Riding with cold hands can be a true misery.
Date 2005/12/21 21:42:02 | Topic: Accessories
| Taken to the next level, very cold hands can actually be a safety issue when trying to properly control your 4-wheeler. Cold hands make it difficult to hang on to the grips and access the necessary controls like brakes and throttle. Needing a new set of heaters for the Sportsman, I decided to do some research on available heaters and do a review of different types of heaters.
The myriad of heaters out there basically fall into two groups. Group one has the heating element incased in the grip that you slip onto your handle bars in lieu of the OEM grip that came on the machine. Group two has a self-adhesive heating element that you adhere to your handlebars and then slip your choice of grips over them. Both types have pros and cons. It comes down to personal preference relating to several criteria. Ease of installation, type of grip supplied, control of heating levels, price, and possible name brand recognition. I suppose one could break those two basic groups down into sub-groups based on criteria such as method of heating control ie: type of power control to the resistant heating elements. For my purposes, the two main groups would suffice for my tests. After all, I only had two machines to do testing with and once the self-adhesive heating elements are adhered to the handlebars, they typically cannot be removed without damage to the heating elements. My funding source (my checkbook) could not handle multiple units to test.
While on a ride in October of 05, up in the beautiful forests of Ontario, I had an opportunity to ride with a fellow who had heaters on his Bombardier. These heaters where cool with their multilevel control units to adjust the heat at the grips and the thumb warmer. It was during that ride in Ontario that a minor mishap to my Sportsman caused a malfunction in the heaters that were mounted under the grips. Definitely time to replace the heaters. The heaters were manufactured by Symtec Inc. I had some trouble initially locating a source for the heaters here in the states. Finally, in desperation, I got ahold of the manufacturer. They were most helpful in assisting me in locating a retail source for the heaters. That contact with them opened up a line of communication and I told them of the testing that I was planning to do. I asked if they could supply me with a special set of heaters that didn’t include the grips but rather a self-adhesive heating element. After some discussion on the matter, I was sold a set of heaters as per my specs as well as a set of heaters with the grips included, the Symtec Complete ATV Winter Pac.
The set I special ordered did not have grips. I would put another set of grips over the heating element. Other than that difference, the units from Symtec were identical.
I ordered a third set of heaters from ATVNation to include in my tests. WFO heaters. These came with toggle switches to turn the heaters on/off and high/low rather than the electronic control unit supplied by the other brand. They also had the self-adhesive foil heaters rather than the grips supplied.
The test I decided to run would be a comparative test. How warm would the various heaters get in what amount of time. I figured this would be the only conclusive test I could run as other aspects of the comparison such as installation and control features would be purely subjective. I borrowed from a plumber friend, a laser sighted, infra-red digital thermometer, accurate to .25 degrees. This unit was cool! I checked the temp of nearly everything in the testing labs (my garage) and even messed with laser sighting almost everything outside one cold dark night. But I digress…back to the test!
I had three sets of heaters to test but only had two machines to mount them to. I picked up a ½” inside diameter black metal pipe to mount the third set of grips to. It was a fair fit, not perfect, but a suitable “faux handle-bar” to perform the test with. Keep in mind the limited budget our testing team was working with. Had a manufacturer stepped in with another machine to perform the test on, we would have done our utmost to include it in the test runs. Of course that would have meant breaking in the test machine first so it would have been on a comparable level to the Sportsman 400 (also known as the Subtle 400) and the Brute 750. But no machine was offered so the test went on without them.
The Symtec heaters without grips included were mounted to the Brute 750.
I put the WFO heaters on the Subtle 400
and the Symtec grip heaters were put on the faux handle bars.
The batteries of each machine were charged to full power and the charger was left “on” during the testing phase to insure a common baseline of power supply for testing the units. Once each set of heaters was installed as per manufacturers’ instructions, I fired up each set of heaters on full power and checked the temp at 5 minute intervals until a consistent high temp was achieved.
Results of testing….
Symtec unit / grips included ........ 20 minutes to reach average high temp of 174º
Symtec unit / Kawi OEM grips......30 minutes to reach average high temp of 148º
WFO / Spider grips.......................30 minutes to reach average high temp of 130º
This test does not supply us with any substantial data to reach a conclusion as to which heater may surpass the others when you take into account individual operators preferences. It does however supply us with a valid comparison between the heaters.
As an aside to the test, the WFO heater utilizes resistance technology to step down the current on low settings to control the amount of heat. During testing I noticed that the resistors got quite hot so I ran a second test on the WFO’s during low heat settings.
