Accessory power tap: Battery terminals or wiring harness?

[Tanshanomi]

I want to add a few electrical farkles to my 2013 RS-S, nothing too high amperage, just a USB charger and some LED marker lights. Most of the advice I've read searching this forum seems to recommend simply running aux leads from the battery terminals. That has the advantages of easy installation and not permanently modifying the OE wiring, but it seems like a bit of a bodge. Is there a better way to run aux power leads, and if so where should I tap into the wiring?

 

[pitzerwm]

I want to add a few electrical farkles to my 2013 RS-S, nothing too high amperage, just a USB charger and some LED marker lights. Most of the advice I've read searching this forum seems to recommend simply running aux leads from the battery terminals. That has the advantages of easy installation and not permanently modifying the OE wiring, but it seems like a bit of a bodge. Is there a better way to run aux power leads, and if so where should I tap into the wiring?

A USB charger wouldn't draw 2 amps, LEDs draw almost 0 amps. Since the Power plugs have a 3-5 amp fuse, you could tap into those with no issues. If you want to go nuts, run another line from the battery add a fuse block and run everything from that. You could pick up a switched line, with a relay that turns on your new fuse block.

 

[bluestratos]

Using a relay that is triggered by an accessory wire (you can tap off of anything that turns on after the bike is running) will ensure you never run the battery down. Even though the amps being pulled are small over time they will run the battery down. A relay will ensure you never accidently leave the accessories on. The USB charger may be the exception if you say want to charge your phone while you are away from the bike for a short time but I use the rear trunk charger for that purpose. I recently had to boost an RT that had left the LED accent lights on all day, each bulb draws milliamps but put enough of them on you ride and they add up. My truck battery will go dead in a week if I leave my GPS running all the time.

Also, standard batteries do not like to be left in a partially discharged condition, doing so repeatedly will shorten the life of the battery. This is why I put a condition/trickle charger on even when I am parked overnight. This keeps the battery happy and will give long life. There are batteries that will handle deep discharge such as a trolling motor application but the trade off is less capacity in the same case size.