CamLentz
Well-Known Member
I recently went on a road trip to Yellowstone and up to Glacier National on my V-Max. From my location in North Dakota, it was about a 2200mile, 5 day road trip. I only had 4 vacation days to use up before July 1, so that's why it was so short. Anyways. Before I left, I installed a 12v plug in to charge my phone and Scala headset, since I was camping and wasn't always going to have an outlet. I followed one of the posts on here and installed it to the battery, and everything worked just fine.
Though my first concern was altitude, my baby hung in there like a champ. But when it came to water and rain, it was a different story. And this I'm not 100% sure on, so maybe you can help after I fully explain.
On my 4th day of the trip, my 2nd full day of rain, I was riding north in Montana, just getting used to the feeling of wet, cold babymakers, when I noticed my Max started to become boggy, and fighting the throttle. I knew I was fine with elevation, as I was twice as high yesterday, and she was fine. I currently had a battery pack plugged into the 12v socket during this leg of the trip, and was planning to remove it when I filled up, which I did. As I stopped to fuel up, she died as we pulled in, and refused to start. I took the opportunity to warm up, eat, and search the forums for carb solutions. I drained the carbs and tried to start, but she wouldn't. A man nice enough jump started it and she started and ran just fine. So, off I went.
About 20 miles down the road, she started to bog again, and finally quit in the middle of nowhere, along Flathead Lake. About 4 hours, several beers, a few strangers and a trailer later, I was in Kalispell, MT at a hotel bar, drowning my soul, and my bike was at a dealer who said they "maybe" could get to it the following day. During these 4 hours, I also noticed that my rear tire was showing thread in the middle of the tire. Funny for being a radial and only a year old. But at this point, it had about 7200 miles on it, so I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it's not the point. The dealer didn't have one in stock, or I would have purchased a new one.
The dealer said they had the battery on a charger all night and the bike fired right up in the morning. After they checked the charging system, they said it was charging to 18v. I guess I don't know if that's good or bad, but they seemed very concerned about me riding it, so I rented a moving truck and drove the 800miles to home with the bike in the back.
Sorry this is so long, but here is where I need some input.
A. Was water in the carbs even an issue for me? Or was it the battery? It was raining pretty hard.
B. Could the battery pack hooked up to the 12v source fry the battery and charging system? Is that my real issue?
C. Other than the R/R, what else could be my issue?
I appreciate every and any input from you guys.
Thanks
Though my first concern was altitude, my baby hung in there like a champ. But when it came to water and rain, it was a different story. And this I'm not 100% sure on, so maybe you can help after I fully explain.
On my 4th day of the trip, my 2nd full day of rain, I was riding north in Montana, just getting used to the feeling of wet, cold babymakers, when I noticed my Max started to become boggy, and fighting the throttle. I knew I was fine with elevation, as I was twice as high yesterday, and she was fine. I currently had a battery pack plugged into the 12v socket during this leg of the trip, and was planning to remove it when I filled up, which I did. As I stopped to fuel up, she died as we pulled in, and refused to start. I took the opportunity to warm up, eat, and search the forums for carb solutions. I drained the carbs and tried to start, but she wouldn't. A man nice enough jump started it and she started and ran just fine. So, off I went.
About 20 miles down the road, she started to bog again, and finally quit in the middle of nowhere, along Flathead Lake. About 4 hours, several beers, a few strangers and a trailer later, I was in Kalispell, MT at a hotel bar, drowning my soul, and my bike was at a dealer who said they "maybe" could get to it the following day. During these 4 hours, I also noticed that my rear tire was showing thread in the middle of the tire. Funny for being a radial and only a year old. But at this point, it had about 7200 miles on it, so I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it's not the point. The dealer didn't have one in stock, or I would have purchased a new one.
The dealer said they had the battery on a charger all night and the bike fired right up in the morning. After they checked the charging system, they said it was charging to 18v. I guess I don't know if that's good or bad, but they seemed very concerned about me riding it, so I rented a moving truck and drove the 800miles to home with the bike in the back.
Sorry this is so long, but here is where I need some input.
A. Was water in the carbs even an issue for me? Or was it the battery? It was raining pretty hard.
B. Could the battery pack hooked up to the 12v source fry the battery and charging system? Is that my real issue?
C. Other than the R/R, what else could be my issue?
I appreciate every and any input from you guys.
Thanks
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