Dave’s Gel and heated seat (AWESOME)

Yesterday was the first time I had to try out my new install on my spyder and thought I’d give a little review about it. I have a 2017 RTL and installed Dave’s gel pads on both the drivers and passenger comfort seat. The BRP comfort seat is very good and worth the upgrade for sure and acceptable for about 4-6 hours on the road. After that I was using the airhawk. I have no complaints about the comfort seat, much better than the basic one. I am ok with switching back and forth between the airhawk and seat but my wife wanted me to try the gel inserts too. She sat on one and really liked the feel. So I contacted Dave and he gave me a really good deal for both gel pads and heaters for both seats. The gel install went very smooth. His directions and pictures on the his site were perfect, spot on. One thing to add.... A dremel disk works AWESOME with flattening the pocket out.

I also installed heated seats. I did it a little different than recommended due to experience. I know my wife will leave hers on when we get off so a direct wire to the battery was not an option. Here is what I did (from lots of YOUR input). I ran a red 12 gauge wire from the battery to a relay placed under the seat. This red positive 12 gauge wire had a 30 amp fuse running to a 30 amp relay under the seat. I also ran a negative black 12 gauge wire from the battery to under the seat so I had perfect ground. I ran a 16 gauge wire from the accessory plug in the frunk to under the seat. All 3 wires I wrapped in plastic conduit. Removed all the plastic and ran it beside everything else. Very clean looking. I ran one switch from the center counsel where the switches all are for the drivers pad. I ran one plug just behind the hand heater controls under the grip for the passenger. The battery positive went to terminal 30, the assessors went to 85. The negative was joined together with the negative harnesses supplied and plugged into 86. I butted both positives from the heater harnesses to bar 87 on the relay. I ziptied everything under the seat very neatly under the hatch where the passenger sensor slide in.

Heated seat findings....... The seat is so large it takes about 8 minutes to really disperse heat (WHILE SITTING ON IT) After 8 minutes you start to feel heat and at about 12 minutes its hot. After 20 Minutes its really hot and NICE! The heat really kicks in if you are running in 4th gear and shifting or if the RPM’s reach 3500 constant. It was 38 degrees and sunny yesterday. The roads were dry so I took Bella for a ride. I am very pleased with the gel seats and especially happy with the heated pad. As a side note if you are not on the seat and the heaters on, you will not feel them with your hand if you press down on the seat. Between the outside air and how large the seats are, the heat is sucked up big time. To feel the heat you must be sitting on the seat the entire time. That might sound like common sense, but the only way to test it beside making sure both seats have 12 volts to each is to ride it for at least 10-15 minutes and shifting in between. I started the machine and let it idle for 15 minutes and couldn’t feel the heat. I thought I did something wrong. If you just start out and get to 65 and not shift much it will take a bit longer. If you are considering heated pads, Dave’s is definitely worth it.