GL 1100 Electrical Load

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Wichita Scorpion

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Henrietta, Texas
My take: The stator, on a GL 1100, output is 300 watts at 5000 rpm. My belief is that Honda didn't realize until along about the time they designed the GL 1500 that anyone would be adding a lot of electrical drain on the GL 1000 and 1100. "Why would they sell add on lighting?" If people will buy, someone is going to make and sell. If you have added electrical load on a GL 1100, count your light bulbs and figure the wattage. I think you will find that the battery is slowly discharging unless you are at highway speeds, higher rpm. You can do a lot by replacing those added bulbs and maybe some of your OEM bulbs to LEDs.

If you add extra lights, change the incandescent bulbs to LEDs. LEDs (2-1157 red, 2-1157 amber, 2-1156 amber) to replace the OEM GL 1100 bulbs will run you about $44.94 + $5.00 shipping. https://www.superbrightleds.com/ I also added side marker LEDs to replace the red and amber reflectors on the sides of the GL 1100A.

My GL 1100A with sidecar. Running everything, the battery would slowly drop below ten volts. The sidecar had three tail/brake lights and one front clearance light. That's not much more wattage load on the bike, I tell my son. PO had installed three driving lights, two on the bike and one under the front of the sidecar, and, duh, connected them to the accessory fuse. We rewired the driving lights (they got brighter) direct to battery, fused to relay. I tell my son that we maybe can run two driving lights. Wrong again, still get voltage drop!
Manual says that the stator starts to charge at 1800 rpm with a fully charged battery, output is 300 Watts at 5000 rpm.
One 1157 Tail/brake light bulb: 8 watts-tail, 23 watts-brake. Doesn't seem like much, does it?
I figured the main light bulb load, (tail, brake, turn signals, clearance) not counting Headlight, intercom/radio/CB, dash lights 15 w, power for engine and whatever else uses power.
1983 GL 1100A w/sidecar:
Normal driving: 32 watts.--sidecar added: 72 watts
With brakes and turn signal on: 124 watts.--sidecar added: 233 watts
Now add to the above the Headlight on bright, 60 watts, or on dim, 55 watts: 293 watts
I can now understand that the GL 1100 battery and charging system is designed to just supply power for its own original electrical system and not extra add-on lights. Just driving around slowly in town the battery is slowly discharging since it is supplying the wattage for running everything.
I changed all main bulbs to LEDs. Again, best I can figure, my total lighting (less headlight) load on the charging system is now 9.816 watts instead of the 233 watts listed above. We can run two of the driving lights (deer country here & no deer alerts, ummm, did I mention deer alerts here? ) without discharging the battery. We do turn the driving lights off while driving slowly around town.
By the way, a replacement turn signal flasher unit, Tridon Stant EP 28, does work with LED lights.
A GL 1100 OEM light load is (1156s & 1157s) 124w + 60w headlight + 15w dash lights = 199 watts, not counting radios, engine, etc. My belief : Start-Stop driving around town, there is not any power for extra lights.
 
Good stuff and right on the money. Definitely change the flasher unit to the Tridon Stant EP either the 26 or the 28 works well with LED lights. The OEM bulbs create a load and that's what causes the flash unit to work, with the LED there is no load and an electronic flasher is required.
 
(This post I was able to get off the old site.
It was in a thread to calculate a sufficiently sized external alternator. I edited it a bit.)




Ok,
So I'm doing some calculations here in preparation for the ultimate alternator according to the physical size constraints and load required.

There are 2 units which will fit, one would be better, smaller, but the maximum output is limited because of the smaller housing.

These are conservative numbers

Here's a list of the stock lighting loads:
Headlight= 65 watt high beam
Stoplight= 2, 27 watt= 54 watts
running lights: tail and fairing= 4 @ 21watts=84 watts

Lighting total= 203 watts
high rate battery charge, 4 amps= 48 watts
Cooling fan @ 3 amps=36 watts

Total stock lighting and accessories load= 287 watts
(I didnt add in the radio/intercom load because I dont know how much it draws, also turn signals are intermittent loads so they too are not added in)

Plus most GL owners want at least 2 55 watt driving lights= 110 watts

New total load needed to satisfy= 397 watts, call it 400 watts

This load works out to 33.3 amps at 12 volts

Since equipment ages and current draw goes up as the ambient temperature rises, I'll round off the total load needed to satisfy at 40 amps.
 
