$35.00 Heated Jacket Liner (DIY)

Thanks for the great thread and the easy to understand and follow data/instructions... I wanted a liner/shell similar to what Gerbin and others use and was able to find one at Kmart, it is made by Basic Edition and you can get it on sale for around $10-17.00 ... It has a mesh lining and a few pockets with elastic cuffs, neck and hip/base. It is a shade heavier than the Walmart wind breaker... the only thing it can't do is fold itself into one of the pockets...

they run on the large size, so buy one size smaller than your regular size, I bought a medium which fits me very well with a 44 chest size.

Kmart jacket

Where are they? WHERE ARE THEY??? Man I watch way to many CG movies.

Any pics on the gloves yet? Very interested?

We don't have such cold whether as you guys in the north, but, if it means being less bulky on the bike (think Michelin man), then I am a go for it.....just sad no matter what, my jacket will cost me a lot since my G/S don't generate that much power to play with.

Happy trails and I like it.

I'm kind of in a holding pattern on the gloves. i have had some reservations about my original design. Not electrical issues, but physical routing of the wire. I had originally started by burning small holes in the Thinsulate liner, and threading the wires through them. Then i decided to do a little sewing to hold everything in place and have no wire touching skin. Now, I'm wondering if the Thinsulate will keep the heat from getting to my skin effectivley, and am considering sewing a second liner in the glove with wiring attached.

I haven't had any time to work on them due to work, but my goal is to finish the whole setup this weekend. Pics and build report will be posted then.

Sorry for the wait, yes, my hands re REALLY sorry for the wait!

Found another source for the teflon wire, Bulkwire.com, at $20.67 for a 100 feet spool and $4.95 for s&h.

it has the following specs:

Conductor
Silver-plated stranded copper wire

Insulation
Extruded PTFE

Temperature Range
-65°C to +200°C (-85°F to +392°F)

Compliances

• MIL-W-16878E/4 Type E
• MIL-STD-104

Applications

• Aviation
• Military
• Racing
• Commercial

Voltage Rating
600 VAC

I think you want a little bit of buffer between the wires and your skin. I have a set of Mike's Warm-n-Safe liner and carbon/leather gloves with a dual controller. They work very well and can really crank out the heat, but ...

I have to wear a long sleeved poly liner between the jacket and my body to keep from getting uncomfortable hot spots when I crank it up over half way. The gloves have the same issue. When I crank them up I can actually get annoying hot spots where the wires come close to the skin. Not 1st degree burn hot, but definitely a "wow, gotta turn 'em down" point.

Edit add: My Widder vest seems to have a little more thinsulate between the wires and my body. Never a problem.

Thanks for the tip!!

HOLD EVERYTHING, It's back to plan A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What was plan A again?! :huh

The jacket liner should be worn over a single layer of heat retaining thin shirt like underarmor or similar. More layers means more insulation from the heat. I learned this the hard way after a week of layering up - turns out in 18F all I need is a single UA mock long sleeve coldgear shirt, and the liner. Voila.

Plan A; Route the wires inside the Thinsulate liner. I completed one glove last night, and it went pretty quick. I burned "Access Holes" at strategic points in the liner and pulled the wire through, then sewed it and pulled it back through to the next hole. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Contact Mike at Warm & Safe, You might have wiring problems. See what he thinks. It's a lifetime warranty on wiring. I wear a short sleeve T shirt and don't have your issues.

What? You need to REALLY advertise this fact!! I did a LOT of reaserch before starting this project, and NEVER found this fact about your product. :huh

Well, the long awaited HEATED GLOVES are 100%. I started with a set of waterproof insulated gloves from Academy Sporting Goods. Not riding gloves per say, but when you live in BFE like me, and it’s an hour to anything close to a city, you take what you can get. Here they are in their most pristine state (Inside and Out)
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Gauntlet? No. Protective bits in al the right places? No. Waterproof and warm? YEA!!!!!!!
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I proceeded to burn “access holes” in the Thinsulate liner at strategic points to get the wire ran. After several trial with error attempts, I found a piece of machinist wire folded in half to be he perfect threading tool. Just run it from one hole to the other, and pull th wire through.
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Just before I would pull the last of the loop through the hole, I would sew it to hold it in place, then pull the last bit of slack in so no wire is exposed.


