I now own a new '18A and will retire my '09A w/121K miles. Discussion is about change of regulator location and charging harness.
On my Gen II, the regulator was down near the swingarm in the back. Power to the battery was degraded because it went through the main harness on the left side of the bike to the battery. It was OK with stock requirements, but when you started adding farkles to include aux lights, gps, heated clothing, and whatever else, it had issues keeping up. My voltmeter would often dip into the 12s when running any of these add ons.
The fix was to abandon the stock harness in place by leaving it connected to the battery but disconnecting at the regulator (I triple sealed the connector and zip tied it off). You would then add an aftermarket harness that went up the right side of the bike directly from the regulator to the battery. I did that and it made a huge difference. I now rarely see it lower than mid-13s even when running several items.
Now, for Gen III, I notice that the regulator is upper left near the glove box. Have they also improved the reg to battery harness so that it gets better power out for charging? The new location looks like it should as the harness is no longer feeding everything else on the bike along the way between reg & battery.
The new bike will not be as "over the top" like my Gen II, but I still want it primarily for LD work. I am trying to plan my farkle add ons but don't know if the charging system harness needs attention like the old bike. Of course, these days everything is LED for lights which helps with power load. Factory heated grips will be part of a heated setup to include heated seat (I'm sending in my RDL for mods) and outlets for clothing. I'll have a couple of GPS units, and a USB charging outlet someplace, but that should be it.
If the new setup is in fact an improvement, then it should handle all of this OK. Anyone have Gen III LD experience and input? I haven't touched anything yet. Just got my new service manual and trying to plan things out. The bike only has 33 miles on the ODO at this writing.
TIA
On my Gen II, the regulator was down near the swingarm in the back. Power to the battery was degraded because it went through the main harness on the left side of the bike to the battery. It was OK with stock requirements, but when you started adding farkles to include aux lights, gps, heated clothing, and whatever else, it had issues keeping up. My voltmeter would often dip into the 12s when running any of these add ons.
The fix was to abandon the stock harness in place by leaving it connected to the battery but disconnecting at the regulator (I triple sealed the connector and zip tied it off). You would then add an aftermarket harness that went up the right side of the bike directly from the regulator to the battery. I did that and it made a huge difference. I now rarely see it lower than mid-13s even when running several items.
Now, for Gen III, I notice that the regulator is upper left near the glove box. Have they also improved the reg to battery harness so that it gets better power out for charging? The new location looks like it should as the harness is no longer feeding everything else on the bike along the way between reg & battery.
The new bike will not be as "over the top" like my Gen II, but I still want it primarily for LD work. I am trying to plan my farkle add ons but don't know if the charging system harness needs attention like the old bike. Of course, these days everything is LED for lights which helps with power load. Factory heated grips will be part of a heated setup to include heated seat (I'm sending in my RDL for mods) and outlets for clothing. I'll have a couple of GPS units, and a USB charging outlet someplace, but that should be it.
If the new setup is in fact an improvement, then it should handle all of this OK. Anyone have Gen III LD experience and input? I haven't touched anything yet. Just got my new service manual and trying to plan things out. The bike only has 33 miles on the ODO at this writing.
TIA