WFO units on low setting / Low maintained grip temp of 104º ..............................................................grip resistor average high temp of 302º ..............................................................thumb resistor average high temp of 90º
Resistors not engaged when on high setting for grips/thumb. This is as it should be!
The WFO heaters use a tried and true albeit rather Flintstonish technology to control the amount of current to the heaters, thusly controlling the heat. The toggle switches are simple single pole ON/OFF/ON switches. One for the grips and one for the thumb pad warmer.
You will have to drill a couple ½” diameter holes somewhere on the machine to mount the toggle switches. Make sure the switches will not interfere with other wiring or units before you drill the holes. Don’t drill into the gas tank! I’ve heard of that happening!
The resistors mounted in-line on the LOW side of the switch drop the available current to the warmers. Simple yet effective although as noted in the additional testing, the resistor for the grips got very hot, running consistently over 300º while in operation. Not the kind of thing you want to grab onto. Be mindful of where that resistor ends up getting mounted.
The thumb pad with the WFO’s is one of the nicest thumb heaters I’ve seen. It is all enclosed in rubber and required no additional coverings. The location of the wire on the thumb unit may give some installers a hard time depending on the machine it gets mounted to. The wire comes out of the top/back side of the warming pad and will rub on the throttle housing.
I had to add shrink tubing to my pad to get the wire to stay positioned out of the way of the throttle housing. The Install kit for the WFO’s is lacking in some parts and necessary items. I had to supply a bladed connector to finish the wiring to the switches. There is no method to attach the thumb pad to the throttle. Instructions recommend an epoxy glue. I used a small strip of 3M-VHB (Very High Bond) tape, and shrink tubing. The switches are not water proof. I also added small rubber covers over the toggles on the switches to help with water-proofing.
The in-line resistors are exposed to the elements as well. The thumb resistor is sheathed but open on both ends of the sheath. The grip resistor is not sheathed. I added shrink tubing to this resistor to aid in protection.
The Symtec heaters come with a control unit that makes this system stand miles ahead of the WFO’s.
The unit is totally sealed and controls are a soft touch button. The thumb and grip controls are in the same unit. Just switch which heater you want to control, and there are 5 power settings for each heater. There are indicator lights showing you which heater is being controlled and at what level. There is even a light intensity adjustment for day or night driving. Nice! The Sumtec unit uses a true dual wattage heating element, no need for resistors.
The pre-molded pre-wired plug assembly makes install a no brainer. I doubt you could hook it up wrong if you wanted to. There are several possibilities to mount the control unit. I chose to mount it to the pod but a handlebar clamp is also included should you choose to do so. The kit is complete! Everything is there including the little cable ties to secure the wiring. The only difficulty I had with the Symtecs was the wire to ground was a bit short for my needs. I simply spliced (with a butt splice connector) an additional 10” of ground wire.
The instructions advise you to wire it to a switched power source, but the unit will automatically turn off after 2 hours with no adjustments to the power levels so your battery will not be drained should you wire it “hot” and inadvertently leave the heaters on.
Both heaters, the Symtecs and WFO’s, with the foil type grip heaters use the same method of adhering to the handlebars. The foil heaters are backed with 3M-VHB Tape. This stuff works great! Just make sure your handlebars are clean and de-burred. I lightly sanded mine and cleaned them with acetone before mounting the heaters. Get them lined up properly, stick one end and remove the tape backing as you work your way across the grip area.
Then roll the heaters around the bars. Just make sure you have them located properly as there is no adjustment with this VHB tape once you have them stuck. The thumb heating pad uses the same VHB tape to mount to the throttle. Then slip a piece of shrink tubing (supplied) over the throttle lever and shrink it down.
Tie off all the wires with the zip ties. Goober up the pre-molded wire plug with di-electric grease if you so choose, and slip the grips on over the heaters. Done!
Addendum: I used the compressed air method to attempt to put Spider grips over the heaters on the Brute. During that process, I over-inflated the Spider grip like a balloon (it was pretty hilarious) and permanently deformed the Spider grip. If you use compressed air to aid in installing the Spider grips, try to find a pipe or tube that will “just” fit over the grip to keep it from over-inflating.
I’ve heard that Windex sprayed on the grips helps to install, and the Windex evaporates leaving the grip stuck snugly in place. I would not use WD-40 type lubricants on the foil type heaters to install the grips. The lubricants may react with the plastic housing of the foil heaters.
The instructions to install the pre-molded heated grips from Symtec recommend WD-40 to help slip the grips on. I would follow those recommendations.
Here is a Link to the discussion of this topic http://www.atvnation.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10383&hl=
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