Need a little help & advice about my 2014 RT Limited, Please!

[SpyderCop715]

So I drop my bike off at the shop of Wednesday & was told it would be completed Thursday. Got a call that they had missed another Bike & it would be put off till Friday. No problem. I could deal with that. Before I get too crazy, 1st off I love my dealer. Great guy & I am on my 2nd RT from them. Up until this point I have been treated great.
I called in advance because I had ordered a bunch of options & I feel comfortable installing some, but our State Club has a big rally coming up Oct 9-11. Wife & I have vacation & can't wait to me old friends & get into some great group rides. Because of time constraints with work I call the dealership, tell them what I have to be put on & asked for a price. The Manager puts me on hold, consults with the owner & quotes me a great price. I dropped the bike off 2 days early so if they could get some of it done on down time that it might make it easier for them. So I take all the lights, accessories & such in & the Mechanic who was to do the install came out & we went over everything. He made a few suggestions that I agreed with & I left everything for him. Needless to say of course something had to go wrong. Sorry for the rant & I will get to the questions. 1). Can you or has anyone installed a 2nd battery on the 2014. Is it possible & where does it fit. This addition was the 1st one discussed on the initial call & I was told no problem. I was also told that the quoted price was for the Battery & the complete install of all the extras, I also had the Battery Isolator. So comes Friday. The owner is out of town checking out the new F-3's. The Manager had a short day & had left the shop. I then start getting calls throughout the day from the mechanic who 1st said there is no where to put a 2nd battery on a 14 RT, shouldn't he have told me that when I came in. The battery was being purchased from them. He then calls & says the light kit which I purchased specially designed for the 2014 RT, would cost much more than the quoted price from his boss to install & that it would take another 3 days to finish & that he wouldn't be using all the lights. When all was said & done I had to get dropped off at the dealership & wait 3 hours to get the bike, which he had supposedly been working on all day. This is what he installed. The 1 yellow LED on the side of each fender, 1 red led on the back of the fender & a turn signal switch, all from TRIC LED. He said it took him all day. From 9am to 6pm. What he didn't install. The second battery, or any of the other lights. To add insult to injury he charged me $159 dollars more than the original full install price of everything including the battery. I was so disgusted that I paid the bill so I could get my bike out & go to work. I will be calling the manager 1st thing Monday morning & tell him what happened. I am just not a confrontational person & once I've been screwed I just take my business elsewhere. Maybe this is not the place to vent, but I had to get it off my chest. If anyone takes the time to read this & understand my situation any advise would be greatly appreciated. Oh & one last thing. The reason he couldn't put on some of the lights is according to him it was against the law. I then told him please show me the law so that I can go make some money. See I am a Police Officer & Traffic Officer at that & no for a fact that nothing about that kit was illegal. Again I apologizeray: for the rant I AM PISSED!

 

[Princeau99]

Don't worry untll Monday

Sounds to me like the tech was over his head. Ignore him and talk to owner. If he is half as good as you say, give him a chance to make it right. if not, then is the time to rant.:banghead::banghead:

 

[NovaSpyder]

I agree with Princeau99, wait until Monday and discuss with the Manager and/or owner as they were the ones you made the agreement with. I also think the tech in over his head, I can't imagine how it would take all day to do the little work he accomplished.
As for 2nd battery, I can't help there, but are you sure you really ned it? The 2014's have a better charging system than the 2011 you had.

 

[ThreeWheels]

Something smells funny.
I had the same lights installed that you did.
I had them installed at SpyderQuest, and it was "While You Wait". It took about an hour.
I'm not sure about the second battery issue, I haven't stripped all the body work off of my 2014 yet. I know BRP mounted the battery in a new location up front for the 2014 bike, but I don't know what, if anything, they put in place in the rear where the old battery location is.
What other lights did you want to add ? Why do you need another battery ?
I've also added the brightsides for the red reflectors on the saddle bags and the high mount brake light. I did them together since they all mount in the same general area in about 90 minutes.
These lights are clearly marked as "Not DOT Approved", but I don't think that makes any difference, provided that you have the minimum required DOT lighting already installed.
This is, of course the case, otherwise BRP couldn't sell the Spyders in this country.
So, if you are adding new lights, and not replacing existing lights, you should be OK.
Sounds like a lot of BS. The tech was probably swamped with some other work and couldn't get to yours and used that as an excuse.

Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

 

[can-am sam]

The 14 has an alternator. It has a much larger charging capacity than the old magneto. The lights you had installed are probably LED's. They use very little current. Not sure why the need for a second battery.

 

[Red RT-S]

Second battery

I carry a Micro-Start Anti Gravity battery in my 2012 RTS. It is compact and has plenty of power to start the Spyder. It can also be used to charge a phone, laptop or tablet. Can be bought on ebay or Amazon for just over $100.

 

[SpyderCop715]

Thanks for the comments. The reason for the 2nd battery was for extra lights, that I now know from research & your comments, I don't need, but I would think the Tech, & the other guys i talked to at the shop should have already known that. As far as the other lights. I had the 2 yellow turn signal strips that go on the mirrors & an LED Glow Trike kit that was designed for the 2014 RT. I had installed a similar kit on my 2011 & I used Lamonsters videos to show me everything I needed to know about removing & installing panels. Even with my little knowledge of the 2011 RT I was able to install the whole kit & put the bike back together in a day. What was really nice about the kit is each set of lights have a sticker on the bag telling you exactly where to place them on the bike & is a very simple install, especially if you have the right equipment at your fingertips as the tech did, and that was it. I also knew that this was the only project the tech had to do for the whole day and he hit me for 9 hours labor & even charged me for a recall for the windshield.:yikes: I'm not going to name the dealer until I get to talk with him & see if they do the right thing. Between myself & the group I ride with we have brought them a lot of business, but like I will be telling them, this site & the Ohio Spyder Ryders have quite a large voice. They are going to be sending a representative to our rally in October. Depending on the outcome Monday that could be a very nice visit or a really bad visit, because I haven't mentioned this on our site yet.
Anyway, Thanks for the comments. I love this forum. I have got some great information from here, and truly appreciate & respect everyone on here!:bowdown:

 

[ARtraveler]

:welcome:

Please keep us posted. I worked through your first post and see that there are a lot of things going on.

