Xtreme Charge

Motorcycle Test & Tech

"draggin' knees & rippin' T's"

Taking your vehicles Pulse

Story by David Minsky

Photos by David Minsky and Andy Cohen

Back in December of 07 we had the opportunity to acquire two products from a new company on the scene of battery chargers. Xtreme Charger manufactured by Pulsetech Products.

We ran into these guys at the Long Beach motorcycle show, we specifically we ran into this guy. His name is Smokey. Don’t know why but he was pretty cool regardless. He was kind enough to explain their products and arranged for a couple to be sent to us for long term testing.

The two items we decided to test were a 5-watt solar charging system and a pulse charger for motorcycles.

Solar Charger

The first item for review was the solar charger (Spec Sheet). Since a lot of us have that second truck or camper that spends most of its time parked, this was an ideal product that would enable anyone to keep their battery in top shape without having to plug it in.

In our case the test vehicle was a 78 F150 that had been deliberately set up for this long-term test.

We not only parked it with a battery that had not seen a charger in months, but was only charged by a 45 mile drive prior to the test, we also left it out in the elements where the charger would have to combat the effects of cold as well.

Installation was pretty straight forward; the charged comes in two parts, the solar panel and the control unit that is hooked up to the battery.

We placed the panel on the dash and ran the wire through the firewall into the engine compartment. Other than direct sunlight the unit was left hooked up the battery and ignored for about 90 days.

This was a direct plug and play operation, there is only one plug between the control unit and the panel, two wires connect the connected to the batter and you’re done.

Well after 90 days of neglect, exposure to multiple days of cold (below freezing at night, and several snow storms). The battery still maintained enough of a charge to turn the motor over and start it up. This was not a deep cycle or Optima brand battery, we deliberately chose an off the shelf auto parts store special which was deemed more typical of the unit most people would run.

That said, the product performed as advertised. Left unattended it keep the battery maintained with enough juice to allow the truck to be driven off even after sitting for such a long period of time.

While we did not record the amount of voltage both pre and post test at the terminals the fact it turned the motor over with minimal effort after being left along for so long is testimony to how well the product worked.

If you have a mobile home or other such vehicle that sits for long periods of time this would be a must have investment to keep your expensive batteries (or in our case not so expensive – read we are cheap and bought a budget battery for this truck) in prime condition when not in use.

X-treme Charge

The second charger we did a long term test on was their newest product called the Xtreme Charge (Spec Sheet) this was something new we came across at the Long Beach international motorcycle show. As we have 5-7 motorcycles in our stable at any one time there was bound to be one that would sit unused for long period and in our case we had just the candidate in mind.

A 2003 KTM 640 Adventure, it was in need of some work so it literally sat in the corner on a lift for 4 months waiting for parts etc. it had already been sitting about 6 weeks before we got the charger and despite occasionally putting it on a tender, the battery still went flat after several weeks of misuse. These batteries are notorious for not holding their charge so it was a good candidate for this product.

One of the first things we noticed was unlike the solid state of the tender (you know the one I am referring to but for copyright reasons I cant use their name here) this one did not get hot to the touch. I also really like the constant maintenance mode, which shows you several features you don’t get with the competition.

Two series of LED’s tell you what the charger is doing and the status of the battery. Like any good product it has built in protection to you really cant hook it up wrong and once hooked up all pretty lights blink and flash telling you what is going on.

We recently parted with the 640 but in the time we had this hooked up to on intermittently (usually a few days every couple of weeks) we never once had a problem starting it or turning the motor over while working on it etc.

All the bikes we have hooked this up to have the BMW style accessory plugs, and with the adapter this has been how we have been connecting it to our bikes.

The newest addition to the stable (an 06 Husky 510) does not have such a plug so we connected the pigtail directly to the battery and have it hanging where it would be readily accessible for connection to the charger.

Asides for the obvious features I have already mentioned what I like in particular feature-wise is the sturdy rubberized housing, multiple readouts on the unit giving you status of the charger and the battery, and the generous amount of length in the power cords that come with the unit.

As you can see in the picture above the battery is at 100% and at the time it was taken the unit was in test mode (little red LED at the bottom of the second row).

Since using this we have not had a single incident of a flat or weak battery on any of the KTM’s we have (the latest is a 990) or other bikes we have been using it on. Compared to the competition, there really is no comparison.

We have been very happy with the performance of this product over the last few months and use it constantly; the test unit we have has been plugged in almost 100% of the time since acquiring it back in December with no failure, heating issues or other performance problems.

Dual Sport Bike Test, a division of Finishlinewest Inc.

Site last updated: 03/13/2008 03:48:43 PM