Sandbagger Posted January 13, 2011 Share #1 Posted January 13, 2011 I just got a battery tender Jr. for my 2000 RSV. The directions say to hook up the positive to the battery and negative to the frame or vice versa. It doesn't offer what I thought was the obvious way to hook the thing up which was the red to red and black to black. How do you hook them up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingy Posted January 13, 2011 Share #2 Posted January 13, 2011 I just got a battery tender Jr. for my 2000 RSV. The directions say to hook up the positive to the battery and negative to the frame or vice versa. It doesn't offer what I thought was the obvious way to hook the thing up which was the red to red and black to black. How do you hook them up? Positive (red lead 99.99% of time) to positive battery terminal. Negative (black lead 99.99% of time) to negative battery terminal. Running negative to a frame ground will work, if it was mine I would go to battery. You already need to run positive there, might as well do both. If you still are not sure, use a meter. If you don't have one, they are cheap, Harbor Freight has one for under $5. If your not sure how to use a meter, PM me, I will try to help. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyR Posted January 13, 2011 Share #3 Posted January 13, 2011 I have both hooked to the battery posts. The black post is then wired to the frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saddlebum Posted January 13, 2011 Share #4 Posted January 13, 2011 I just got a battery tender Jr. for my 2000 RSV. The directions say to hook up the positive to the battery and negative to the frame or vice versa. It doesn't offer what I thought was the obvious way to hook the thing up which was the red to red and black to black. How do you hook them up?Those are standard directions for any battery charger or booster cables. It is simply a safety measure. Should there be hydrogen gas fumes around the battery and a spark occurs while connecting the battery, the dang thing could explode. I have seen this happen a couple of times in shops were I have worked. Generally though if you connect to the battery first then plug the charger in last you should not have any issues. However if you smell that rotten egg scent around the battery, Be very carefull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freebird Posted January 13, 2011 Share #5 Posted January 13, 2011 I agree. I have mine hooked to the battery posts also. Now this is the pigtail that comes with the battery tender and stays on the bike so once you have it installed, there is no increased danger of a spark. Like Saddlebum said, hooking the negative to a ground away from the battery is an old safety measure that is recommended if you are using jumper cables to start a car or something. It is a good idea in that case but not really necessary when installing the battery tender pigtail. I think going directly to the battery posts is better in this case. I also think that the danger of the gases and a spark causing an explosion is not nearly as great with all these new sealed batteries as it was with the old lead acid batteries that had the removable fill caps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condor Posted January 13, 2011 Share #6 Posted January 13, 2011 I might add that as low of an amperage that these tenders put out, running the negative thru a frame ground would even create more resistence and a lower tender rate. Battery posts are the only logical connection.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynodon Posted January 13, 2011 Share #7 Posted January 13, 2011 I have about 10 of these at my place (all Battery Tender brand) between the mowers, tractor, motorcycles and various other things with batteries. ALL are hooked directly to both battery terminals. NOTE: if you get battery acid, you have a problem, either a bad battery, or a charging system that overcharges. Most of the time it is a bad battery that can still start and run things for a while, but will overcharge and gas out causing the acid. So just cleaning things up won't help. I used to buy 2-3 new batteries a year before I started using the Battery Tenders on everything, now I buy maybe one battery every two years! These things WORK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capn eddie Posted January 14, 2011 Share #8 Posted January 14, 2011 I also hook mine up to the battery posts so i concure with the rest of these guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now