Hey Guys, I'm up for a new battery for the beemer! I went to the battery place today and the guy recommended a high cranking maint free battery, with 420ca and 19vh. The battery that is in it is some jap battery with 260ca and 28vh.

The owners book says the battery should be of 20vh-30vh. Will the high ca but lower vh battery be better??? or will it fry things???

your thoughts will be appreciated!!

Cheers Jud

Don't you mean 19Ah for amp-hour?

Anyway: Mine is a 19Ah BMW-branded sealed system battery that was in there when I bought it and it has been fine. Just make sure it's a good quality. If you can afford it, I highly recommend an AGM - Activated Glass Matrix - battery. Costs twice as much, but lasts longer, no maintenance, no problems with vibration, no leaking - fantastic.

jud the high crank amps ...means the battery has a large plate surface area ....not many plates ...(which is the guide to battery "grunt")

do you have any experience with car batteries .....you might remember that the "13 plate " type car battereies are better for starting ...hard to start type motors in high temps, usually finicky v8 s and stuff ....usually when they break down, have vapor locks and some such .



but to be honest i dont think that, if you have a reliable motor start process that you should worry about that so much ...unless you have lots of accessories that you run whilst the engine is turned off .



lets face it,,,, battery plating disolves at the same rate and weather you have a 8,9,10,11,12 or 13 plate battery it really doesnt matter ,,with the current production practices ...you should expect it to die within 3-5 years . the local guys are promoting chloride type batteries lately rather that the lead acid types that we are all farmiliar with.......(i really dont have much experience with these newbys)



but they all promote the low maintenance batteries



just get a good lead acid type ...dont forget to take off the breather bungs every now and then (refilling with deminerailised water ,,,before a reasonable trip ) ...care of the battery is in your best interest if you want long lasting ...cleaning the terminals to assure a good charge is most important and making sure there is a charging process happening regularly ( as batteries self discharge regardless of other factors ...you just have to know the rate ).



for our poor northern friends they have many months where riding is not an option ....but we are blessed with the ability to ride year round



i'd just go with something conventional and reasonably priced ...as you will have to do the process again some time soonish .

Last time I mentioned my sealed, maintenance free, AGM, 19Ah, $80.00 ebay golf-cart battery purchased over a year ago (and not a problem since), I got laughed at...so, I'm not going to mention it this time.

great find blakey..... congrats mate

Thanks Guys

These battery's are around the $180 mark and he says he's been selling them to all the "Harley Boys" without any come back. The gel type are twice that and I asked about the AGM batteries and he really didn't have much idea!

But agreed, I seem to have have to replace my batteries every few years regardless whether it was a cheepie or not!!!!

I am going to get a trickle charger as well, as there's nothing worse than when the sun comes out and the bike is flat

Yes sorry I meant Vh

Thanks again!

judsrs, you need to ride it more

Ah,Ah,Ah Doh!!

Jhepburn wrote:judsrs, you need to ride it more

Yeh well I'm getting a bit nancy in my older age

I use a 30Ah in all my Ks but a 19-20AH will work fine. I think the smaller one was in the RS where the RT & LT had the 30Ah

I use a bigger battery because I run a CPAP of it when we go camping. I get 3 nights out of it and it still starts the heap.

good work jud ......batteries from discharged ....notice i didnt say flat ,,,require about 8-10 hours charge time on a charger capable of providing at least 10-20% of the current rating of the battery to get it back up to something like charged ....

so for a 19 amp/hour battery you would need to pump nearly 2-3 amps into that sucker to get her back to normal ..... ...dont forget as the battery voltage increases the current drops off to nearly insignificant levels (when trickle charge is in its own region )





good luck buddie

Jud, I am in the process of getting a K100 RT back on the road and just bought a new battery. It is a Motobat MBTX30U and it has 4 terminal points. You can buy extra terminals and use them to connect things like accessories and battery tenders. That way you can have just the + and - cables on there own terminals. Cost me $184 but it is maintenance free and can be fitted upside down if you want .

Haven't tried it out yet but the motobatt website said it was the one to have. Supposed to last longer and have more cranking amps than most batteries.



http://www.motobatt.com.au/

I have a 30AH on mine and it works fine, Dave I have heard some good reports on those Motobatt batteries they seem to be good value.



BIG D

CanberraDave wrote:Jud, I am in the process of getting a K100 RT back on the road and just bought a new battery. It is a Motobat MBTX30U and it has 4 terminal points.

That is what I have in the 3 Ks and also the Kawasaki Z1300 all are great. Despite having trouble with one bike making the battery drain for as yet an unknown reason they are good batteries.

The guy I buy from in town is a mate of mine for 35 years and he said that in round 2 1/2years he hasn't had a return.

One of the Ulysses club guys here has a ST1100 Honda and never got more than 3 years from a battery and has just past the 6 years with a Gel but I don't know what brand.

judsrs wrote:
Yes sorry I meant Vh

ah = amp hours. VH is an old Holden, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm using a Yuasa personal watercraft (fancy name for a Jet Ski) battery of 20ah and which fits exactly as the 19ah BMW battery
(61 21 2 346 800) does. It's a sealed, maintenance-free AGM unit and cost me about a hunnerd skins. I use a Yuasa 900ma charger on it when static for a week or more...which means never since I ride every day, and it's lasted two years now. I typically get three to five years from my batteries with proper care and feeding.

Oh, a visit to the golf links is not required to charge the thing up, or to play pasture pool. But the bike is red.

Cheap shot.

Cheap shots are the best!