BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

is there a reason why you wouldn't want to hook up your heated gear using the powerlet plug?  I had seen somewhere that you shouldn't because it goes through the canbus system.  If you can't just use the adaptor to plug your gear into the powerlet why?  I thought that its purpose in life was to provide power, if thats not it why is it there?

The accessory sockets can be used for heated kit, but, depending on how much power they use canbus has been known to close the socket down. In the past I have regularly had 2 heated vests going at the same time with no problems,

arkmark,
The only reason I can think of is one of high current draw from several pieces of heated gear. I can't quote amperage values here, but that seems the only logical explanation, ie potentially drawing too much current, and the canbus shutting down that particular circuit from a safety point of view (as it's designed to do). Isn't your answer on this website page??
http://www.powerlet.com/learningCenter/eecInfo/bmw/2015/bmw-r1200rt-sep-2006-present/9/235#formtop

Thank you, from the looks of it I need to go ahead and wire myself directly up to the battery.  I've got jacket liner, pant liner and gloves so that puts me up to a 15 amp draw.

Think your right.  My two vests were 35 watts each which is a lot less than your armoury.  Where are you Norway/Sweden/Alaska?`

arkmark wrote: Thank you, from the looks of it I need to go ahead and wire myself directly up to the battery.  I've got jacket liner, pant liner and gloves so that puts me up to a 15 amp draw.

The max combined amps the two aux sockets can cope with is 10 amps. If you are above this then you have to power directly from battery.

I'm in oklahoma, and just don't see the since of being cold if I don't have too.  never really thought I was running all that much its just gloves, jacket and pant liner.  I don't think I've run it all full power just enough to keep me cozy.  but when you get out for 4 or 5 hours below freezing I've got to have something. It make the ride so much nicer.

4 to 5 hours with temperatures below freezing.  Hero stuff. Here in the UK when it's like that the whole country tends to grind to a halt or there is so much road salt down your bike has disintegrated before you get home. Happy New Year.

most of our winters are pretty dry, so we get several months where it is just bitter cold.  cold and dry, i'm riding. warm and wet, i'm riding. cold and wet, well I've got to draw the line somewhere. no ice riding for this cat.  Happy New Year to you as well.

I run my Garbing gloves off the socket, you can buy the correct lead for the BMW. But I did read, you should only run gloves and it won't cope with all heated gear

If one was to exceed the 10A max of the combined powerlet outlets, is there a fuse somewhere to protect it?  I have a small air pump that I bought which runs on a cigarette lighter outlet, and draws a maximum of 15A.  Its my road-side flat repair strategy that hopefully never needs to be used.  I hope that the 15A maximum doesn't get hit until the pressure is very high. 

Does anyone have any experience with such a thing?

mbro wrote: If one was to exceed the 10A max of the combined powerlet outlets, is there a fuse somewhere to protect it? I have a small air pump that I bought which runs on a cigarette lighter outlet, and draws a maximum of 15A. Its my road-side flat repair strategy that hopefully never needs to be used. I hope that the 15A maximum doesn't get hit until the pressure is very high.
Does anyone have any experience with such a thing?

If the load on any circuit exceeds it's rating the canbus shuts off the power to that circuit, after switching off and then back on it returns the power and if not overloaded again the power remains on.
For a an air pump I would be using a separate fused supply.

I use a battery tender cord and a adapter. This way it does not fail on a cold day. I have had heated clothing fail at 18f. Burr!!!

I own a Tour-master Synergy 2 jacket liner (with sleeves and collar) . It draws 65 watts ,which is roughly 5 and a half amps alone. When i plug in my heated gloves (mated to the jacket liner/controller) that shoots up another 24 watts, or 2 amps. Since i rarely go above half power (these babies are cookers) -- even in sub zero riding- i probably will never hit my 10 amp max if i were to use the powerlet socket, not even close. The control unit on my clothing will max out at 110 watts-- which effectively limits me to the jacket and gloves. Tourmaster advises not to use the jacket and pants on one controller.  But even at 110 watts, the draw is still only 9 amps at full blast.

That being said, I decided to go the hard-wire route, and ran leads directly to the battery. When not in use i have a little clip to keep them hidden away. That being said, if i used the gear less i would go the powerlet option. IN fact Tourmaster makes an adapter for BMW powerlet sockets.

Heated gear was one of the best discoveries i found motorcycling-- that and windblast when my ex-wife was trying to yell at me during our rides.

For interest, the manual claims a maximum of 10A  TOTAL for ALL SOCKETS (page 184) . So -- there we have it!