additional load...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MrCobraman]

Using the atv for night shooting. Bump around fields with one bulb on only. See a rabbit, fix it with LED, shoot it & turn it off.

The lamp just isn't used that much.

My buddy has same set up & all works fine.

 

[b52bombardier1]

Check your battery for the presence of AC volts with the bike running at half throttle.

Hope for less than maybe .2 volts (two tenths) with the bike running. Much more indicates a bad rectifier with one or more blown or leaky diodes.

And not all multimeters are good at measuring small amounts of alternating current. The cheapest meters here simply can't do it.

Rick

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[shadetree]

sounds like the charging system can't handle the load. or a bad battery ?.

 

[Manny]

If your stator is within spec, and you have a known good rectifier, then your problem is isolated to your battery. I would replace it, or better yet, run another parallel to accommodate the lights.

 

[MrCobraman]

Hi Manny, can i run any 12v battery in parallel (i.e. a car battery) or does it need to be same spec as original battery?

 

[Manny]

You want the same size battery if your gonna run them parallel. if not they will work against eachother.

If you use a car battery just wire your floods straight to that instead of the ATV. for simple night hunting you could just put the car battery on a trickle charger when you got home.

also, to isolate the problem, unhook your flood lights. I would bet you wont have a battery issue after unplugging and that'll tell ya you need more juice.

 

[MrCobraman]

Just to let everyone know, the stator was the problem! Now replaced and everything seems to work fine! Thanks for your help guys!