2009 BMW R1200RT - Battery Trickle Charger

You connect it to the battery terminals directly. Red to positive (+) on battery, black to negative (-) on battery. I have my wife holding it instead of installing it because i have the Battery Tender pigtail installed instead.

When the battery is well charged it flashes green about once a second. When it needs charging it flashes yellow, when it really needs charging it flashes red. It took me several photos to get a shot when it was flashing. This tells you when you need to hook up the CTEK charger, yellow or red flashing. This is why Gateway uses them, they only have to look at the pigtail hanging out from under the seat to see the level of charge. That said, if I did not have the BMW canbus charger, I would have kept this on and bought the CTEK charger. My BMW charger does the same thing, it shows the level of charge.

Hope this helps.

Wayne

[QUOTE=toooldtocare;831757]On canbus systems (from my understanding) there are no fuses, thus no fuse block.[/QUOTE]

I think the "fuzeblock" mentioned is an after market device used to power accessories without requiring each and every one to be tied directly to a battery post. See [url]http://www.snafu.org/pics/r1200gs/2009/0204-fuzebox/[/url] for an example installation.

Thanks for the info on the fuse block. That said, do you know if the canbus BMWs also have fuses?

I use a CTEK 3300 direct to the battery with my Optima battery. No issues.

[url]http://www.amazon.com/Multi-12-Volt-Smart-Battery-Charger/dp/B000FQBWCY[/url]

Doug

[QUOTE=toooldtocare;831816]Thanks for the info on the fuse block. That said, do you know if the canbus BMWs also have fuses?[/QUOTE]

Yes and no. Most items are not fused -- the various system controllers monitor current draw on the circuits they power and cut off power if draw is excessive. They will try again the next time the bike is started. They may try again after some amount of time; at least it seems to work that way with the accessory port.

If you have a GS Adventure model the fog lights have separate fuses. Those are the only fuses I'm aware or. All models, I believe, have a starter relay.

I use a christmas tree light timer on my smart chargers to limit the time ON to about 1 hour per day. No need for them to cycle on and off 24 hrs a day.

Sears has these for about $30 and I have several of 'em. I wire directly to battery and zip tie the lead somewhere I can easily plug in the smart charger/monitor.

[IMG]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r240/normlunt/9990000048903911.jpg[/IMG]

Wall timers are fine but don't let the use of a timer influence charger choice.

Modern gel and AGM batteries(BMW stock batteries are gel type for many models) of course do not reuire that you add water periodically like older style floodd batteries. But they still contain bound water which is increasing changed to its composite gases, hydrogen and oxygen, when a bettery is heading into overcharge or subjected to charge voltages of older chargers for excessive periods. These battteries do have a catlayst to recombine the gases and minmize water loss because too much water loss will kill one easily- but the its not 100% effective in some cases or may just malfunction.

Correct chargers for modern batteries all need to have the ability to shut off the charge automatically, not reduce it, not go to a trickle or anything else but shut it off. (Their monitoring function will still be working).

Some ofolks still have oldeer style trickle or transformer chargers without full sutomatic shutoff- leaving a ike battery connected to one of these permanently when not using the bike can kill as battery.

All of the new electronic cargers have auto shutoff but if you've got 10 yr old trickle or transformer types in your garage, they might well cost you a battery if left connected for storage.

^^^^ Mr. Wayne, et al: :thumb:beer Appreach!
BB

Glad I could help.

W.

Thanks to all that posted. Found the comments educational.
This what I ended up doing.
Went to the local BMW dealer here in Calgary and was told that they do not recommend the BMW battery charger due to price, but highly recommended the Optimate 4 with male socket adapter. There are two on the 2009 R1200RT, one at the left front and towards the rear left tail.
Now here's my question in what I understood the parts guy telling me how to connect this up. The male plug in adapter needs to be hooked into the Optimate 4 unit then plug into the 110 electrical outlet. Is this correct?
Sorry for the silly question.

If you are plugging your charger into the BMW power outlets (AND they are not wired directly to the battery or to the battery through a fuse panel), then you will need to trick the CANbus to maintain a connection between the BMW power outlet and the battery. To do so, plug your charger into the BMW power outlet either with the bike running or before switching off the ignition and then plug your charger into your wall socket (110v).

I did this for a while until I wired up the outlets through an Eastern Beaver fuse panel to bypass the CANbus. The sequence isn't particularly important - just that you get the electricity flowing from your charger to the BMW power outlet before the CANbus shuts down the connection between BMW power outlet (accessory socket) and the battery.

Some chargers go into float mode when the battery is near fully-charged. If the charger cuts off the power in this mode, the CANbus may sense the lack of power and close the connection to the battery. If this happens, then the battery won't receive a charging current anymore. That's why BMW sells the expensive charger to work with the CANbus to keep the circuitry open to allow charging. BMW also sells a less expensive rebranded Deltran charger to either connect directly to the bike's battery through a fused SAE pigtail (often installed by dealers or customers) or the aforementioned fuse panel (several fuse panel options are available).

Powerlet also sells fused kits to wire the BMW power outlet (accessory socket) directly to the battery. I used two of them through my fuse panel for this purpose to more easily charge the battery and run accessories from the bike power (tire inflator, cell phone charger) when the bike isn't running.

Cheers!

[QUOTE=b25bsaboy;832431]
Now here's my question in what I understood the parts guy telling me how to connect this up. The male plug in adapter needs to be hooked into the Optimate 4 unit then plug into the 110 electrical outlet. Is this correct?
Sorry for the silly question.[/QUOTE]

First, I presume that the dealer sold you the type of Optimate-4 which is adaptable to the CanBus system. There are two versions...one of which can be switched to work with CanBus. Once you have that set up correctly, then yes, first plug the Optimate lead into the bike, then into the AC line. When disconnecting, do the reverse.

I just looked at the Optimate 4 on line and wow, what a deal. If my memory serves me right, the BMW canbus charger was well over $200 when I bought mine.

Some people say that the BMW charger may overheat if the canbus has already turned off the bike socket when you plug it in. BMW's instructions also recommends leaving the ignition on until the charger is connected and plugged in.

Sounds you have the best of both worlds, an easy charger to use and one that you do not have to add extra wiring.

Wayne

has there been a documented case of bmw motorcycle electronics being damaged by a trickle charger?



i mean 12 vdc is 12 vdc, so what would have to happen for a charger to break something?