Gel Batteries and Del Tran Battery Tenders

[Badger]

Do NOT use a del tran battery tender Jr. if you have an '04 or later bike with thje gel battery.

I recently posted a sorry tale involving my 2004 r1150ra, it's, original battery and a del tran battery tender junior. I used the Jr to maintain the battery during the cold winter weeks, bike started and ran fine. Went away for spring break, came back, it was cold then warm, bike had been standing maybe a total of a month, know I was riding on a sunday and put the Jr. on saturday night. Light was red, sunday morning it was green, whoppee....buddy arrived, cranked the starter and while the lights came on, there wasn't enough amperage to turn it over.....just enough to make that horrible exploding saw sound.

So,........buddy gave me a shove down a hill and I popped he clutch in third gear. She fired ride up and we rode for about 90 minutes stopping for lunch in downtown frederick md.......after lunch, came out, turned key...hit the starter...good old saw sound, insufficient cranking amps.

stopped traffic, pushed her down a hill twice, second time she started up and run fine all the way home.

Following day, I tried the bump to get her over to a local dealer to chan ge the battery. Would NOT run. Had to have her towed......(yes I could have attempted batter change myself, but am wrench challenged and it looks complicated, remove tank, undo all those connections)......bike sat for a week....dealer checked her over and determined the original exide gel battery had one or more fried cells......put in new battery...total cost 90.00 towing.....180.00 battery and labor.....UGH!!

Called the service departments of several dealers and del tran. because I was originally told that the del tran jr. was okay to use with a gel batery (note not the plus which puts out 14+ volts at one stage of the charging process and allegedly will fry the gel battery. ) Del tran officially says DON'T use anything but their gel programmed tender with a BMW with a gel battery. BMW says DON'T use anything but their own, BMW programmed version of the del tran.

They say I probably fried my battery with the JR., tho it could have just worn out. Bike was built in '03 so the battery was only three years old. They also say that GEL batteries loose their capacity to hold charge quicker than a glass mat battery which can be charged with the Jr.

I apologize if this posting adds to the confusion. This battery tender stuff is confusing. I am also an ignoramous who has always thought that once you get the engine running the battery does not matter any more. This ain't right.......it looks like your bike will NOT run properly if your battery is fried, period. Maybe I'm harkening back to the era of magnetos...I mean how did that triumph I had 30+ years ago run .......it didn;t seem to need a battery........

[Fozzie]

If you are after an excellent battery tender then try the Optimate III. Handles all batteries: conventional, gel, AGM, the lot ...

Has a six stage charge and maintenance program which works brilliantly.

You can also get a BMW adaptor for the Optimate as an option so you can charge directly through the power port.