And you did not mention the factory wiring harness is smaller gauge then you would think.. smaller gauge = higher resistance load.. and the the miriad of connectors and subsequent corrsion there = higher resitive load.. .. You can get led h3 style bulbs for the running lights, I haven't tried them yet.. have been counting pennies and figuring on what really matters.. all aux lights need to be run on a relayed system to relieve the pull on the oem harness... just $.02 more..
 
mcgovern61":15h87j2g said:
Any of you guys ever consider creating a new wire harness from scratch with larger wires? I know the connectors are available.

I've considered doing this and probably will have to in the next couple years.
 
dan filipi":3gonc6tf said:
mcgovern61":3gonc6tf said:
Any of you guys ever consider creating a new wire harness from scratch with larger wires? I know the connectors are available.

I've considered doing this and probably will have to in the next couple years.

:? Im getting a headache just from thinking about doing that big of a job :lol:
 
The 83 I just purchased has two chrome light bars. One wraps around the trunk and the other the bags. Also an additional brake light mounted on the trunk. It is obvious that the stator will not handle the load these lights require, not only that who ever wired these lights did a very poor job with connectors. I checked the resistance in the wiring to these lights (not through the bulbs) and it was three ohms, way too high. Whoever wired this used one 18 gage wire to power all the lights on the light bars, should have been a minimum of 16 I would think.

With all that said I have a question, has anyone installed modified stators, or rewound stators that will produce more watts?

I’m definitely going to go with LED lights but would like to replace the stator with one that will produce a bit more power. There are several companies that build them I just don’t know how successful they have been.
 
I don't know about the stator, but going with LED bulbs will just about drop the draw down to nothing, so the original stator should have no problem carrying that load.
 
OldWrench":19ftk4cj said:
With all that said I have a question, has anyone installed modified stators, or rewound stators that will produce more watts?

I have been looking but havent actually installed one yet. Here is a 350 watt replacement that is available.

https://www.electrosport.com/products/pr ... il-416.php

It would be nice to get one that has 500 or 600 watts. :music2:
Anyone know of something in the power range?
 
This evening I tore into the three yellow wires as part of my initial checkup.
It took almost an hour to unwrap and separate the three wires. One of the POs had already replaced the connector with three crimp on spade lug type connectors and taped it up. The heat generated by this type of connector is quite a bit as spade lugs are not really designed for current. There is no connector that doesn't use screws that will handle current with a friction connection. The current lost across these connections coupled with too many lights had also over heated the main fuse.
The repair will eliminate all connectors and I am reducing the number of incandescent lights also.

Main Fuse.jpg


DSCN7325.JPG
 
I found this thread very interesting, and thought I'd throw in my meagre $1/50-worth.

When I first got my 1981 GL1100I (around 1990) it had extra lights AND something resembling a Coastguard air horn; the first time I tried it the 30A fuse blew.
Like others' experiences here, the electrical workmanship was atrocious.
At the time it was common knowledge (see Rider et alia magazines) that stators would burn up even under 'normal' conditions due to the nice cosy location in the hottest part of the bike.
With all that said I have a question, has anyone installed modified stators, or rewound stators that will produce more watts?
ASAIK that's not possible because there just isn't enough room for extra wire gauge or windings.
I'm in the process of a complete re-build, so thanks Keith for the link for LEDs. Reducing load is always preferred to increasing supply!
Cheers!
:salute:
 
Thanks for the responses and I will assume your are correct in the space issue for a larger stator. In our shop we used spade connectors for a long time. Our biggest problems with the spade connectors didn’t seem to be high resistance due to poor connection but actually corrosion over long term use. We went to the large round connectors with shrink tubing and found that to work much better. However anywhere we have high amperage we use a terminal block.

Looking at the wiring above,that is ugly. I think there are much better options. When we make up a harness and wires are spliced in we require that they always be soldered and covered with shrink tubing.
 
This guy has some really neat wiring stuff and relay kits if you need to add a circuit or help out an existing one:https://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Products/Accessory_Kits/accessory_kits.html
I've used some of his relays and sealed fuse holders in My Projects, good stuff.
 
I would love to do a wiring harness, with heavier gauge wires.

If i did do a new Wire Harness.

I would wire the coils direct from the battery to the coils to provide higher current flow.

I would try to eliminate Most Connector's, and use a Circuit Breaker instead of large amp fuses, were ever possible.

Maybe even a circuit breaker panel, they are rated for higher voltage, and turn power off at the key resets them, No more fuses to replace.

I would like to use full length wires, to eliminate resistance, Power drop, and heat.

All connections would be silver soldered.
 
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