lithium ion battery - Ruckn

Wednesday November 16, 2011 in How To, Uncategorized 13 Comments

ballistic_feat

The battery in your Ruckus is extremely important. It can drastically effect the overall performance of your bike. More importantly if you have installed after market lighting such as HID and or LED lights, the stock battery could be struggling.

I don’t think my battery was all that strong to begin with as I had purchased my Ruckus used, and I have no idea how well the battery was taken care of by the previous owner. Over time, even before this ruckus was outfitted with HID’s my battery would slowly drain and the bike would not electric start, forcing me to kick start it.

I did some research on batteries for the Ruckus and you are kind of limited in your options. Basically you can replace it with the stock battery, or find an aftermarket counterpart.

Then I started looking at the Lithium Ion Options. There are a few out there, but there was two in particular that I considered. One thing to be aware of when and if you decide to run a Lithium battery is that YOU CAN NOT DRAIN THEM. A normal battery you can drain almost completely dry and charge it and will still be fine. With a lithium battery its imperative that that the capacity never goes below 80%, or it can permanently damage the battery. That being said I highly recommend you also run a voltage indicator to prevent this.

Lithium Battery Options

Ballistic 4 Cell EVO2 LIPO: $99.00
  • Weight: .88lbs
  • 135 CCA
Shorai Power LIPO: $149.00
  • Weight: 1.68lbs
  • 210 CA
Yuasa Factory YTZ10S (stock): $112.00
  • Weight: 7lbs
  • 190 CA

Both batteries will definitely out perform the stock battery. Most important they will shave off about 5 lbs.!! The big difference between these to is the Shorai has more cranking amps @ 210 CCA, the Ballistic has 135CCA. However, the Ballistic is about half the weight at .88lbs!, and on a Ruckus that amount of weight does make a difference. Just for reference the stock Ruckus battery is rated at 190CCA (on a full charge) and weight in at 7lbs!!!

After lots of going back and fourth, I went with the Ballistic Evo2, for the size weight and power it is the best all around battery for me. Weight is a huge consideration and the fact that it almost weighs nothing was of huge importance. Now you might be thinking “wait a minute, the Ballistic has the lowest Cranking Amps at 135. Well here is the deal; the other two batteries are rated at “Cranking Amps”, and the Ballistic is rated in Cold Cranking Amps.” Now this can get pretty technical but read the following:

Cranking amps are the numbers of amperes a lead-acid battery at 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) can deliver for 30 seconds and maintain at least 1.2 volts per cell (7.2 volts for a 12 volt battery).

Since it is more difficult and the engine requires more power to turn over when it is cold, the Cold Cranking rating is defined as: The number of amperes a lead-acid battery at 0 degrees F (-17.8 degrees C) can deliver for 30 seconds and maintain at least 1.2 volts per cell (7.2 volts for a 12-volt battery).

So in reality the Ballistic is right up there with the rest, they are just rated differently. Lots of  manufacturers will use “CA-Cranking Amps” to rate their battery for the simple reason that it make the consumer think its better because its alway s a higher number that CCA-Cold cranking amps. In the end this battery is RAD, My Ruck has never started so quick, and at idle my HID lights dont flicker at all anymore, I love it and totally recommend it.

Installation takes about 30 minutes, and is very easy.

What you need for the install:

  • About 30 minutes
  • 10mm Drive
  • Drill bit or grinder to open mount holes
  • Large Zip Ties

First take off the battery box and you will see you stock battery tucked in on the right side. You will need to remove the retaining bar that keeps is secure, then pull out your stock battery.

Next you will need to modify the fuse harness slightly, as follows, you will need to drill out the negative attachment as well:

After that mount your connection up with the bolts provided

Then put the bad boy back in the battery box and zip tie it up!

Notice how much smaller the Ballistic is allowing for other things to go in that area like a a CDI, HID ballasts etc..

**Some of the imagery is from totalruckus.com


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