What Watts??
 

Howdy all, I live in northern Illinois and intend on riding as long as I can into the winter. Have been using battery powered heated gloves-socks and they have been ok, went to my local bike center to see if my bike puts out enough watts to power 12V heated gear, they said no way a 09 klx will handle it. Have any of you tried this?? I can find nothing that shows what watts i have left?? Also if this doesnt work I am looking at gerbig battery powered gear, has anybody used gerbig? Looks as if they have the best battery powered gloves-socks-vest's out there. Thanks Charles

The older european/asian KLX250 had a spec of 14.5 amps at 7,000rpm out of the alternator.

Ride on
Brewster

I just installed some heated grips on my 09 KLX. I haven't even ridden anywhere with it yet, but I did test them out and no fuses blew and they worked fine. I guess the real test would be to see if they drain the battery on a long ride, but I suspect the system can handle the extra 35-50 watts or so. Maybe someone with a service manual can look up the alternator output.

I've tested and run my Gerbings jacket on full power, bike handles it no problem, even with the high beam and brake light on. You probably can't run the gloves and jacket at the same time, but a cheap multimeter from Radio Shack and some testing will give you all the info you need.

For the 2009:

16 A-14 V @5 000 r/min (rpm)

For the older KLXs:

14.5 A/14 V @7000 r/min (rpm)

Do the math on the lights and CDI power draw, and you'll find out how much you have left for accessories. I would imagine not much extra watts left since the stators were only designed for what they needed to power to make the bike as light as possible. There's probably not much margin built in. But hey, put a penny in the fuse clip and anything is possible!

Or better yet, if you know all this, put a clamp on ammeter to the positive terminal of the battery with the bike running at 7k RPM with the bright lights on, a turn signal, and the break light illuminated. That will give you a good guesstimate.

Cheers,

Anthony

I've run the Tourmaster heated vest with collar the last two winters with no issues. It's rated at 55 watts and really helps out on cold days. I don't think there's enough juice to run the grips and vest together, though, or I'd already be doing it.

Sometimes I'll notice that if I'm idling at a stoplight the vest will seem to cool down a bit, and when the light turns green and I'm revving the engine and accelerating away, the vest will suddenly seem to get warmer.

Wife has been out riding a klx250s 2010 all day today with a Gerbings heated jacket liner on. It draws 77 watts, so that's really no problem on the road with the RPM's up. Now on the trails, at low RPM, I'd recommend adding a headlight kill switch. Then you'd also have that 55 watts that the headlight draws. NOTE: She uses a gerbings thermostat. The thermostat turns the power on and off, in kind of a flashing pattern. The higher up you crank it, the more it stays on the "on" side, up to 100% on time. A lot of times she's running it at 100%. You're going to spend 3 bills on it all, but once you ride with it, you'll not be returning it for a refund. PS: Hooked directly to the battery with an in-line fuse.

As long as it does not draw Charlie.....

For somebody that rides daylight hours only, it might be worth looking for a 35w headlight bulb. That would keep the bike street legal and maybe free up enough current to run a vest and grips on those really cold days when you just have to get out.

If these numbers are correct, the 09's good for around 220w.

That seems to me like plenty of headroom and i would imagine you would have no problems with accessories up t0 100w. :D