Passenger Heat Controller

[Duc-OT]

For those running heated gear for rider and passenger, what are you doing with the passenger’s heat controller?

[Bill_Anderson]

My son's heated gloves and jacket each came with its own controler. If you are running out of power outlets to plug in the gear for you and a passenger, check out these by Powerlets.

Ducati ST2 ST4 ST4s 1996 - Present Dual Rearset Kit (Left) - Powerlet Products

[Duc-OT]

Thanks Bill. I was actually thinking about you and your son when I typed up my question. I take it that your son's controller is the type that stows away in his pocket?

[Bill_Anderson]

My son has the Tour Master Synergy series heated jacket and gloves. Each Synergy item comes with its own temperature controler which can be velcroed to the item. Check them out here:

Tour Master :: Heated Apparel

[waco748]

My vest and gloves share a common controller/rheostat. Stows in the leg pocket on the front of my riding pants.

[ptourin]

Bill - how do those work? Do the gloves plug into the jacket liner at the cuffs? I've been thinking about extending my riding season and wondering about heated gear vs just more layers and heated handgrips. I'm trying to get a feel for whether the heated gear is easy to use or is a big nuisance to keep plugging in and unplugging.

[Bill_Anderson]

The gloves plug into the jacket at the cuffs so that the jacket controler controls both the jacket and gloves OR you can power the gloves separately and use their own controler. I chose to do the latter as the original model of the gloves had a reputation for being cold and I was not sure if my son's hands were getting warm enough without the rest of him getting too hot.

The gloves plugged into a lead I ran from the battery which came out from under the seat. The jacket plugged into the bike's power outlet. I will admit that it was a lot of cables to keep track of as my son got on and off the bike.

The thing I liked about the Synergy system is that each piece of apparel came complete with everything you need: cables, controler, etc. Check out the Synergy line if a dealer near you carries it.

[Stick]

I tried the Synergy jacket liner and gloves. Love the fact that the jacket liner came pre-wired for gloves. Didn’t like the fact that the side “stretch” panels were not heated. Since I ride into low 20’s/upper teens, I felt the cold spots on my sides, and the Synergy gloves almost froze my thumbs on the way home from work 2 winters ago. Luckily, I was able to return the gloves to local shop where I bought them. Jacket liner, I sold it here in Classifieds. I like my 140W jacket liner that I made much better. And I ended up with Gerbing heated gloves, which are also waterproof, so they double as my rain gear for long trips (even in the summer).

Used my 1st homemade liner today…I was plenty warm at about 70% power! Used my 25 year-old m/c Thinsulate leather mittens(unheated) + my heated grips. Plenty warm there too.

[ptourin]

Hey Stick - do you have a thread on how you homebrewed a liner? I'm still thinking over all the possibilities - just fitting up a fused line that feeds an SAE plug and a Powerlet unit that I got off a later bike in an eBay bag-o-parts purchase.

[Stick]

I don't have a write-up (yet!). Basically, after obtaining a roll of #28 AWG stranded wire (seven strands of smaller AWG), I began to experiment. I found that I could feel good heat at around 5 Amps. 7 or 8 Amps, and I had to "let go" of the wire.

I wanted this thing "impedance limited" (in case my controller ever shorted to 100% on). To the point where you could still have heat, but no melting or flame...

So 5A design it was. #28 is 15.409 Feet per Ohm.
Since I needed about 2.8 Ohms (14V / 5A) , this gave me about 44 feet of wire to sew into the jacket.

I tried to source the wire on eBay. Johnson Controls had stuff on there, but I lost the auction. I wrote to them asking if it was possible to buy any more excess stuff that they had, but it needed to be either 50' or 100' or more rolls. They had Teflon insulated wire, BTW. Teflon not only sews in easier (slippery), but it also buys you another 100 deg. C before the insulation gets mushy (PVC insulation is run-of-the-mill common stuff).
Turned out that they cut me an = or better deal than fleaBay! ( I think I spent less than $10 for a few rolls!)

Anyway, as much as 44 feet might sound like a lot of wire, I ended up with 2 loops running thru each jacket that I made.

I'll try to remember to take some photos of both jackets. 1st one was fleece. A bit too drafty to wear alone in the winter. 2nd one is a nylon outer shell, fleece inside, except for insulated nylon sleeves. Solved my prob. of getting a button snagged on the wire dawning or removing the jacket. Most of the wire is exposed, so it's up close to your body. Except in the nylon ins. sleeves. I ran the wire just on the inner skin of the nylon, so it slides on nicely.