Biggest Honking Battery possible

[choneofakind]

Hey all,

It looks like it's that time for me; time for a new battery. Because of my electrical needs, (let's leave it at that, I don't want to write a novel here ) I would like to get the biggest battery I can find that has plenty of juice available during start-ups.

My question is, what's the biggest (physically) battery that I can use in a pregen? I know the battery box is two parts; a box, and a sleeve. I have seen a case where the battery used was big enough to fit in the box without the sleeve, but that bike has long since been sold, so I cannot check up on it. I would like to replicate that if possible.

Anyone have a massive battery in their pregen or know of a particular make/model that I would be interested in? Share your thoughts and ideas here.

note: I'm not interested in those funky new light weight batteries, nor do I care about weight at all. I'm only looking for a big battery that can deliver a lot of juice during cranking and can do so reliably.

thanks for the help folks.

[rojoracing53]

those funky light weight batteries are around half the size if not smaller so you can actually get one that's 3x the capacity for the same size. I did a lot of research but in the end went with OEM because it seems the new Litho batteries may not have all the bugs worked out of them just yet.

[choneofakind]

...didn't think of that. But like you, I think I'd rather go with the standard batteries, not the Lithium ones.

[choneofakind]

Should I pry off the caps on my battery and add distilled water? I'm still wondering what the best solution here is.

[crazymadbastard]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Should I pry off the caps on my battery and add distilled water? I'm still wondering what the best solution here is.

May be better off draining all the old acid and adding new battery acid. Be careful though.

[kirk595x]

Chris I don't know what your running electrical wise but I picked up a gel battery off of ebay for $30. I remenber the specs were better than stock but I run an Alarm, heated grips, 12v for cell/ gps and have ran my portable compressor on numerous occassions for cagers and never a dead battery..in fact right after I bought the battery it sat in storage for three weeks and it fired right up. I'll try to find the brand...all I can tell you now is it's orange..lol.

[rojoracing53]

I love Orange

[Alex]

Is the battery the issue, or is it the alternator/charging system? All the battery is going to do is start the bike, and if it can do that reliably, it's a-ok. If you're putting significant drain on the electrical system with lights, heated gear, FI system, or anything else; isn't the fix to something that allows for quicker/stronger charging, rather than a larger battery reserve?

[kirk595x]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

I love Orange

That you do I might have to pay you a visit with parts cause I like Orange as well..lol.

Ok it's a TMS brand deep cycle 7Ah/10Hr.
Hope that helps.

[Asspire]

get the stock replacement and upgrade your stator. Battery is for starting, I doubt that your running alot of accessories when its off. If you have alot of drain when running, you need a upgrade on charging system.

[cuong-nutz]

It's possible that you can get the stator rewound to produce more than the load you pare putting on the current system. A mom and pop or standard alternator place can do it. It's worth a shot. I know a few people that have done it for their trucks. The alternator should have enough room to be rewound.

[ninjamunky85]

This might fit.



I found the stock yuasa pretty hard to kill though.

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by cuong-nutz

It's possible that you can get the stator rewound to produce more than the load you pare putting on the current system. A mom and pop or standard alternator place can do it. It's worth a shot. I know a few people that have done it for their trucks. The alternator should have enough room to be rewound.

we can rewind the stator to make a bit more power but then the rectifier is your next bottleneck. I run well over what my bike makes and have to juggle some outlets in order to not kill the battery in the winter. I looked into getting more power but I have little experience in the field of motorcycle electrical aside from the few problems with the race bike over the years and it was never fun or easy.

When you figure out what higher output rectifier from another bike can be made to fit ours be sure to let me know because I would love to know

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by Alex

Is the battery the issue, or is it the alternator/charging system? All the battery is going to do is start the bike, and if it can do that reliably, it's a-ok. If you're putting significant drain on the electrical system with lights, heated gear, FI system, or anything else; isn't the fix to something that allows for quicker/stronger charging, rather than a larger battery reserve?

That's what I've been discussing with my dad. I think I'm going to load-test the battery to determine if the battery is actually the issue before I go a buy a new one. He thinks that it's just not recharging fast enough for all the short trips I make, seeing as it's fine after longer trips with higher rpm's.

I finally have spent enough tuning time with the FI that I can get rid of the O2 sensors. I think that should reduce my electrical draw and speed up the rate of charging, which should help us find out if the charging rate is the issue.

AFAIK, the stator from the newgen is able to produce more power, yes? And it should fit in the same space as the newgen. Does anyone have any info on this? I'm willing to look into a stator upgrade if the battery looks like it's alright. I know there's a few threads around here about total available wattage for these bikes. More reading time.


Anyhow, thanks for the thoughts here everyone. It's good to get some more brains here than just my own.
I think my first step is load-test the battery.
Step 2: will be remove oxygen sensors.
Step 3: test the R/R. I'll ask about this later if I'm still having issues after step 2.
Step 4: look into R/R replacement and/or newgen stator conversion.

Keep your thoughts coming.

EDIT: did some reading on stators. Looks like this one might be an option if needed, as recommended by the ninja 250 wiki:
http://www.amazon.com/Electrosport-I.../dp/B000GV7RT0

[cuong-nutz]

Here's the 08+ electrical sticky: http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=31087

[choneofakind]

Thanks cuong! That's the one I was thinking of.

[lgk]

how short are your trips?
if its less than 10-15minutes, then i can kind of see the drain through the o2 sensors. but the sensors shouldn't use much power after they are warmed up.

eta i see the stator also fits a ninja 500, i wonder if the ninja 500 regulator fits the ninja.

[choneofakind]

On the two days (back to back) that it's given me issue starting (and then started right up with a jump), my trips have been <25 minutes. However, once I took a longer trip south to the Canton OH area, it gave me no issue starting.

Let me go load-test my battery just to be sure. Then I'll ditch the O2 sensors and report back with results from both.

[choneofakind]

Did some testing on my battery. Might be okay, according to this write-up:
http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_to_...attery_is_dead

Without load, I got a reading of 12.65 V
With load, I got a reading of 10.07 V

Battery might be a bit weak, but it should be alright.

Now to remove the O2 sensors and see how well it recharges.

[choneofakind]

Another update:

I removed my O2 sensors from my FI setup. All my weird idle hunting associated with too much electrical load is gone completely. I'll do more load testing of the battery tomorrow and report back so we know if it's enough

[lgk]

i never had any weird issues with mine, even with sort distance riding.
but the new gen supposed to have a high output stator.

i'll try removing them too and see what happens.