Hooked the Battery charger to my 2018 RTL with wrong polarity; need help!! Any advice??

[Gridley]

I hope I am the only one who has ever done this, but just in case there is someone with this same issue, I would love to get some feedback.

My situation is this. I hooked a battery charger to my 2018 RTL while the battery was already almost dead. My trickle charger had been unplugged. The battery charger is rated at 8A, but connected backwards it was probably more. I noticed the problem after about 10-25 seconds and unhooked it. I then connected the charger properly and it went through the charge cycle fine.

Now when I turn on the machine, the panel lights up normally. I can release and put on the parking brake as normal. The fog lights do not work and the headlight is about half brightness. When I hit the start button, I hear a faint click but no other indications.

At this point, I don't know what to do. If anybody has some advice, I would love to get it.

Gridley

 

[Gwolf]

If you hooked it up backward while the battery was in the vehicle and connected, some of the diodes may have been damaged.

It is possible it could have just tripped some circuit breakers. check all the fuses and circuit breakers. Not sure what else it might do. Most of the chargers will not come on if they are not connected properly.

 

[Gridley]

Praise the Lord it is working fine now! I cannot explain why. I decided to turn it on and see if there were any Error codes logged. So, like before it had the very same symptoms. I messed around with the mode switch and turned things on and off to see it anything else was not working. The next thing I did was hit the Start button and vroom, vroom, it started right up.
I turned it off and tried again. It came up normal and started right up. Several more times and every thing appears fine now.
I cannot explain what happened but I am so happy and relieved now. I am going to say it must have been Divine Intervention and leave it at that.
Thank you all who read this post and the responses.
Gridley

 

[Mikey]

I would say you have done a lot of GOOD TLC to that old girl! But don't ever do the battery thing again! You dodged the bullet, and the last thing you want to do is piss off the electrical Gremlins!

 

[DickB]

You might want to get a battery charger with reverse polarity protection.

 

[Little Blue]

Definitely purchase a new battery charger/maintainer.
Also make sure you get Only a 1 amp or less charger/maintainer.
Our Spyder's Battery Does Not like Heat.
So Never charge the battery with anything over 1amp.

Now you know the 'rest of the Story'.
Have yourself a Blessed Day.

 

[Albec]

Praise the Lord it is working fine now! I cannot explain why. I decided to turn it on and see if there were any Error codes logged. So, like before it had the very same symptoms. I messed around with the mode switch and turned things on and off to see it anything else was not working. The next thing I did was hit the Start button and vroom, vroom, it started right up.
I turned it off and tried again. It came up normal and started right up. Several more times and every thing appears fine now.
I cannot explain what happened but I am so happy and relieved now. I am going to say it must have been Divine Intervention and leave it at that.
Thank you all who read this post and the responses.
Gridley

As long as the magic smoke wasn't released when you first powered up the charger, you're good!

What charger are you using? As mentioned, most have protection for this very thing.

 

[Gridley]

Thank you for all your ideas and suggestions! I have taken each and every one to heart. This will not, I repeat not, happen again. Like my dad used to say, "the Lord takes cares of fools & Irishmen, and He's got me covered on both!"

Gridley