Victory Motorcycle Forum banner

Battery - Replacement

20K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  depot picker 
#1 ·
Good Morning,
One important question?
Cross Country calls for a battery with 310 Cold Cranking Amps.
Is it safe to go with a higher cca battery?
Any and all advise will be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
i like to go with a little higher cca. if you go to a higher compression or add cams sometimes you have to go higher. no need to get crazy if you aren't bumping up compression though, or maybe start it in very cold weather a lot. personally i would go with about a 350cca on a stock compression/cam bike.
 
#3 ·
Battery

Thinking of purchasing the following:
MagnaPower 12-Volt Sealed AGM Premium Powersport Battery, 440 CCA.Do you think this is over kill?

Or should I just stick with the following:
MagnaPower 12-Volt Sealed AGM Premium Powersport Battery, 310 CCA.
Currently use the 310 CCa on my Yamaha Road Star, very god battery.

Number one priority is to not to damage anything on my Cross Country if I go with a higher CCA battery!
 
#5 ·
Good thinking on your part "but" why? Your bike is only a 2011 and you should get another 5 years out of it. You want to spend $135 bucks.
The stock battery is very good and will give you a lot of life.
The only poor part about victory is the cables come loose quite often. You can fix that with some star washer you can buy at any hardware store. You want a 1/4" size.
Heck my 08 vision still has the stock battery in it.
 

Attachments

#7 ·
in my experience, the higher the cca, the better made and longer lasting the battery is. usually a lot heavier with more lead. the 440 will start a car but if thats what you want i would get it.
 
#8 ·
Up-date

Had to go with the Extreme Magna Power 310 CCA.
The 440 CCA was a little to large.

Put star washers when I brought XC home for the first time. Good advise!

Thank you all for your assistance in this matter!
 
#10 ·
Ive cleaned the battery cables to obsession, bent the pins some on the regulator connector per Kevinx, and it still doesn't crank for crap on a cold morning. At 1.5 years, I'm thinking the battery is a PoS.
 
#11 ·
... At 1.5 years, I'm thinking the battery is a PoS.
Dave,
haven't looked at my battery yet. What kind (brand) is it?

Both my KTMs use Yuasa sealed AGM batteries. They are light, and the dealers are very proud of them - $220 last time I checked.
And they are the worst PoS on the planet. I'm lucky if I get two years out of them - even when using battery tenders religiously.

I found that I get better results using the $100 chinese replacements sold at Batteries Plus.

OTOH my GFs bike, a 2007 Sportster, still has the original battery.
It is heavy as crap - but it still runs fine even tough I have let it run down a few times. So I'm against all these whiz-bang light modern batteries. Lead is good.... :)
 
#13 · (Edited)
Lead acid batteries whether AGM or flooded go south very quickly in a discharged or undercharged state.If a lead acid battery is allowed to go dead 1 time it can lose up to 40% of its cca output.They usually only have 4 or 5 deep cycle charges in them before they're shot.A lead acid battery not kept @ a fully charged state begins to sulfate almost immediately.Although a lead acid battery isn't as efficient in cold weather,the plates sulfate faster in warmer temps degrading an undercharged battery even faster.If you're battery sits even for couple of days uncharged,espcially in warm weather the plates are sulfating.Unless you're riding for several hours @ a time the battery's not getting fully charged.Battery tenders are the best thing since sliced bread.I have one plugged in year round.The voltage regulator/alternator on these bikes isn't the most efficient charging system.If they're throwing an equalizing charge on the battery while it's undercharged they tend to overcharge for awhile,boiling the electrolyte out the vent which can't be replaced.
 

Attachments

#17 ·
Batteries are bricks. No magic in them. They do vary unit to unit though. Then, since each machine is used differently each machine charges differently. There probably isn't a more maligned and replaced component on a motorcycle. Dumpsters are full of good batteries and there's plenty of nice high dollar scoots running around with marginal batteries that should have been replaced before spending money on that third set of mirrors. Bad connections, weak alternators, crappy regulators, temperature effects, light and accessory draw, the variables on a modern motorcycle take too many fingers and toes to count.

A voltmeter and a load tester are about the price of a battery, shadetree versions that is. With those in hand and a little research a guy can know whether his battery is worth keeping and more importantly whether staring problems may be caused by other gremlins. They are good tools to have before spending much money on batteries on a fairly new motorcycle.

Sometimes adding CCA only masks a root cause that will bite you in the butt later on.

DTWOR nailed it. Make a battery tender a core part of the riding experience. Bike bats need to be trained like a puppy. If you don't leash train them they will run all over you.
 
#19 ·
Batteries are bricks. No magic in them. They do vary unit to unit though. Then, since each machine is used differently each machine charges differently. There probably isn't a more maligned and replaced component on a motorcycle. Dumpsters are full of good batteries and there's plenty of nice high dollar scoots running around with marginal batteries that should have been replaced before spending money on that third set of mirrors. Bad connections, weak alternators, crappy regulators, temperature effects, light and accessory draw, the variables on a modern motorcycle take too many fingers and toes to count.

A voltmeter and a load tester are about the price of a battery, shadetree versions that is. With those in hand and a little research a guy can know whether his battery is worth keeping and more importantly whether staring problems may be caused by other gremlins. They are good tools to have before spending much money on batteries on a fairly new motorcycle.

Sometimes adding CCA only masks a root cause that will bite you in the butt later on.

DTWOR nailed it. Make a battery tender a core part of the riding experience. Bike bats need to be trained like a puppy. If you don't leash train them they will run all over you.
I've used the battery tender every night this wintrer. The onboard voltmeter indicates proper charging voltage of 14+. /i supose there could be a drain, but I haven't added much. Think a brake light strobe could do it?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top