Modern Buddy

I purchased a pair of heated gloves to use on the Buddy 125, which has no mods or electrical system upgrades. I also plan to purchase the jacket liner, and will probably need to upgrade the electrical output. The Gloves use 27 watts at 2.2 amps, and the jacket will need 77 watts at 6.4 amps. All are interconnected and plug into the 12v outlet on the console. Does anyone know the stock power output for the 125? I probably will need to upgrade, but I'm an electrical moron, what do I need to do to make this bama put out more?

Jacket Liner
Current 6.4 amps
Watts 77 watts

Gerbing's G3 Heated Gloves
12-volts DC
Current 2.2 amps
Watts 27 watts

At the very least, you'll need to add another 12v accessory plug, probably under the seat for an easier time connecting. The stock 12v outlet is intended for charging a phone and has about a 1amp fuse.

You'll probably want to get a battery tender to recharge the battery every night. That's going to be a serious drain on the electrical system, but you'll be warm.

I'd also invest in a charging gage so you can keep tabs on how the scoot is running.

You can probably safely run the gloves, but the vest will probably be too much.

Lostmycage wrote:At the very least, you'll need to add another 12v accessory plug, probably under the seat for an easier time connecting. The stock 12v outlet is intended for charging a phone and has about a 1amp fuse.

You'll probably want to get a battery tender to recharge the battery every night. That's going to be a serious drain on the electrical system, but you'll be warm.

I'd also invest in a charging gage so you can keep tabs on how the scoot is running.

You can probably safely run the gloves, but the vest will probably be too much.

I actually swapped the 1A fuse for a 5A fuse, then purposefully popped it to be sure I didn't burn up any wiring. Its fine. The wiring to the 12V outlet is 12-14G so its more than enough for that much amperage.

That being said, my new 5A heated grips are killing my battery. I ran them to and from work(50mi round trip) for 2.5 days, and had to kickstart it for the trip home.

I recall the wiring at the Battery as being around 14g, but I never traced it all the way to the plug. I like to err on caution when it comes to electrics because that's the easiest place to save in costs when building and the most difficult to track down when something goes wrong.

I'd suggest a windshield instead of a vest heater and looking at installing some knuckle guards instead of heated grips/ gloves. You might be ablet o adapt something from a dirt bike to the Buddy's handlebars. I remember that being one of the things I really liked about the Suzuki Vstrom. If you add in some bar weights (the expansion type) that might give you the connection point you need on the bar end side to connect it to. It'd look a little goofy, but your fingers wouldn't care.

Don't get me wrong here... I friggin love my heated grips (PO of my MC installed them, not on my scoot), except that I have to keep turning them off because they work too well.

Lostmycage wrote:I recall the wiring at the Battery as being around 14g, but I never traced it all the way to the plug. I like to err on caution when it comes to electrics because that's the easiest place to save in costs when building and the most difficult to track down when something goes wrong.

I'd suggest a windshield instead of a vest heater and looking at installing some knuckle guards instead of heated grips/ gloves. You might be ablet o adapt something from a dirt bike to the Buddy's handlebars. I remember that being one of the things I really liked about the Suzuki Vstrom. If you add in some bar weights (the expansion type) that might give you the connection point you need on the bar end side to connect it to. It'd look a little goofy, but your fingers wouldn't care.

Don't get me wrong here... I friggin love my heated grips (PO of my MC installed them, not on my scoot), except that I have to keep turning them off because they work too well.

Yeah, I'd second all that. My windshield is still my best cold weather mod.
My grips are fantastic as well, on high I actually burned my hand through my gloves a few days back. And as long as I take an ocasional ride with them off they've been fine.

Too bad those don't come with a dial gauge. Off Low and Hi don't seem to do the trick, hehe.

Kaos wrote: I actually swapped the 1A fuse for a 5A fuse, then purposefully popped it to be sure I didn't burn up any wiring. Its fine. The wiring to the 12V outlet is 12-14G so its more than enough for that much amperage.

