Jump Bike From Car

[SCDorman]

My R1100RT has a dead battery and will not accept a charge. Has anyone jumped a bike from a car? I have heard that you can do so, but must not start the car engine.

Also, how long does it take to remove the panels and tank if I want to remove the battery? I've had this bike for 5 days.

Thanks.

Steve

[dbrick]

You can jump the bike from a car, 12v is 12v. Given the relative sizes of the batteries involved, there's no need for the car's motor to be running while you're doing it.

[cat0020]

How old is the battery on your RT??

Connect the two batteries for at least five minutes before you try to jump start the bike.

[username]

steve - i've got a different bike, so yours will likely take a little longer, i can have mine pulled in <10 minutes. so figure worst case, yours'll take you 30. the two bigggest things i've learned is have a soft place to set the tank (towel) and take your time unscrewing things, because there seem to be little rubber grommets and washers everywhere.

i assume youre trying to jump it so you can take it to a shop to get it worked on? if your battery wont take a charge, and ive had this happen to me a number of times over the years with older vehicles, it's likely best to consider it dead, pull it, and just get a new one. doing this yourself will save you a little $, and youll get acquainted with your new bike.

there are a few RT folks in here who can most likely tell you exactly what to do, or point you to the right resource for instructions.

congrats on the new bike - sorry it's turning out to be a hassle for you. i'll bet youre itching to ride it.

[lou99]

Steve,
There are 19 screws in all to remove the left side tuppeware. you have one behind the mirror casing. To remove the mirror just pull on it to pop it out carefully. Then there is one more allen screw to remove on the air intake snorkle. Then you can detatch the negative wire on the battery and pull it out to access the positive wire. Then unscrew that. Took me 45 minutes to get to it the 1st time. Just take your time and remember where the screws go as they are not all the same lenght.

Hope this helps.

Lou

[Emoto]

Go ahead and jump start it from a car, but DO NOT have the car engine running. I have seen bikes (not BMWs, but still) in my mechanic days where the electronics got fried from all the juice a car charging system puts out.

[BradfordBenn]

Yup 12VDC is 12VDC. My personal favorite is one night on the road the lights on the Semi tractor were left on accidentally, so I used my rental car to jump start the Kenworth T2000 semi.

Once you get the hang of getting the plastic off, you may want to start thinking about putting on the extra lugs for jumping without taking off the plastic. Check out the thread here... http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4384

[SCDorman]

Thanks to all for the input. This board is great. This bike was on the trickle charger since Sunday and all I got when I tried to start it this AM was rapid fire clicking. Accompanied by much cursing, as today was the first dry day in several. So I put the charger back on, then played hookey this afternoon, and found that she fired off after another 6 hrs charging. Took an hour ride, let it sit for a few hours, starts right up again, ride for another 45 min. I feel like an idiot. We'll see what happens in the AM.

That said, I love this bike. I love the handling, more power than my roadster, and the extra protection is great at this time of year. Heated grips are pretty neat.

username, you are right, it sucks to have a new bike and not be able to ride! I think I'll replace the battery just to be safe. For fun, I took off the side panels...not a bad job and I didn't break anything. Didn't pull the tank though.

Anyway, thanks again. Brad, I bottled the bitter. I get my bottle caps from a place called Brewer's Best, so the caps say, you guessed it, "BB".

Cheers,
Steve

[username]

good job, you rule.

let us know what good rides you do.

[BradfordBenn]

Anyway, thanks again. Brad, I bottled the bitter. I get my bottle caps from a place called Brewer's Best, so the caps say, you guessed it, "BB".

Cheers,
Steve

Woohooo! :brad

[Sully]

Just my thoughts...Lou99 is correct; it took me 45 minutes to get the left side plastic off my RT the first time. Down to 20 minutes now!

My little trick: I measured the lengths of the screws as I removed them and marked them on a diagram of the side panel so I would know which screw goes where, when reinstalling the tupperware.

Don't trust your memory, there are 4 different length fasteners. At least they're the same diameter!

Sully

[jdcoffman]

I have a question could we not jump our bike from the BMW outlet plug? Take a cheap pair of jumper cables and splice a "BMW" plug on one end. :dunno Be alot quicker than removing all the plastic. My R1100RS dosen't take long to get plastic off but you still almost have to pull battery out to reach both terminals.

[kioolt]

You could charge the battery through the accessory outlet but you couldn't jump start the bike. The accessory outlet is fused. I'm not sure of the size but I think it is in the range of 5-10 amps. Also the wire size in probably in the range of 14 or 16 gauge.

[bmwmick]

I have a question could we not jump our bike from the BMW outlet plug? Take a cheap pair of jumper cables and splice a "BMW" plug on one end. :dunno Be alot quicker than removing all the plastic. My R1100RS dosen't take long to get plastic off but you still almost have to pull battery out to reach both terminals.

jd,
You REALLY don't want to try that. Fuse #3 is a 15A fuse and it will blow the 'instant' the starter button is pressed. :doh
That is the main reason BMW put the battery lug in an accessible place beginning sometime in early 2004. See my write-up here:
http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4384

[BradfordBenn]

jd,
You REALLY don't want to try that. Fuse #3 is a 15A fuse and it will blow the 'instant' the starter button is pressed. :doh

On the 2002 RT it is all of 4Amps. :doh :doh

[manicmechanic]

You'll only get to try it once, then if you're lucky the wiring harness will toast while protecting the fuse. :stick I am a firm believer in the philosophy associated with Edsel P. Murphy. So charge throught the power socket, but don't try to jump-start that way. It may let all the smoke out of the wires.

[jdcoffman]

:stick Hey thanks for the info guys I won't try jumping bike that away. I had just thought that since they sell jumper cables that plug into your car accessories plug ie cigarette lighter that we could do the same thru our plug.
You all keep up the good work.

[WLDBT1]

You Can fry your diode bord. If the car is running there is more than 12v going into the bike Battery. Other electronic components may be damaged as we;i.e. Ignition Controll Unit (can be expensive)

[boofer]

Correct me if I'm wrong....I believe a battery tender type charger will not charge a battery that has become too discharged.

[bmwmick]

That is correct for a lot of them. The Tender needs to see about 9V before it will start it's routine.

[bikerfish1100]

back to the tupperware & screws question- a neat trick is to take some medium grade cardboard and draw a rough diagram of the bike (not necessary, but it's a way to pass the time in the winter). insert the screws thru the cardboard in the approximate locations, even labeling if necessary. makes retrieval and reinsertion way easy.
you can use the same system for spray painting the screw heads.
my $.02

[RT_guy]

That is correct for a lot of them. The Tender needs to see about 9V before it will start it's routine.

Just for information, I have a stack of five 12-Volt Yuasa sealed lead-acid batteries from a UPS at work (model REW45-12FR). One battery went bad. The others were sitting at 5.75 VDC. I used a Yuasa "Smart-Shot" 1.5A Battery Tender and recharged the good ones with no problem. Nice little unit.

[soldemall]

Couple items to clarify on this thread. First, all 12v batteries are really 13.2. Cars and motorcycles. 2.2v per cell. The size of the battery is capacity, not voltage. Second, when jumping, as someone mentioned, there is no need to have the donor car running, as the capacity of its battery is more than enough to fire up a bike. On the other hand, when it is running, and charging, it will be putting out about 14.2v, the same as our bikes will. The current draw will be whatever the bike needs, and no more, no matter how big the donor battery might happen to be.
Finally, when you do jump, be sure to connect the positive lead first, and then the negative lead. Disconnect in reverse order.