Monster battery too much drain on charging system?

The Super Tenere tug is now over 5 years old which means the original battery oughta be replaced? It's done a great job despite it's tiny 12 AH rating so I don't absolutely NEED more capacity. But while the Chinese knock offs are a dime a dozen, the OEM Yuasa is darn near $200! With AGM 63 AH deep cycle/starting batteries going for a bit over $100, I'm tempted to make up some long battery cables and mount it in the sidecar.

Only question is, will that big battery overstress the charging system? I've used car batteries on airheads with no problems, but I've heard of Stroms toasting their stators when asked to charge a car sized battery. Anybody had problems using car sized batteries on bikes like the Super Tenere?

I'm sure one of these engineers will sort it out correctly but it's about the load not the battery size if you install a 12v fridge and go to Costco and fill it with high gravity ale and stay drunk all weekend the battery will go down on the way home the charging circuit is going to struggle and that may kill the regulator !
But wait if your drunk all weekend at the rallies you may not want to argue ! I'll call Dan and see what he thinks, could you add a microwave too ?

There’s drinking at rallies? Who’d a thunk it. Maybe I’ll go to one, someday.

Suzuki had a stator recall on certain year DL models

Some R/R were in question as well

As long as you have enough CCA use any battery you want

The stator cannot burn out from the size of a battery

The only thing it knows how to do is produce Alternating Current when the engine is running

The Regulator/Rectifier converts the AC to DC

Actually you don"t change AC to DC...it's the same electron it's just when you send an AC electron through a rectifier...series of Diodes...it won't allow the electron to go back the way it came...hence the terms Alternating or Direct

It's funny how people think they're different

I always get a kick out of experts telling me all about it

Anyway....the R/R determines when and how much voltage the battery will recieve from the stator

Concern yourself more with wire gauge and a fusible link

Of all the things to Cheap Out on....a Battery isn't one of them

Spend the money and you won't have to worry about it for another 5 years

If money is an issue check the health of the battery

You can check the specific gravity yourself

Have it load tested...most places do it for free

You may find you don't need one right now

A high quality...expensive battery...can last up to 8+ years if it's maintained properly


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Run the battery you think you need. The charging system doesn't know/care what battery you have. The regular controls alt output according to elec load used not size of the battery.

Thanks for the info TurTal, didn't realize 'Strom alternators were failing even with the standard smallish batteries. Searching over at yamahasupertenere.com it seems the S10 stators are pretty reliable with only the odd failure. So think I'll go ahead and fit the big deep cycle/starting battery in the 'hack. But first, gotta get the 'hack fixed- Being as it's raining, took the body off for a rattle can respray and found a cracked weld where the tube around the torsion bar mates with the main frame member. Would probably work fine with that tube completely gone, but being less than 100 miles from Motorvation and being as they can fit me in thursday, gonna pull the 'hack off this afternoon... Hopefully have it together for the Big Sioux Riders rally on the Big MO river this weekend.

5 years out of the battery, even at $200.... don’t you think it is a good deal???


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True if the battery is kept close to full charge.
OTOH, bringing up a large battery from deep discharge will test the cooling ability of the rectifier and the integrity of its connections.

You should never rely upon nor should you try to Charge a dead battery with the onboard alternator

The battery should be properly cycled/charged on a digital charger...then installed

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Good plan, TT.
Better plan: never allow a lead-acid battery to drop below 50%.

BTW, I think the S10 has one of those infamous "total loss" regulators- It simply shorts any excess juice to ground, so the stator runs full tilt all the time, regardless of battery.

I think the OEM R/R is a Shunt type

Run a Mosfet R/R or a Series R/R

Your voltage will be higher and more stable at idle and your stator will be happier

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That's what I ended up doing on my BMW F800S after it roasted two consecutive stators.

I agree with this statement. Always fully charge the battery before you put it into service. Batteries have a memory and if they are not fully charged at the start of their life, they will never reach max charge off the bikes charging system. Also the bikes charging system or for that matter a modern cars is not up to the task of charging a new battery.

A battery is just a reservoir, if your charging system can't keep up with the demand, it will eventually drain the large battery too. Your charging system needs to be able to meet the demand of your rig regardless of what size battery you are using.

I don't think you'll see lead-acid batteries doing this.
They are damaged by leaving them undercharged for significant periods of time.
But a properly running alternator will always take them to full charge--and beyond.
The damaged battery will have less capacity than a new one but it will still charge fully if the cells are intact.

The large battery has an advantage here since it heats up more slowly than a small battery at any given charge rate.

I always use garden tractor/old Guzzi batteries in my 650 Triumph sidecar outfit, the most feeble charging system in motorcycling, no problem.

For what’s it worth I switched my rig to a UTV battery. It’s 350 cold cranked doesn’t take up too much room and cranks my GSA lot better than those over priced stock batteries.

If it wasn´t the stators or the R/R it was the magnets coming unglued from the rotor assembly. That was on some DL650s and (IIRC) all DL1000s. Possible to judiciously bodge the magnets back into place if you catch it in time but what were Suzuki thinking in the first place with that design?

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