Battery maintainer/charger for 2018 RTL..........

Hi all,
New to club this past week. Not sure if anyone has already posted this info. Just thought I'd share my 1st mod with y'all.
I noticed the new spyder was a little sluggish turning over and thought to myself that I could get stranded somewhere with a weak battery. Opened the frunk, found the battery and realized there was no way I was going to be able to attach jumper cables to those two tiny screw heads(battery terminals) in the event of a weak/dead battery. So, I decided this spyder was in need of a direct hook up to a battery maintainer/charger. I use a product called Battery Extender(pictured) which analyzes, charges and maintains your vehicles battery.) First, I unzipped the fabric liner in front of the battery cover and pulled the USB and auxiliary plugs back through the rubber gasket in the fabric liner. Unscrewed the plastic cover (2 torx screws on top of cover) and removed it. That plastic battery cover has no holes in it to feed the maintainer/charger cables and is a sealed cover (rubber gasket all the way around it). After examining the plastic area around the cover I came upon a rubber plug just to the right of the battery cover. Bingo! Easy fix(I hoped). I pulled that rubber plug out, sliced a 1/2 inch vertical slot in it and pushed the two small terminal wires from the maintainer through towards the inside, then pressed the rubber plug back into its hole. Next I removed my negative(black) terminal wires, washer and screw using a phillips screwdriver and added my black eyelet(wire) from the maintainer to the two existing black eyelets(wires). Did the same procedure on the Positive(red) side. There is a metal battery holder attached over the front middle of the battery with a thick rubber band that should be loosened from the top, that way you can tilt the battery towards you for easier re-fastening of the two screws to the battery terminals. Remember the negative wires screw into the top of the battery terminal and the positive wires screw into the front of the terminal. I then screwed in all three black wires (eyelets) to the top of the negative (black) battery terminal and then fastened the positive(red) eyelets(wire) to the front of the positive battery terminal. Before buttoning up, I turned the key to make sure all was connected and "Gracie" came to life. Turned the key off and reattached the battery cover(two torx screws). Fed the new maintainer wire through the rubber plug in the liner directly in line with it and zipped up the fabric liner. Attached the maintainer cable to the new charging plug(see pic), plugged it in to an electrical outlet and found that my 6 day old spyder was only 77% charged. About an hour later she was at 96%, now fully charged. The battery extender will monitor your battery and charge it automatically when needed. You can push a small button on it at any time to see what your current battery voltage is. The extra rubber piece in the picture is for covering your new plug when not in use.
This is a great mod for those of you who store your bikes or do not use them for multiple weeks. I have always had maintainers on my motorcycles. Once again I apologize if this information has already been posted. Sorry for the long post and lack of pics.
Glide-on>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi Valk,
Lots of :spyder2:'s had loose battery connections from the dealer/factory. This causes all kinds of problems. I also added the maintainer leads to the battery and it lives on a Deltran maintainer. Got to keep them charged---- discharging below a certain point caused sulfation and that is the death of a lead acid battery.

Lew L

I appreciate that you are new on this site but there is an easier way to do it, and I realize you have already done this so congrats you are all set up. The way which I did this to my 2017 RTL was to open the front trunk find the fuse box under the trunk covering remove the cover take out fuse # 6 and place it in the empty #7 place, what this does is make the cigarette port in the trunk live all the time so as you can put your battery charger (I use the Deltran battery tender junior) with a cigarette accessory in to the port in the trunk and you are all hooked up, did this for my 2012 RTL and my battery lasted more the 5 years.

Hi Spydernatic, nice to meet you and thank you for your reply. On the 2018 RTL there is not a cigarette port in the trunk. They have a double USB port instead. My maintainer and most others will not hook up to USB. That is why I came up with this mod for the frunk on the 18's. I think the 2019 also has USB in the rear trunk.

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Originally Posted by Valkrocket

Hi Spydernatic, nice to meet you and thank you for your reply. On the 2018 RTL there is not a cigarette port in the trunk. They have a double USB port instead. My maintainer and most others will not hook up to USB. That is why I came up with this mod for the frunk on the 18's. I think the 2019 also has USB in the rear trunk.

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Good alternative considering you do not have the 12v outlet in the trunk that allows swapping the fuse. Our Spyder is a 14 and has the fuse swap done. I use a different brand of maintainer, but smart to begin the battery maintenance on a fresh battery rather waiting to try saving a mid life or older battery.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Valkrocket

Hi Spydernatic, nice to meet you and thank you for your reply. On the 2018 RTL there is not a cigarette port in the trunk. They have a double USB port instead. My maintainer and most others will not hook up to USB. That is why I came up with this mod for the frunk on the 18's. I think the 2019 also has USB in the rear trunk.

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That is info I did not know thank you ...so the 2018/19 does not come with a cigarette port in the trunk wow I suppose that as the new way of doing things putting USB ports in to charge phones etc. Here is what happened to me with my 2017, the Dealer I bought from in NC added in a pigtail from the battery (similar to what you have done)as a free upgrade to all Spyders bought from him which was great unfortunately his tech did not tighten the Negative terminal tight enough after adding the pigtail on, so after about 1000+ miles with the maintainer been attached after each ride I noticed I started to have starting problems, I carry a portable jump pack with me so on the 2 occasions I just used the pack to jump the battery and move on but forgot to recharge the pack and on the 3rd time it did not have enough charge to jump my Spyder. Long story short I had to get a new battery due to having the tech do a load test which it failed and on talking to the tech he said that the battery terminals must be very tight other wise the battery will not get charged properly and will slowly get worse on every ride until it will not hold a full charge and the Spyder will not start.

Thanks for the heads up on tightening the battery screws Spydernatic. I'll go back and make sure they're locked in tight. Glide-on>>>>>>>>>>>>>