Someone told me that you could recharge your battery using a charger fitted with a merit male plug connecting to the power outlet.
I don't think you can because after you turn off the key the outlet switches off. Someone with more know will know for sure and explain it better. I think it is best to wire the charger, via a fuse directly to the battery, that is what I have done.
You can't unless you're using a BMW charger which is programmed to charge through the Canbus circuit. Of course, I'm talking about a CanBus bike like the R1200GS/GSA. Via Tapatalk
Screw the CanBus!! I put the pigtail for my heated gear direct to the battery out the side and made a connector from that heater connector to SAE. Now I can plug my charger and anything else external directly to the battery. Even have cigarette to SAE adapter so I can plug in my cell charger.
It would depend how you have the outlet wired. If it's wired directly to the battery, thus the circuit is not broken when the key is turned off, it should work.
That is how a normal bike should be wired. This means that BMW used to make normal bikes until putting servo brakes on them :) Dan.
I've never had a bike that had an outlet installed from the factory, so I've put my own in. I've always wired them directly to the battery (with inline fuse), as there are times when I want power, even when the key is not in the ignition. There is, of course, the chance that you can drain your battery by leaving something plugged in... but that can easily be remedied by not being stupid about it!
What bike do you have? Mine is an 04 adv and I charge it with the outlet on the fairing, "always on". The one on the starter housing is "key on" only.
On the R1200 bikes you can use the power socket only with the $$$$$ BMW charger. On older R1100/1150 bikes you can use any trickle charger in the socket as it does not shut off.
Our dear friend Paul is showing his age...he still uses a trickle charger, his bedside radio has vacuum tubes in it and his record player has a crank on the side.
Confirmed. My 04 GS connects to the battery tender Jr through the stock aux powerlet. I started to wire it directly but ky terminals are loaded up enough already.
I took out the BMW plug and installed a Powerlet plug. It routes around the canbus and now I just plug in my tender into the socket.
The guy I bought my 2012 GS12 from told me he made his own adapter plug to hook up his battery tender to the BMW auxiliary power outlet (looks like cigarette lighter outlet, but isn't - I think that's what is called the Merit plug?). He said it runs separate to the ignition circuit, so can be used to recharge the battery, even without the ignition on. He also said you can get the male plugs from a Caterpillar dealer (?), and make your own adapter, or you can buy one from BMW. I dunno - I'm trying to figure all this out.
That would be the Optimate 4 DUAL (standard and Canbus) not the regular Optimate 4. And I can tell you from experience that charging with Optimate 4 Dual in Canbus mode through the bike socket does not work very well. My dealer had avised me against charging via Canbus, even with BMW's own charger. I use a pigtail connected directly to the battery with an SAE Din connector at the other end. Works perfectly with the Optimate 4 Dual in standard mode.
Jusr hook up a coax with a fuse to the battery. Then you can use this to charge the battery. Or hook ip your gerbing's.
My original BMW branded charger that I bought for my 04 only had the plug for the accessory outlet on it. My 06 1150 has the charging lugs on the left side of the engine, and I use those with the Odyssey charger.
I have used my BMW battery charger from my '10 GSA (canbus) on my '04 GSA, both in the side accessory port, with no problems at all. Wasn't sure the canbus charger was going to work on the 1150, but no problem at all.
