Attaching Gerbing'sheated clothing

[famousperson]

I got a pair of Gerbing's heated gloves for Christmas, and just ordered their jacket with a heated liner and I have some real beginner's questions. Is there an accessory plug on the R1200R? If so,where is it? If not, can the harness that comes with the gear be hooked directly to the battery without screwing up the CAN-bus? Any advice will be warmly appreciated!

[TWI]

You can wire directly to the battery; this gets around the CANBUS controller. I think the Gerbing's wire has a fuse in line, so you rely on that, or put in a fuse box while you are in there.

I thought the auxiliary outlet was standard. If your bike has it, then look on the left side at about the midpoint of the bike. The problem with using the aux is that the CANBUS controller will turn it off if it decides too much current is being pulled through it.

BTW, if you have the jacket and the gloves you will need two lines to plug the wires into. One for the jacket and one for the gloves. That way you can control the heat to each separately.

Me, I just have the jacket (which goes through a fuse box). With that and the grip warmers I'm OK. Of course, without the grip warmers I'd be not OK.

[Thinman]

There is an accessory socket on the left side, but the gloves and jacket are going to be too much of an amp draw for this. I just wired the harness that comes with any Gerbing directly to the battery. I leave the plug under the seat and just hang it out the under the edge of the seat when I need it.

[fly]

There is an accessory socket on the left side, but the gloves and jacket are going to be too much of an amp draw for this. I just wired the harness that comes with any Gerbing directly to the battery. I leave the plug under the seat and just hang it out the under the edge of the seat when I need it.

IIRC even the gerbings full jacket liner alone was too much of a draw - I ended up wiring mine direct to the battery in the same manner and have the gerbings heat controller attached with velcro to the left side of the airbox.

[BigEasy]

I don't mean for this to be a highjack (hopefully the op will want to know the answer as well) but I seem to remember reading on this or another board about NOT carrying the heat controller in a jacket pocket as it generates too much heat. Does anyone have any input on that question? The reason for my asking is I really don't want to hard mount it if I don't have to, althought the velcro to the air box sounds ok. Thanks

[famousperson]

Good question, BigEasy. I'd not heard that before and would also like to know the answer.

[sjbmw]

I have a R1150R, and have used the entire Gerbing suit (glove liners, jacket liner, pants, and socks) for hours riding, and the electrical system was fine.

I use the accessory plug, and the Gerbing Thermostat.

Is the R1200R less of a workhorse electrically?

[NeilS]

I can't speak for the Gerbings controller directly, but I've used the genuine Heat-Troller (as sold by Aerostich) for many thousands of miles in my jacket pocket and have not had a problem. My controller box does not heat up to any significant extent.

If you go to the the Heat-Troller website, the owner/designer claims that Gerbings ripped off his design, uses inferior components and Chinese prison labor, and are generally evil people, so YMMV, but I'd think you'll be OK.

[BigEasy]

After an earlier post about warm and safe vs gerbings vs whatever I looked at the warm and safe site and found extreme humor in the "they ripped me off" rants. Probably due to my appreciation for dark humor. If he did get ripped off that's a bummer, but so what deal with it, and it looks like he's not living in the street as much as on the road.

Thanks for the tip Neil

[TWI]

I have a R1150R, and have used the entire Gerbing suit (glove liners, jacket liner, pants, and socks) for hours riding, and the electrical system was fine.

I use the accessory plug, and the Gerbing Thermostat.

Is the R1200R less of a workhorse electrically?

The issue isn't the power the bike can put out (the alternator is about the same size on both bikes). Its the CANBUS system. It monitors the current draw on the accessory socket and if that draw exceeds the limit the controller shuts down the socket. Mind you, not that anything bad is happening to the bike because of the current draw, just that the draw exceeds some limit.

[famousperson]

The issue isn't the power the bike can put out (the alternator is about the same size on both bikes). Its the CANBUS system. It monitors the current draw on the accessory socket and if that draw exceeds the limit the controller shuts down the socket. Mind you, not that anything bad is happening to the bike because of the current draw, just that the draw exceeds some limit.