That being said, my new 5A heated grips are killing my battery. I ran them to and from work(50mi round trip) for 2.5 days, and had to kickstart it for the trip home.

The trick with that is you could still develop fires in your wiring, even though it hasn't happened yet. Just keep an eye on it.

bluebuddygirl wrote:

Kaos wrote: I actually swapped the 1A fuse for a 5A fuse, then purposefully popped it to be sure I didn't burn up any wiring. Its fine. The wiring to the 12V outlet is 12-14G so its more than enough for that much amperage.

That being said, my new 5A heated grips are killing my battery. I ran them to and from work(50mi round trip) for 2.5 days, and had to kickstart it for the trip home.

The trick with that is you could still develop fires in your wiring, even though it hasn't happened yet. Just keep an eye on it.

Yeah, I'm aware of that, though I'm not real worried about it. 14g wire is plenty for 5A. I think they only put a 1A in there to keep you from draining the battery.

Kaos wrote:

bluebuddygirl wrote:

Kaos wrote: I actually swapped the 1A fuse for a 5A fuse, then purposefully popped it to be sure I didn't burn up any wiring. Its fine. The wiring to the 12V outlet is 12-14G so its more than enough for that much amperage.

That being said, my new 5A heated grips are killing my battery. I ran them to and from work(50mi round trip) for 2.5 days, and had to kickstart it for the trip home.

The trick with that is you could still develop fires in your wiring, even though it hasn't happened yet. Just keep an eye on it.

Yeah, I'm aware of that, though I'm not real worried about it. 14g wire is plenty for 5A. I think they only put a 1A in there to keep you from draining the battery.

Got it, wasn't sure of the gauge of the wire, and yes 14g should be plenty.

Lostmycage wrote:Too bad those don't come with a dial gauge. Off Low and Hi don't seem to do the trick, hehe.

http://www.12voltclothing.com/Heat_trol ... trols.html
I have one and love it.
-K

Lostmycage wrote:You can probably safely run the gloves, but the vest will probably be too much.

+1. I have found that 2amps is the most I can push the electrical without any ill effects.

Kevin K wrote: http://www.12voltclothing.com/Heat_trol ... trols.html
I have one and love it.
-K

I was referring to the grip heaters. If you do find a troller (rheostat) for a hard installed grip heater, please let me know. I'd be quite grateful.

Lostmycage wrote:

Kevin K wrote: http://www.12voltclothing.com/Heat_trol ... trols.html
I have one and love it.
-K

I was referring to the grip heaters. If you do find a troller (rheostat) for a hard installed grip heater, please let me know. I'd be quite grateful.

Might this work? The site looks like the crap, but this guy is the Heat-Troller guy. Gerbings got the idea for their new controllers from him.

Handgrip Heat-Troller

I'm running heated gloves now, so no need for heated grips (and the research needed for a switch). Good luck!

siobhan wrote:

Lostmycage wrote:

Kevin K wrote: http://www.12voltclothing.com/Heat_trol ... trols.html
I have one and love it.
-K

I was referring to the grip heaters. If you do find a troller (rheostat) for a hard installed grip heater, please let me know. I'd be quite grateful.

Might this work? The site looks like the crap, but this guy is the Heat-Troller guy. Gerbings got the idea for their new controllers from him.

Handgrip Heat-Troller

I'm running heated gloves now, so no need for heated grips (and the research needed for a switch). Good luck!

Why not just use a .25c Radio Shack variable resistor. It'll do the same thing

siobhan wrote:
Might this work?

Handgrip Heat-Troller
!

That's the one I was going to post.
-K

Oh, thanks for the tips folks! I might have to try those out... maybe starting with the Radioshack version first, lol.

Lostmycage wrote:Oh, thanks for the tips folks! I might have to try those out... maybe starting with the Radioshack version first, lol.

You might want to call the Heat-Troller guy first. He was able to provide the necessary connectors with the Heat-Troller I got for my scoot. That made the connections very clean and simple.
Tim