Wiring up Dual Star Heated grips with a Heat Troller for Dummies

 

First, lets plan this out: with the directions that come with the Dual Stars and the Heat Troller I can easily see how people can get confused because Dual Star never bothers to show you how the grips themselves are wired. I figure that a lot of folks can follow a simple wiring diagram so stick with me and you'll be alright.

Notes:

If you've been refered to this page from Warm and Safe's web site, you may wonder why their wiring diagram is showing you to wire up the red and blue wires and tie off the white wires on the Dual Star heating elements. Using the red and blue wires creates more heat than using red and white wires as I show below. But it also draws more power to make that extra heat. I went with red and white wires because my ZX-9R only has a 33 amp alternator and I wanted to make certain that my bike's charging system could keep up with the power draw of the Dual Star heating elements at idle.

For maximum heat: red and red, blue with blue and tape off the white wires individually so they cannot short out to ground or touch each other.

For lower power consumption: red with red, white with white and tape off the blue wires individually so they cannot short out to ground or touch each other.

 

Notes:

Wire the two red wires coming off of the Dual Star grips together and wire the two white wires coming off of the Dual Star grips together so that you end up with two wires: 1) Red with red. 2) White with white.

You will not wire up the two blue wires to anything. The heat troller provides the ground circuit. Tape the blue wires off individually so they ARE NOT connected together and do not short out.

The diagram can be saved to your HD and resized if you want to for easier reading. I just mushed it into this window and made it fit into my table.

 

The bike you're looking at is my ZX-9R. Your bike will appear differently. If your bike looks just like my bike, then you've stolen my bike and I want it back!

This picture shows (but not real well) how I've got the throttle side wire coming out in such a way so that it will not get tangled up with the brake lever as you roll the throttle from closed to wide open.

 

This picture shows the location of my inline fuse from the positive side of the battery to the relay as well as my relay's location. It also shows that I located my two ground wires straight to the battery negative with one connector.

I left my wires all on the long side as I've plans to add more electrical stuff and I may need to extra wire to relocate items. If you do not have like-minded plans then cut your wires shorter for a cleaner look.

 

 

This photo shows where I located the Heat troller itself alongside the right side of the sub-frame. The Heat Troller is the black box with the purple and white and red and black wires coming out of it.

Note: When your installing this stuff, it is best to locate all your parts and then to trim up the wire to length. This will avoid your using words like, "D'oH!" and "Son of a..." and the ever popular catch word "Succotash!"

 

This photo shows the location of the Heat Troller's control. It is mounted on the left side so that I don't have to take my hand off of the throttle to turn the heated grips on or off or to adjust the heat. The controller is also mounted in this spot because I can see it while seated on my bike rather than having to "feel" around for the controller.

I took off the vanity panel and then drilled it. You should do the same. Remember to think before drilling because like diamonds, a hole is forever.


I grabbed switched power for the relay from the positive lead running to the taillights so if a bulb dies it will not effect power to the relay (I was too lazy to take a photo so you'll have to use your imagination). Off/on-sweep is controlled by the remote Heat Troller whose control and L.E.D. is mounted on the left vanity panel (in the only place I can see of it while sitting on the bike).

Wiring from the heating elements follows the ram air ducts through the frame on the left and right sides and then follows the inside of the left side of the delta-box as does the wire feeding the remote that is mounted on the left vanity panel. The Heat Troller itself is mounted on the right, outer side of my sub-frame (plastic hides the ugly) and the relay is mounted securely with a shared bolt that had just been holding down my ECM that is mounted next to the battery. Zip ties were used throughout to tighty up things and no warm blooded animals were harmed during the install although a swarm of bees were attracted to the smell of hair spay which is what I used to vulcanize my grips to my handlebars. For bees I recommend a can of Raid and a fly swat.

As I diagramed, I ran with the white and red wires on the heating elements which are wired in parallel and that seems just fine (tonight in 55°F weather, I was running about 1/3rd of full power and my digits were toasty).

Relay wise, I got a cheap automotive style relay from Radio Shack myself (you've seen it before—it's the same cheap one that comes with every driving light kit you've ever seen). If you want a relay that will not mess up, get a Bosch car relay from an auto parts store knowing that it will cost you a bit more for the additional reliability.

When you get the grips off and are going to sticker on the Dual Star heating elements think about where your fingers wrap around on the throttle when it is at a highway cruise speed. It pays off to make sure that your fingers are all on the heating elements as you cruise down the road. Additionally, if you've aluminum bars, you'll need to insolate the heating elements because the bars will be giant heat sinks. On my bike the Helibars are steel and I just stuck the elements on without any glue or epoxy because I'm lazy and it works just fine.

Give yourself some time to do the install as well because it takes a bit longer than you'd think--especially so if you get assaulted by a swarm of bees like I did.

There are some concerns that you can burn out Heat Trollers with Dual Star heated grips. I assure you that if you wire in your heated grips as I'm showing you, the power draw placed upon the Heat Troller is within the Heat Troller's capacity.


Best regards to all,


Eric Landstrom

Eric's Motorcycling Do-It-Yourself Page

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