Are you asking if you can solder a wire to the wire on the fuse for the 12 volt accessory and then attach it to the battery? If so, then yes, you can do that, unless I misunderstand your question.

 

The factory accessory plug on the dash is hot only with the key on and is fused.
Unless I am missing something.
I want to make it hot all the time.
I thought it would be better to clip the KEY ON side of the fuse and solder a wire there to run to the battery.
When I camp, there are times I want to charge up my phone or USB lanterns, etc....

 

If it were me....

I would put an SAE line on the battery (the kind you use for a Battery Tender) and then just plug in a SAE USB connector into it when you want to charge items in the evening.

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/battery-tender-usb-charger

 

Oh, Ok, I get what you're saying.

You want to clip the hot lead running to the accessory outlet, and replace that source of power with another source wired directly to the battery. My gut instinct is that this would be fine, as long as the accessory isn't wired in series to something else (and I highly doubt that it would be). You're just replacing one source for another.

 

Can I clip the feed wire to the fuse and solder a wire and connect to the battery?

Sure you could solder a wire to the battery terminal, but why would you want to? Soldering is typically considered for permanent attachments. For a cleaner approach, I'd advise getting an aux fuse box and running power to your accessory plug through that. They aren't expensive and they'll vary in the number of open circuits. In the event you have another farkle you want to add to the bike, ta da, you then just plug it into the aux fuse box too. If you connect the aux fuse box directly to the battery, you'll have all those circuits hot all the time. The lead wires from the aux fuse box can be connected to the battery via the bolts that are already on the battery terminals. Some aux fuse boxes come split where some circuits are always hot and some are hot only when the key is on, all in the same fuse box.

 

RCinNC
That is what I'm thinking about. I just need to make sure nothing else is wired into the same circuit.

Yarz1
That is a good suggestion about an Aux fuse box. When I get more electric farkles, I might just do that.

Thanks,
magnoliarunner

 

I have an Eastern Beaver PC8 fuse box, which has both hot and switched circuits. It was worth the money; in fact, it migrated from my V-Strom to my Super Tenere. I wouldn't be without one.

There is one advantage to adding another 12 volt outlet as opposed to rewiring your existing one; my guess is that the OEM one is only rated for 3 amps. It's mainly for plugging in a phone, or a GPS. If you want to use it to power something like an air compressor, you may end up blowing the fuse in the circuit. I put two outlets on my bike that are both able to handle a 15 amp load, so they can power just about anything I'm liable to plug into them.

 

I would highly recommend adding a second outlet wired (with a proper size fuse) to the battery. Been there, done that. The factory switched outlet is great for my GPS but it is a low amperage outlet made for the use I am giving it. If you want to do the Tim Allen thing and get more power...wire in a new one. Besides, if you add one you will still have the switched one for possible future use.

 

RCinNC
Eastern Beaver is the one I hear people mostly using.
I'll look into it.
Thanks

 

I already have two additional 12V, 15 amp fused cigarette lighter outlets on the bike; one is always hot, the other is switched. I also have two 3.1 amp USB outlets on a homemade shelf over the instrument pod, to power my GPS/cell phone. I don't use the factory 12V outlet, because vibration tends to shake the 12V plug loose. I built a special mount for the USB outlets where the USB cables screw into the outlets to keep them from vibrating.

 

Eastern Beaver PC8 or 3CS...
The Power Outlet line is White w/ Blue Stripe, and is an isolated line (not in series). The only other White/Blue line is for the kickstand relay, so you shouldn't have too many issues isolating it.

 

A direct USB connection to your battery is fine, as long as your bike doesn't sit around a lot without being ridden. USB outlets can produce a parasitic draw on the battery that, given enough time, can drain it. On a small battery, or a depleted one, it might be enough to drain a battery in a week. If mine sits for more than a couple days (which is rare), I put it on a battery tender.

I have total faith in the soldered connections on my various circuits. If it can reasonably be soldered, I solder it.

 

A direct USB connection to your battery is fine, as long as your bike doesn't sit around a lot without being ridden. USB outlets can produce a parasitic draw on the battery that, given enough time, can drain it. On a small battery, or a depleted one, it might be enough to drain a battery in a week. If mine sits for more than a couple days (which is rare), I put it on a battery tender.

