Hi all Today put down the money on a 2018 Ducati V4 Panigale, taking delivery on it on the 20th. Always admired Ducati bikes and today took the plunge at the age of 48. I won't be doing many miles on it (I'll be admiring it mostly lol), so what I'm wondering is what is the best way to go about trickle charging the battery? I have a CTEK trickle charger, can I use this by fitting the appropriate connector onto the battery (I imagine so, I did this with my last bike, just wondering if there's something different I should be aware of)? I've done a little research, it seems there might be a connector already on the battery (DDA?) that I can use? I would rather use that than fit my own, what reasonably priced charger works with it? I've watched somebody access the battery on YouTube, doesn't seem too difficult, but maybe I don't have to if the connector is already there? Lastly, any advice for me being a new Ducati owner would be appreciated. Thanks for reading. Cris.
Do you know if the battery is lead acid or lithium ? Is your CTEK a trickle charger or a battery maintainer ? A direct connection to the battery with the pigtail charging lead is my preference (I have 5 bikes currently on battery maintainers). If you CTEK is a trickle charger, I wouldn’t leave it attached to the battery when not riding the bike. If it's a maintainer, it's not so critical and unless you have a constant drain on the battery, like an active alarm or tracker, a periodic charge should be fine. Battery charger/maintainer technology moves at a pace, if your CTEK is more than 3 or 4 years old, I’d look to replace it with a current model. Andy
Thanks for the reply. Afaik the V4 has a lead acid battery whereas the V4S has the lithium, nothing in the description says the battery has been changed out for a lithium so I assume it's a lead acid, but yeah I'd better check what's in there just in case. Just checked the Amazon page for my CTEK, it says it's a charger and maintainer : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FC42HAA I only bought it a few months ago so no worries there.
I'll check the battery is lead acid first, I'm thinking this will do the job? It uses the DDA socket which is usually under the pillion seat : https://ducatistore.co.uk/shop/ducati-techmate-charger-69928471ay.html (My CTEK will still be used as I have another bike).
If the battery is Lead acid should be fine with any maintainer. If it’s a lithium you should ensure the precise model of charger is capable of charging Lithium batteries properly and safely! Lithium batteries have BMS (battery Management Systems) built in that the charger must work with to ensure correct voltage and Amperage are used and these change during the charge cycle.
Best will in the world, I wouldn’t bother. Keep it simple, use the CTEK supplied pig tail, connected directly to the battery. Andy
The Under seat cable works fine, made an adaptor for the DDA plug for my sons V4S which worked with the Oxford Optimate charger a treat, easy to get to under the seat and plugs straight in. Given the price cut to £40 odd quid and I’ve seen the Adaptor being sold for £15 on its own it’s not a bad price.
Just get a Ducati charger, they’re not much money tbh. As to the advice of being a new Ducati owner, buy lots of condoms or get the snip, you’re gonna be inundated with minge.
Unfortunately the Ducati charger is out of stock on the Ducati site, elsewhere it's priced double. I've found out CTEK do a DDA adapter so my existing CTEK charger can be used, as long as the battery is lead acid and I have a DDA socket under my seat. Will find out on the 20th. Wouldn't be the 1st time
if that’s the case I would buy an Optimate which you can leave plugged in forever. The Duo will do both types of battery circa £46 from Optimate but shop around for a bargain. One of the other posts referred to an Oxford Optimate. Oxford make their own range of battery maintenance devices which are not Optimates. My first Optimate lasted 21 years, or so I thought, it was only one of the LEDs that failed to light and is still giving good service. Don’t penny pinch, go with the market leader.
You are correct the Oxford one is an optimiser which comes in lots of flavours at different prices depending on what features you want.
Personally i would agree with one of the previous posts, run a fly lead direct to the battery, plenty of places to lose the plug.
I would always connect the device directly to the battery with the positive pigtail having an inline fuse of no more than 10 amp. Others on here may be able to advise more accurately, bearing in mind that the maximum charge of my Optimate 4 is 1 amp but I’m not sure how that translates when it’s in desulphate mode which I understand pushes something like 22 volts at the battery. The other thing to note about the desulphate program, depending on which device you have is that it can take up to 2 hours for the internal timer to expire. Best to give them a few minutes rest when transferring from one bike to another as they could continue with the program they were running on the first bike when connected to the second bike.
You can run an adaptor lead connected to your OBD connection under the seat into the cubby compartment under your rear seat pad. That way you don't see anything poking out or have to unbolt the seat to get to the charging plug. Here is what I did.
Works a treat, made an adapter for the DDA (sicma) plug for my sons V4R. Very neat. However my new V2 (ex demo) has an Oxford Oxymiser lead tucked along some existing wiring just out of the LH fairing. Even more accessible and quite neat. Blends in better now I’ve removed the yellow label ️
...Will find out on the 20th... You could ask the current owner/dealer today and save all the conjecture
I have the bike now and I like it, I'm attempting to charge/maintain the battery with the Ducati Tecmate charger, but I don't think it's working. The LEDs on the charger are flashing alternately. The instructions say "if light 2 and light 3 flash alternating every 1-2 seconds then the battery may be in a sulphated condition and unable to initially take charge". Thing is all 3 lights are going off and on. It says, assuming the sulphated status is correct, to leave it for 2 hours to see if the battery recovers and starts charging. Fwiw the battery seems to hold charge ok, it's started several times with no problems. EDIT: it's charging now so all good, must have been lightly sulphated like the instructions said.
