Even with the new battery, you only have a couple of attempts for the engine to start when it's cold. By cold, I mean somewhere around 0°F not simply a cold-ish 40°F. So I went ahead and installed the group 24 automotive battery in a marine battery box into the sidecar. This is the same setup that I've been using for years. The battery still seems to be in good shape or at least good enough for the Ural. After sitting around since last April, it still had 95% charge or at least that's what the display on the battery charger claimed. In the past, I removed the sidecar seat bottom for the battery box but even with the battery located here in front of the seat, the weight of the battery is still (barely) within the triangle formed by the contact patches of the three tires. I do have the three gallons of gas near the rear of the sidecar body. And that is behind the triangle.
3:32PM and the sun has already set. This was just shot from our back deck looking towards the southwest. I rode the Ural this morning and it sat out at 8°F for about five hours. It started up on the first compression though the enrichers had to be left on for about 30 sec. Normally, I only leave the enrichers on for a couple of seconds. The automotive battery is nice insurance to have.
The forecast for tomorrow is snow flurries but I do have some running around to do. I think I'm starting to get used to the temperatures again.
Yep, the puny motorcycle batteries just aren't up to the task of spinning things up in really cold weather....even if you use the kickstart to at least move things a bit within the engine to loosen things up....I figure the oil is the consistency of molasses if it gets cold enough and the poor battery just isn't up to it.
ReplyDeleteSo did you take the onboard moto battery out or just hook up the group24 battery in series?
The stock battery just has the ground wire disconnected. I’m using the battery clamp screw for all of the negative wires and the positive stock battery post for the positive wires. 2 AWG cables run from those points into the sidecar.
DeleteI see, just to confirm I understand, the moto battery is bypassed completely.
DeleteYep, the stock battery is bypassed completely.
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