I have total faith in the my soldered connections on my various circuits. If it can reasonably be soldered, I solder it.

Yeah, it's not my soldering skills that I have no faith in, it's the constant vibration that comes with the territory, so to speak. I have seen otherwise perfectly good solder joints break under vibration of a couple different bikes. That was enough to convert me to pin and socket style connectors when possible.

And I totally hear you about the parasitic draw, I bought a direct-to-battery style USB line once, only to find out that it had an L.E.D. on it that was on when ever the was power... I was like, "Seriously, I mean, I know L.E.D.s are very low current, but why on earth would anyone make a device that is designed and intended to be hooked directly to a motorcycle battery with a light that will continuously draw?!?" That went right into the "spare parts that I'll never use, but for some reason can't bring myself to throw away" drawer. that's why I like the idea of the Battery Tender USB connector; you can't accidentally leave it on if you're actually charging your bike, as it plugs into the same pigtail.

 

Even the ones with no LED indicators can produce that draw. The USB outlet itself will use current from the battery even when there's no load on it from a device.

 

To help a soldered joint you can lay a cable tie along the length of the wire and tape the tie to the wire for extra support.

I have found only quality USB's have a drain.

The cheep one I have mounted in my top box powered 24/7 has a LED power on light and the drain is so small it will not show on my meter, while my Zumo cradle has a draw of 0.02amps this is also powered 24/7.

 

When I solder a connection like two wires coming together, I push the two ends together like a butt joint so the wires interweave, then I wrap the connection with a single strand of wire to bind it, then I solder it. I've never had a joint like that fail.

That's the trouble with the USB outlets; they aren't consistent in how much of a parasitic drain they create, even with two outlets rated at the same capacity. Unless you have a meter, you never know how much of a parasitic drain it creates until it's too late. A Yuasa YTZ14S is an 11.2 amp/hour battery when it's functioning normally. I poked around on line and found an article by a guy who checked his Powergen USB charger ( I have no idea if that would be considered a good one or not) and found that it was drawing a 14.2 mA current when not in use. A 14.2 mA load on a fully charged 11.2 amp hour battery would drain the battery completely in 3.9 weeks. That doesn't sound too bad, until you consider how much of a charge your battery needs to turn over the starter to start the engine. Would it still run the fuel pump and turn over the starter at 50% capacity? I don't know for sure, but it would hit that 50% point in about two weeks. If you have an older battery whose capacity has been compromised a little, it would drain faster. So it's certainly possible for that little USB charger to kill your battery in maybe two weeks of sitting.

If you ride your bike regularly, like daily or every few days, most of this is going to be irrelevant (or if you use a battery tender while the bike is sitting idle). But if your bike has an always-hot USB outlet and the bike tends to sit for a week or two at a time, it could cause problems.

If you have a meter and you want to check the parasitic draw for your USB outlet, you can calculate the run time of your battery under a specific load like this:

10 x (Battery Capacity in Amp Hours) = Run Time of Battery
Load Power in Watts

(source: https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/document.do?docId=1019)

You can calculate the watts of a load like this: Watts=Amperage x Volts

 

It is not the soldered joint that fails it is the wire either side if the solder that breaks.

 

That's good info. In the future, I'll have to switch to mechanical connectors.

 

I have a battery tender pigtail, with no corresponding accessories attached until needed. As far as I'm concerned, everything else should be switched...

 

I directly wired, with in line fuse, a waterproof 12v outlet sourced from Amazon. I then changed the end of my Battery Tender to a cigarette lighter plug and charge through the 12v outlet. Easy to keep the bike on the Tender this way. I used 12 gauge automotive wire (heavy insulation) sourced from a parts store with crimped connectors at each point including the ring connectors at the battery. I used heat shrink tubing over the connectors at the outlet and over the tube crimps at the fuse for waterproofing. The outlet has powered a small compressor for a roadside flat without a problem.
I paralleled this over to the other side of the dash panel installing a waterproof dual USB outlet with voltmeter also sourced from Amazon. It is rectangular but a heated box knife blade cuts the proper hole like butter. The voltmeter caught my first battery getting funky and I much appreciated that!