The Cascade Extreme jacket uses 6.4 amps. The G3 gloves use 2.2 amps. That is a total of 8.6 amps. What is the limit that the controller allows?

[deilenberger]

The Cascade Extreme jacket uses 6.4 amps. The G3 gloves use 2.2 amps. That is a total of 8.6 amps. What is the limit that the controller allows?

I don't know that anyone really knows - but rumor has it 5A. Wouldn't be all that hard to measure if we had a great big rheostat to use as a variable load..

[Dan-A]

I use Gerbings on my R1200R. I have the Gerbing supplied pigtail connected directly to the battery. Here is a picture I used for the Motolites install post so the notations in yellow are for that, but you can see the gerbing fuse holder just in front of the top of the shock mount. The connector comes out on the left near the back of the tank, below where it meets the seat.

I have the Gerbing dual controller which allows separate heat levels for the gloves and jacket. I also bought the leather holder for the controller that has a belt clip on it, which I hang on the belt on my touring jacket on my left side so and I can adjust the temp while moving. If you have a tank bag, you can route the wire up between the seat and tank, and hang the controller on it.

I have also used it on my Harley wearing a leather jacket which has no belt and put the controller in my pocket, and had no issues with heat from it.

I have the jacket liner, gloves and socks. Wed nite I ran with the jacket liner and gloves, no socks, the moto lites on, and the stock heated grips on low, and had no electrical or charging problems.

BTW, I was quite toasty even though it was in the low 40's when I left, and high 30's on my way home into a stiff north wind.

I have the pigtail on all my bikes except the KLR, but I just bought another pigtail so I will soon be connecting it there too. Also, there is an adapter for a few dollars that plugs into the gerbing connector that converts it to the two-prong connector style found on the Yuasa battery tenders. This allows you to adapt the gerbing pigtail to keep your battery topped off, eliminating the need for both pigtails.

If you try to go the other way by making an adapter to use the two-prong charger pigtail and adapt it to the gerbing, be sure to change the fuse. I learned this on a very cold dual sport ride thinking I had heat and realizing too late that I blew the fuse.

One more thing. I was told at the BMW dealer it is not recommended to use the accessory socket for the gerbings. It can be intermittent due to bumps and vibration, which is bad for the controller and the motorcycle's electrical system. Installing the pigtail is easy and is the recommended way to use them.

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[fly]

The Cascade Extreme jacket uses 6.4 amps. The G3 gloves use 2.2 amps. That is a total of 8.6 amps. What is the limit that the controller allows?

I don't know that anyone really knows - but rumor has it 5A. Wouldn't be all that hard to measure if we had a great big rheostat to use as a variable load..

I think Don is right at 5A - I seem to recall reading that in a review of heated clothing and the Canbus system. FWIW, apparently the BMW heated clothing draws somewhat less amperage and works fine with the Canbus system but is significantly more $. Just wire directly to the battery - if you're clever, change the pigtail end so you can use it with both your heated clothing and a battery tender. On the V-Rod I changed the connector for the battery tender so that I can attach directly to the standard Gerbings pigtail to the battery...saves a wire.

[famousperson]

Thanks for the informative replies! I wired the Gerbing supplied harness directly to the battery as suggested. That was trivial My install looks identical to Dan-A's. Now I have to figure out how to wire myself up and get on the bike... or get on the bike and wire myself up... or something...

What is the lowest temperature anyone here has ridden in--with or without heated clothing? I rode once when it was snowing with regular jacket, gloves and long johns. I went VERY slowly and vowed never to do it again!

[TAG-Caver]

When I started watching the temps, I wheeled out my DR650 at 9 degrees Fahrenheit from an unheated garage and it fired and then died once or twice and then it lit and stayed running. That was one cold commute! When I was a kid we didn't watch thermometers, if we could get 'em to start we'd be out on our minibikes and later dirtbikes until our hands froze and we couldn't work the controls. Ah, the good old days!