waht are good hand and thumb warmers

[pantera1975]

There are so many to choose from what experience have you all had with them. I like the idea of the ones you can use your own grips of choice. I was thinking the moose ones? https://www.denniskirk.com/391957.sku?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&gclid=CIrc5v-PnLsCFaHm7AodHTAAiA This was the first thing that came up. Another question is can I just buy the replacement thumb warmer from eBay and run it off the same switch as the hand warmers?? I use to buy a new snowmobile every year when I was in my 20's and they all cam with this stuff installed but I remember in the 80's installing Polaris hand warmers they had a rectangle porcelain piece that had to be wired in for them to work. These Moose ones dont show that. Im looking for simple hi/lo/off I dont need the $125 adjustable moose ones. Ill be putting these on my 86 250R.

[El Camexican]

Ill be putting these on my 86 250R.

How do you plan to power them?

[Gearheadtom]

I think I'm wondering the same thing as camexican, does a 250r stator have enough to run heated grips? Or do they require a bike with a battery and regulator and such?

[pantera1975]

I have a hi output Ricky stator. Snowmobiles don't have batteries and run them

[El Camexican]

I have a hi output Ricky stator. Snowmobiles don't have batteries and run them

Are they 12V? I'm terrible with electronics, but I would love to know how to wire my GPS into my bike which has a light and a high output stator, but I can't figure out where it should (or could) be patched in. I wouild think a controlled source of juice is required (at least for the GPS) but the headlight dims and gets bright with RPM fluctuation.

[Scootertrash]

El:
You can tap power from another switch or just from a wire supplying power to something like the headlight. If you don't have a battery, your hand warmer temps will fluctuate just like your headlight, not very warm at idle, but once you start cruising they will warm up.

The ones pantera linked are a good choice. I tried the ones that go inside the handlebars on our Polaris Scrambler quads and they don't work well due to having to heat the complete end of the handlebar to get heat to your hands, instead of just heating the hand grips like the ones linked in pantera's post.

The other piece of advice I would add is to find out your stator output, then total up all of the amperage/wattage drains on the stator (Headlight on high beam, tailight/brakelight both on, and any other electrical items) and make sure your stator will handle the load of the hand warmers.

The smaller atcs have a lighting coil and that's where you would need to hook your hand warmers up. The high output lighting coil for my 200S is 75 watts, so after the hand warmers listed above (40 watts total) were installed I'd have 35 watts left over to run my head and tail lights. The stock headlight is 45 watts and the stock tail light is 5 watts, making 50 watts, so I'd be 15 watts shy of what I need to run the hand warmers headlight and taillight efficiently. You'd be fine during the day without the headlight tho.

That's my take on how they work, I'm no electrical genius. Someone else with more knowledge may chime in and correct any misinformation I may have posted. ;)

These Kimpex brand warmers draw 25 watts on low and 35 watts on high, 3 amps of current draw:
https://www.denniskirk.com/kimpex/handlebar-grip-heater-kit.p3931.prd/3931.sku

The ones that pantera listed are 40 watts total and draw 3 amps. pantera's 86 250R Ricky stator is 200 watts and should handle the hand warmers just fine.

Pantera: yes you should be able to run them off of the same switch

Here is another option for those who don't have the system requirements to run grip warmers. I may buy a set of these and test them out.:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-Battery-Powered-Heated-Thinsulate-Insulated-Snow-Winter-Gloves-Warming-Ski-/190996216458

ETA: After reading the reviews on Amazon, I don't know that I would buy the above gloves.

As a side note: These hand warmers don't draw any watts or amps ;):
http://www.amazon.com/HotHands-Hand-Warmers-Pair-Value/dp/B00D7H9LIA/ref=sr_1_2?s=outdoor-recreation&ie=UTF8&qid=1386503392&sr=1-2

[fabiodriven]

I bought a set made by Bronco. I've been using them for at least two years now and they work great.

[Scootertrash]

I bought a set made by Bronco. I've been using them for at least two years now and they work great.

What machine? Stock electrical system or upgraded stator/lighting coil?

[fabiodriven]

Stock SX. I've never put any hand warmers on a trike with no battery but I've always been curious to see how they would work. My sled has heated grips with no battery and they get warmer based on how many RPM the engine is pulling.

I'd be weary of the Bronco grips on a ride with no battery because they have a solid state electronic controller. I'm not sure it would fair well with voltage fluctuations.

[El Camexican]

I'd be weary of the Bronco grips on a ride with no battery because they have a solid state electronic controller. I'm not sure it would fair well with voltage fluctuations.

This is what worries me about the GPS. The instructions only mention connecting to a 12V battery.

[wonderboy]

The hand grips will work nicely on AC power (what you get on a bike without a battery) but your GPS will NOT be happy with AC feeding into it. The item you need is a rectifier to convert the AC to DC voltage, and a regulator to control it to a nice constant voltage. The machines with batteries use a combo rectifier/regulator to charge the battery and provide power to accessories.

Hand grips don't really care what type of voltage waveform feeds them. They just get hot when power flows through them.

[kb0nly]

These hand warmers are just resistors, they heat up with the resistance to the current flow through them. Nothing special about them, just a big resistor.

As already mentioned though you have to have enough power to run them. I know guys that have them on their quads and trikes and they have to charge the battery every time they park it because they were over budget on amps running the warmers.

[fabiodriven]

The only reason mine drew my battery down was from a very slight amperage draw they have while sitting.