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I ran one loop down the top of each finger and thumb on the back side of each hand. On the palm side, I ran a loop around the thumb, across the crease of the hand, and one across the wrist, hoping this will help heat the blood flowing to the hand and cut down on the Reynards effect.
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Here’s the routing..
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I ran 10 feet of wire in each glove, so to get the proper resistance I need, I ran the two gloves in series. This is accomplished through the Y cord. I fashioned a Y cord and hot-glued Velcro tabs to the liner in my Roadgear Jacket liner.
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The reason I didn’t wire this in to my heated liner is I imagine I’ll need the gloves in temps where I won’t need the liner. I’ll always have my riding jacket and liner on in these temps, so I put it in there. I hot-glued Velcro to the Y cord to make it easy to install and remove.
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!!!!!!!!!!LESSON LEARNED!!!!!!!!!
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DO NOT purchase ANYTHING for your build at Radio Shack, ESPECIALLY the power connectors. Their connectors are cheap made, but expensive to buy. A couple of them melted before I could get the solder to stick.
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Anyway, back at the farm… I took them out and hooked them up to the truck battery, and Mmm Mmm MMM,,,,,,, Toasty!!!
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They draw about 4.8 amps Max, heat up FAST, and feel GOOD!!!!
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I also finished my heat controller today. I’ll post that next.
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EXCELLENT WORK 65 Flathead! I love this stuff. I've had good luck with the 2 pole SAE plugs I get at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $2.99 a pair. Ditto on Radio Shack crap. I did give up on the controllers and shelled out for the Heat-Trollers. I still use a DPDT switch on my heated insoles since I don't use them much. It simply switches from series to parallel.

I noticed you're not far from me. (southerners making heated gear - go figure) I might get away to ride in Arkansas right after Christmas and try out my latest homemade electrics - maybe we could compare notes.

PS: I wouldn't hesitate to sew in your Y cord. I didn't like having it moving around in my jacket. I wear my heated jacket liner all winter if only to supply power to the gloves. My Y cord wires tuck away nicely in the cuffs so I just plug 'em in when I need 'em.


https://kphenix.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Homemade-Heated-Glove-Jacket/4152228_eBgPS#255267202_JMsqx

Yea, and they talk about Redneck Engineering like it's a bad thing!

Notes? I got TONS of notes! I just dont know where I put them after I wite them. But yea, I'd be very interested in that.

I got my home made heat controller hooked up now, so I'll probably go for a test ride toniht or early in the morning. If all is a go, it'll be daily use after that. I can say one thing though, If this controller ever S--t's the bed, I'm going with a Warm and Safe duel controller. I may have saved about 40 bucks, but mine isn't nearly as compact, and it was a pain to build.

Thanks for sharing all this. You have me back in the mood to try this myself. I actually went as far to buy some 30 AWG wire myself like 2+ years ago. This is what I have - http://www.alphawire.com/Products/Wire/Hook-Up-Wire/Premium/5851.aspx. I don't remember if that's where I actually bought it from, but that is the part number and specs on the spool. I probably paid around $20-$25 for a 100' spool.

The reason I never followed through though was as soon as I bought the wire, a set of 2 older Eclipse Vests & chaps popped up on CL for $100 for all 4 pieces, so I gave in and bought them. Both the vests ended up being too big for me, but I love the fact of having heat, so I sold them and bought 2 different sets of used "gears" electric vests to try out instead. They work pretty good, but I keep thinking a full liner would be so nice along with heated gloves. I did finally break down and actually buy the Gerbing's Dual controller which really made enjoying a low simmer heat so nice instead of either full blast or nothing. I was fed up with just using an on/off switch to regulate my heat.

I've been so close to actually getting the Gerbing liner and gloves or the Synergy stuff, but dropping the $350-$400 on that stuff just isn't in my budget right now, plus upgrading my wife from her Gerbing vest to a liner and some gloves would double that cost. If I can make us something, I think that would be pretty cool.

I know what you mean. It wasn't in mine either. I have about $100 buckstied up in the whole thing (Less controller). I'd suggest you make it a team effort with the wife. It gets prety tedious running all that wire.

One thing i don't think I mentioned in this whole thread is solder and heat shrink tubing. Solder and heat shrink EVERY connecion to avoid problems.

If you don't mind putting together a little tutorial about the way you soldered the wires and what you used, that would definitely be a plus. I'm dangerous enough to get soldering done, but by no means efficient or actually know what I'm doing!

The TM Synergy stuff is good however, the gloves have no heat in the thumbs and if the carbon fiber or micro-wire heating elements fail out on the road you're screwed. If you make it yourself you know whatcha got. I have made "field repairs" to my glove & jacket liners and never missed a beat.

That was definitely one of my concerns was where the heat was in the gloves and trying to fix repairs on the road.

Everyday commuting would just be an inconvenience if something breaks, but if you are on a long trip and something dies and you were really depending on it, that can definitely hamper your trip. Knowing how to fix it is a definite plus.

Two loops - good. One thing you might consider is separating the terminals on one end and rig up a "jumper". I originally built my jacket liner to be used without a controller and I have terminals I can change from parallel to series. If your controller ever fails out on the road you can "hard wire" the 2 loops in a series and enjoy a constant 50% power level.

I finally go the heat controller posted!

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11220457#post11220457