Portable Heatroller Mounting

[Mike Aldea]

My appologes is this has been covered previously but my search of the forum did not find it.

I have a portable Heatroller I use with my electric jacket liner and I'm struggling with a good location for it on my FJR. Mounting on my Concours is easy. I can't afford to buy a permanent-mount version that could be mounted in the FJR's 'A' fairing panel.

Ideally, I'd like to find a location that would allow me to view it while riding. The best solution I've come up with . . . and it is far from a good solution in my mind . . . would be to mount it on the side of the fuel tank by the crossed tuning fork emblem using industrial velcro. But the idea of having that big black square of velcro on my fuel tank all the time is not appealing.

Any suggestions would be appreciated and photos of alternate ideas would be great.

 

[ionbeam]

Is the remote weatherproof? If yes, use the same ugly Velcro and mount it on the knock-out panel where the heat controller is supposed to go.

 

[Niehart]

What ionbeam said but use good quality Velcro. Put on the back rear edge of that panel so that the knob sticks out passed the panel. This makes it much easier to use with gloves on.

Then if your a worry wort like me, a little fishing line from the control to the closest bolt makes sure that no matter what, it will always be there. Also, when you walk away from the bike for a long period on time, just toss it in the glove box. With the line attached, it's easily pulled out of the glove box.

 

[Chuck35]

The top of either master cylinder is a fine location.

 

[Niehart]

Chuck, unless your like me and have those places used. You can see from the picture above, the radar is on the left and on the right side that you can't see holds the XM antenna. I know, I know, too much stuff.

 

[jcyuhn]

I have mine mounted with Velcro on the black plastic panel next to the knockout for the factory heated grip controller. You can see the two knobs and LEDs. The wiring runs down the inside of the plastic panel and is reasonably out of sight. I bought extensions for the toe outputs. They run under the tank and come out on the left side under the drivers seat. Makes it easy to just plug in, but can be removed in a few minutes. My $.02.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Do you have the classic heat roller that is in the wiring between the bike and jacket? I mounted mine on the back of the tank with velcro:

Or the wireless? It can mount with velcro anywhere:

 

[ionbeam]

Do you have the classic heat roller...Or the wireless?...It can mount with velcro anywhere...

I have a portable Heatroller

 

[Fred W]

There are both regular and wireless portable heattrollers.

Here is a regular wired Dual Portable Heattroller.

This is what we (TMJ and I) have. These are weatherproof, but not sure to what degree or rating. We keep ours stuffed into our front left jacket pockets (left side because the comm cables are on the right side), and just run the cables out from there to the liners inside, and the power pigtails I have coming out from under the seat during cold weather.

On an older jacket that I have I actually poked a small hole in the lower corner of the outside patch pocket to run the cables through more permanently.

Having it in a pocket does make it a little tricky to make an adjustment with gloves on, as you have to pull the controller out of your pocket to do that, but the cables running through the hole means that you don't have to worry about dropping it. There are also some holsters available that are designed to be fastened to exterior straps on your jacket (like your waist strap) that would make it easier to adjust the knobs on the fly, but with increased weather exposure to the controller.











If I were purchasing another I would get the Wireless Remote Portables for the extra $50. You mount the control half of the set on the bike somewhere (with velcro as mentioned previously) which makes adjustment while riding much easier.

Either way, having the power regulating part of controller fastened to yourself means plugging in to the short power pigtail after getting on the bike. But if you do forget and get off the bike while still plugged in the axial connector to the pigtail will automatically disengage.

 

[jcyuhn]

I'll second what Fred says - get the wireless if shopping new. I didn't go there because I dislike keeping up with batteries. But the hassle of mounting and wiring the controller is far worse. The wireless can be mounted anywhere with Velcro. Top of the clutch or brake master cylinder would be great. Either way, heated gear is really the schnizzle.

 

[Fred W]

I'll second what Fred says - get the wireless if shopping new. I didn't go there because I dislike keeping up with batteries. But the hassle of mounting and wiring the controller is far worse. The wireless can be mounted anywhere with Velcro. Top of the clutch or brake master cylinder would be great. Either way, heated gear is really the schnizzle.

They may also be available with a battery operated remote, but the one that I showed above is definitely powered off of the bike. That is why there are two pigtail harnesses. One for you (to power the heated gear itself) and one just for the little "wireless" remote controller box.

 

[RaYzerman19]

I have the bluetooth wireless remote, latest model has 2 AAA's in the remote (the older original has CR2032 lithium, didn't work well in the cold). I change my AAA's once a year at the beginning of the cold season, but they never went dead..... Duracell or Energizer alkaline, not lithium. IF the batteries do go dead, system defaults to partial heat.

If you have the original CR2032 remote, W&S replaced them, but now you have to upgrade for $20 if you didn't replace yours earlier.

 

[AVGeek]

I have the WnS wireless unit has well. I didn't want to have to conenct multiple wires between me and the bike, plus moving from bike to bike made the choice easy. I added a RAM ball to the controller, and use the shortest arm. Works perfectly!

 

[zenwhipper]

Wireless is the way to go. I semi mounted my Warm and Safe Dual Troller to the right master cylinder. Put a piece of old bicycle inner tube underneath it, used some zip ties and thar she is. Works fine. But, it was a quick decision for a ride that day - so I'll figure out a cleaner way to mount someday.

 

[zenwhipper]

I have the WnS wireless unit has well. I didn't want to have to conenct multiple wires between me and the bike, plus moving from bike to bike made the choice easy. I added a RAM ball to the controller, and use the shortest arm. Works perfectly!

Woh! How did you mount a Ram ball to the WnS controller. Love to know. Sounds slick.

 

[Chuck35]

I have a wireless troller. I used a ram plate RAM-B-125BU upside down with the troller velcroed and strapped to it. This places it just under my stem mounted gps.

 

[Fred W]

I'm assuming that you mounted just the wireless controller on the RAM-B-125U right?

Either with a wired controller or a wireless one, you will still need to plug yourself into a pigtail to get power to the heated gear. In both cases you can carry the power unit in a holster or a pocket you have one wire going between you and the bike (that you have to worry about when mounting or dismounting). And there are (usually) two more wires between the unit in your pocket and your heated gear.

The only thing a "wireless" unit does is give you an easy to adjust remote control, either battery powered or powered from the bike.

 

[AVGeek]

I used a RAM B-337U, drilled a hole in the lid of the wireless controller (make sure NOT to drill the hole in the center, or the head of the screw will interfere with the batteries!).

 

[Pepperell]

If you found the tank location convenient, glue a magnet to the bottom of the controller instead of velcro.