Help installing rectifier/regulator on '01 WR426F

[montymyers]

I have an '01 WR426F. My son bought a Tusk kit dual sport kit for $100 and had local Yamaha shop install it. We are titled and street legal now. It works great EXCEPT for having to plug in and recharge the Tusk kit battery constantly. We'd like to make a mod to run off the stator.

The good news is that it looks like the stock stator on our '01 WR426F is rated for 130 Watts which is generally considered sufficient. Based upon my reading of this and other forums, it looks like most people doing similar mods are installing an aftermarket rectifier/regulator (e.g., Trailtech) and then "floating the ground". As I understand it "floating the ground" means that the battery's negative terminal and all negative/ground returns must be isolated from the frame. It sounds like the battery will drain if you don't float the ground.

So, here's where I need some help. All the examples I've seen are discussing connecting this setup to charge a *battery*. Why can't we just ditch the battery altogether and run solely off the excess stator power while the motor is running? Is there a problem doing this? Today, the headlight runs off of AC power and the rest (i.e., taillight, turn signals, horn) off the Tusk kit battery. Can we run all off AC or DC or should we run a split system with the headlight AC and the rest DC?

I'm hoping that ditching the battery might the install easier without any practical loss of functionality. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[miweber929]

The largest reason I have seen, read and experienced without having a battery on a bike and solely running stator power is that it acts like a "buffer" when you are idling and the stator isn't outputting enough juice to run run the lights, signals and whatever else you are trying to do. So you come to a stop, turn on your signal at a light and everything dims and the signals stop blinking.

Also some states require a headlight to run without the engine running for street legality reasons.

Mike

Edited December 31, 2012 by miweber929

[Birdy426]

A couple of reasons for the battery...

If you need turn signals and horn to be street legal, you can find them that run on AC, but they are rare and expensive...

If you convert to DC, the battery acts as a filter to smooth out power spikes as devices turn onand off, or you will blow a lot of bulbs. You can run a capacitor to filter power if you don't have to be able to run lights with the engine off to be street legal.

Depending on power draw of your lights and such, you will get some dimming at idle as turn signals blink or the brake light goes on. A battery will provide enough fill in juice to keep things burning constantly.

If you want to run the DC stuff from the stator, you can't run a "split system" because you only have 1 lighing coil...it's either all AC or all converted to DC at the R/R. Picking up a small NiMH battery pack like this http://www.all-battery.com/12v2000mahnimhbatterypack11858-01.aspx and mounting it to the air box with zip ties or velcro works well...

FWIW, I also posted some instructions for floating the coil and wiring the whole mess up onthis thread https://www.thumpertalk.com/topic/887482-dual-sporting-a-2001-wr426/