Can someone please verify this for me? If I want to put a standard outlet connected to the accessory power wiring in the battery compartment then all I need is the plug itself? Part number 61347694306 found on the fiche Max BMW mircrofiche

I need to figure out how to power the Marsee tank bag without going to the outlet on the side of the bike, want to tap into the power wires in the battery compartment. Their power kit comes with a female SAE/powerlet cable (plug that fit's outlet on side of bike). I assume I need to add an outlet in the battery compartment.

Thanks a bunch!

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I suggest putting an outlet straight off the battery on the left side where BMW SHOULD have put one in the first place...

I helped Hazard install one on his. Details here.

My suggestion would be to use the (fused) charger cable already attached to the battery to supply power to a new cigar-lighter type plug AND then to the tank bag. Radio Shack has three items you need. One is the matching 1/2 trailer-light plug that will fit the fused charger cable... the second is the full sized cigar-type lighter socket itself. I would not use the clumsy and wierd-sized BMW female socket thing... nobody else does.

Buy a stainless steel (with rubber protective plug) standard American cigar lighter socket. It won't work as a cigar lighter though, it's solely designed to provide power for a radar detector, tank bag, etc..

Use a Greenlee hole saw and cut a hole for that 1" socket on the top right side cover plate between the battery compartment and the glove box door and put the socket in, there's plenty of depth under there. Last, you can then use a male cigar-lighter plug (also from Radio Shack) to mount on the end of your tank bag cable... That lets you simply unplug it when you're ready to take the bag off the bike.

[QUOTE=K_Biker_Bill]My suggestion would be to use the (fused) charger cable already attached to the battery ....QUOTE]


Is this the wire in the battery compartment? This is all so very confusing and I don't think I've seen it done the same way twice yet.

So basically there's the OEM outlet on the left side of the bike, good for nothing but BMW clothes. There's a wire in the battery compartment that does what? And how do I hook up to it? Is it a standard plug or special BMW $$ plug and then I can hook up to it? Then most folks go it alone with various plugs, wires, relays, no relays, use seat power, battery power, switched vs. unswitched power, and then there's that iCan from Powerlet and I haven't a clue what the heck that does. I can feel myself drowning here, and I know how to put two wires together, why is this so difficult? Oh yeah, it's a BMW.

I think I need to sit down, I have a headache. All I want is to hook up either a cigar type plug or the smaller motocycle power plug, hide it in the battery compartment (though I can still unplug my stuff, and tuck the wire out of sight) and power cell phone chargers or a GPS or a non-BMW heated vest maybe. Though I suspect I'd be better off with a good 'ol battery-fuse-outlet setup for the vest.

I appreciate the help, I do, but I just cannot wrap my head around this right now. Speak to me like a child who doesn't know english, loud and slow. It'll click one of these posts and I'll feel dumb. Until then.....

I'll put a few photos for you here in a couple of hours. You'll be amazed at the simplicity of it all... plus, you'll be able to plug your Battery Tender directly into the new female (non-BMW and therefore cheap) socket without any worry about the damned CanBus turning the outlet off (and it does the original) and stopping the charger uness you have the special $$$ BMW version of the Battery Tender of course.

Notice the similarity of that notation symbol no matter which way it's written... either $$$ BMW.... or BMW $$$. Do you really think that's just coincidence? WAKE UP!

Honest to god, I wonder regularly about the German designers of these things when I try to do (or fix) something. If only I could have the position of Leader at BMW Corporate for a few weeks. I'd hunt the little wieners responsible for the crutty design efforts down and punish them... (though I can't tell you what I would actually do to them in this public forum).

The so-called engineer in charge of system case mounting and their door latches/locks would be 1st... after he was dispatched the sidestand/centerstand man would be taken care of. Honest to god, I know you all LAUGH at Harley Owners and get some sort of factory payoff for doing it... BUT WAKE UP... the Harley sidestand is strong enough to let the rider lie on the machine and diddle his girlfriend when it's at rest... AS IT AUTOMATICALLY LOCKS IN PLACE WHEN IT'S EXTENDED AND WEIGHT IS PUT ON IT. Further, the CLEVER design releases itself without any action on the rider's part when he raises the bike up to ride off. We've got an ignition cutoff on our POS, but they've got a WELL-DESIGNED ITEM.

Don't forget the magic key-ring anti-theft device man. The sumbitch responsible for that would be put out in the Sahara desert wearing full leathers and with his hands full of keys (all of which would be coded to fit) and left standing next to a BMW that wouldn't crank because of the damned ring. After a few minutes he would then flop around on the ground like a giant sweatball and finally CROAK like numerous Owners on this Board have already done. Just thinking about the fate of all those little wieners cheers me up.

Wow, so much anger...

Brick dude, PM sent...

Yeah, perhaps I got a little carried away, but after a lifetime as an engineer who's always tried to design things that functioned properly, I am very tired of buying what generally turns out to be half-assed products. Not just from BMW, but from many sources.

Now I don't care who you are, that's funny right there. Thanks for the laugh. Look forward to the photos.

As a pilot these days I am completely trained and educated on a specific aircraft before I ever lay eyes on the real thing. That is, I can build it, but don't know how to open or close the door I'm just trying to beef up my knowledge of the bike and although I've spent a few hours reading the boards, sometimes the info is spread out over many posts and it can be difficult to keep track.

Trust me, I'm not just reading and asking a tons and tons of questions, I am riding the darn thing too!

[QUOTE=iflybricks]FWIW, the OEM outlet worked fine for my Widder electric vest and my Slime pump. There's probably a limit on the current you can draw but it was well below what either of these needed.

I just went through this same issue. I wanted cigarette lighter adapters in the trunk to charge my stuff and a direct-to-battery outlet on the side so I could power stuff without worrying about the key.

A direct to battery 2nd outlet on the side is easy. Just get some wire, a couple of eye rings, an inline fuse. The BMW plug with cover will be the most expensive, I paid $34 for mine (ouch!) but it fits right in and it's well made. For future convenience I found a $5 plastic power connector at Radio Shack that with a little cutting adapted to the two prongs on the back of the BMW plug. Wiring couldn't be simpler: black from battery negative/ground directly to the plug, red from battery positive to the fuse and then direct to the center of the plug. There's a ton of space under the battery cover for fuses.

You could make it even simpler/cheaper with parts entirely from Radio Shack. Get a small plug for power and wire one side of it up directly to the battery with a fuse like above, and wire the other side to a cigarette lighter adapter for the tank bag. When you don't need power, just take the CLA out of the way and tuck the little connector under the battery cover -- that's a fairly clean/dry area.

It is a shame that BMW didn't provide more accessory power on this bike. They appear to have done this rather well on the RT, with extra accessory power under the seat and up front and a bunch of prewired BMW plugs on the side. Even my 15 year old Kawasaki GPZ came with extra accessory circuits wired directly to the fuse box in convenient locations.

Well, I spent time preparing two carefully notated photos but seem unable to get the software to upload them to my members gallery. Get an 'error' notice everytime I tryed.

The damned software nerds would get punished as well if I could just get my hands on whomever is RESPONSIBLE. Oh I forgot, no one in America is responsible for anything anymore. Well I was personally responsible for my engineering work for nearly forty years despite the army of lawyers who would gleefully have sued me off the planet at the first sign of any sort of trouble, so I sure don't like seeing the little wieners of today slip/slide out of everything.

K_Biker_Bill P.E.
Commercial Instrument, ASMEL, 3,400 hrs.