Electrical things can be a real hassle for some dealers--add to that the complexity of the :spyder2:, and you can have issues.

I do not claim to be an electrical expert, so cannot give much advice. Adding a second battery seems new to me. I know thy upped the capacity on the charging system for 2014--but do not know if a second battery would be redundant, or detrimental.

Hoping you can get this resolved.

Keep us in the loop.

 

[Bob Denman]

:shocked: Now that you've had a chance to vent; do you feel any better? :dontknow:
Serously; dealerships are usually reluctant to do a lot of modifications to the Spyders... They can make a bunch of coin doing them; but I think that they feel as if they're in uncharted waters...
Since you're a LEO; why'd you start monkeying with things, s close to a big ride? :dontknow: You would TOUCH your service piece the night before qualifying; would you?
Give the shop a chance to make it right... :2thumbs:

 

[SpyderCop715]

:shocked: Now that you've had a chance to vent; do you feel any better? :dontknow:
Serously; dealerships are usually reluctant to do a lot of modifications to the Spyders... They can make a bunch of coin doing them; but I think that they feel as if they're in uncharted waters...
Since you're a LEO; why'd you start monkeying with things, s close to a big ride? :dontknow: You would TOUCH your service piece the night before qualifying; would you?
Give the shop a chance to make it right... :2thumbs:

Actually Bob it wasn't my idea to have the job done that close to the ride. The conservation started with the service manager a week before because I was still ordering parts & even asked there advise on what to order. I was told to let the know when I got everything in. Well all the parts came in much faster than I expected. Initially I just wanted the extra battery & was going to make the install a winter project using Lamont's videos. Thats what I did with my 2011 & everything worked great. I called the service manager last Monday & he told me it was not a problem & after talking to the tech on Wednesday he still didn't have any problems with what I was doing or the time frame to do the mods because it was his only job for that day. The extra battery was a thing my buddy did on his 2013, and I even bought the battery isolator to make sure I had everything they needed. I was under the impression that since the 2014 had been out for a while that the service department would have extensive knowledge by now. I talked to the owner yesterday & he stated that they had had a meeting that morning & my name was mentioned & that now the Owner, his Vice President & shop manager are no longer allowed to quote prices on install jobs:shocked:. I still love the dealership, but I also love my Ford dealership as far as the buying the vehicle portion goes, but when you have to go to the service department, that's when you have problems. After talking to the owner he wants me to come out & talk to him & the tech, but he also said that he has to back his tech. I am not a confrontational person and as far as that goes his job is safe. I will go out and listen, but my only input to the owner and the tech is this. I will make it clear to the tech that "he knows and I know what was said to me when I dropped off the bike, spoke with the tech & showed him every piece I had". What he says from that point will decide is I ever return to that dealership. I won't even argue, because if his response is anything other than the exact conversation we had then that means he is calling me a liar, and at that point we are done. I will right it off as an expensive lesson learned & find a different dealership. I feel that is the tech doesn't know enough about the 2014 to tell me a new battery is not possible or needed, then how can I trust them to do any maintenance or repairs on my bike. All I wanted was the job done that was agreed to & the price that was quoted. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I had to get dropped off 3 hours before he finished the job, because I was going to another job as soon as they were done & I didn't have any other transportation at the time. At no time in that 3 hours did he come out & tell me that there was any problem or that the price had changed & certainly that he was not going to finish 80 percent of the job. As you can see I have not posted the dealerships name and I probably won't, that's just me, but I will let you know the end outcome, even thou I think I already know what it will be. Sorry for the long post, but I respect the opinions of every one on this site & my only regret was not coming on here 1st & asking questions about what I was doing, because at that time I had no reason not to trust the dealership or the service department. Thanks again to all that took the time to read my post & respond.

 

[Gray Ghost]

Was the estimate actually written on the work order you signed when you dropped off the bike along with details of what you were expecting, or was it all verbal? We should all be in the habit of making sure it is all written out because then the law is on our side when they try to overcharge or not perform the work we took it in for. That being said, I have not always followed my own advice on that either.

 

[Bob Denman]

Thanks for the clarification. :thumbup:

 

[SpyderCop715]

Was the estimate actually written on the work order you signed when you dropped off the bike along with details of what you were expecting, or was it all verbal? We should all be in the habit of making sure it is all written out because then the law is on our side when they try to overcharge or not perform the work we took it in for. That being said, I have not always followed my own advice on that either.

Unfortunately all verbal on the phone then in person. Should have known better. Learned a good lesson, I won't make that mistake again :banghead:

 

[Roadster Renovations]

Hope they make it right for you!

 

[spyder3]

I had a second battery on my 2011 RT, it was in the left side bag. Never had any battery issues of any kind.:shocked:

 

[Magdave]

The 2014 has an alternator that is more than capable of handling any loads unlike the 650W stator on the 998. An extra battery is over kill unless using it for camper lighting with the bike shut down.

 

[Bob Denman]

:agree: The 998's charging system was okay... :shocked:
The 1330's, is outstanding! :thumbup: