Pet battery peeve!

[TJ]

Why do battery manufactures give you screws so short you have to slide a tooth pick or piece of paper under that square bolt inside the terminal block to push it high enough for the threads of the screw to catch it??? Every damn battery I ever owned for a bike or ATV has been the same way. It gets even worse by the time you attach a trickle charger or plug to run a portable compressor.

Anyone have a suggestion for where to get longer screws ?

[Rhino]

Just think of all the 1/100's of a penny they save by giving you a shorter screw. 

[B.D.F.]

Because if they used a longer screw there would be a risk of the screw going through the nut (easy boys!) far enough to bottom out on the terminal or worse, puncture the battery. You can get a longer screw at Home Depot, Lowes or similar. And you can buy just about any screw available at McMaster Carr over the 'Net but you might have to buy 10 or 25 of them, although they will still be pretty inexpensive in that size.

Brian

Why do battery manufactures give you screws so short you have to slide a tooth pick or piece of paper under that square bolt inside the terminal block to push it high enough for the threads of the screw to catch it??? Every damn battery I ever owned for a bike or ATV has been the same way. It gets even worse by the time you attach a trickle charger or plug to run a portable compressor.

Anyone have a suggestion for where to get longer screws ?

[RBX QB]

Somebody smarter than me suggested cutting off a piece of a straw and putting it under the nut. That would effectively always be pushing the nut up towards the bolt (until the straw becomes so brittle it breaks).

I'm not smart enough to have tried it yet.

[maxtog]

Why do battery manufactures give you screws so short you have to slide a tooth pick or piece of paper under that square bolt inside the terminal block to push it high enough for the threads of the screw to catch it??? Every damn battery I ever owned for a bike or ATV has been the same way. It gets even worse by the time you attach a trickle charger or plug to run a portable compressor.

I wondered the same thing every time I curse at it.  It is even worse when you have a few additional eyelets you need to connect, since that makes the screw even shorter.  I ended up having to put a little piece of plastic under the nut, resting on the battery, to raise the nut.

[TJ]

I did find this online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFg94kv14rE

I plan on buying a foot or so of the tubing and trying it out.

[clogan]

Wonder why they don't just use a threaded battery post, ala boat batteries?

I'm betting it's because all the bike batteries are made in the same plant somewhere in rural China, by the same little old far-sighted, thick glasses wearing guy, who has always made them this way, because his father before him made them this way, and so on, and so on.

But it is a very inconvenient feature of motorcycle batteries, I agree!

[gPink]

Must have been the same guy who wrote the manual.

Wonder why they don't just use a threaded battery post, ala boat batteries?

I'm betting it's because all the bike batteries are made in the same plant somewhere in rural China, by the same little old far-sighted, thick glasses wearing guy, who has always made them this way, because his father before him made them this way, and so on, and so on.

But it is a very inconvenient feature of motorcycle batteries, I agree!

[VirginiaJim]

Wonder why they don't just use a threaded battery post, ala boat batteries?

I'm betting it's because all the bike batteries are made in the same plant somewhere in rural China, by the same little old far-sighted, thick glasses wearing guy, who has always made them this way, because his father before him made them this way, and so on, and so on.

But it is a very inconvenient feature of motorcycle batteries, I agree!

Yuasa are made in the US.  They make MC batteries.   What other brands of batteries do we use?  Let's name them and see where they are made....just for fun.

MotoBatt - made in China  BikeMaster - China  Duracell AGM - USA BigCrank - USA

So it looks like there is still a choice to buy US MC batteries.  China does not make all MC batteries.  Clogan, you would lose that bet.

I believe that I have a Motobatt in my bike at the moment.  Got it from Murph's back in 2010.  Hard to believe that I've had it that long.  Time flies.  Knocking on wood, haven't had any issues with it.  I have used Yuasa in the past without any issues except for that one time in my SilverWing GL500, that the Yuasa died suddenly without warning whilst on a trip.  Had to leave the bike on the side of the road until I got another battery the next day.

As far as screw length (easy boys...) goes...they aren't designed to fit many extra leads on the posts.  Get yourself a good fuse block and run the accessories from there. 

[B.D.F.]

If you folks try a MotoBatt, I betcha' you won't go back to the stock batteries. In addition to being AGM technology, they have a really cool, multi- use terminal scheme. And four terminal too (two positive, two negative) in the event you want to install more.... stuff.

Brian

Why do battery manufactures give you screws so short you have to slide a tooth pick or piece of paper under that square bolt inside the terminal block to push it high enough for the threads of the screw to catch it??? Every damn battery I ever owned for a bike or ATV has been the same way. It gets even worse by the time you attach a trickle charger or plug to run a portable compressor.

Anyone have a suggestion for where to get longer screws ?

[Kas]

Take a piece of window/door weather stripping, pull the wrap off the sticky side, put the threaded base on the sticky side and trim to fit---or not, slide in to the slot on the battery. The nut is forced up and some of the misery is relieved.

[Roadhound]

I've always just stuck an old foam earplug under the nut. It will stay in place and always hold the nut up high enough to allow the screw to catch.

[MAN OF BLUES]

I usually have a bunch of the trimmed off excess ends from tie wraps laying around on the floor... just bend the end of one over on itself, insert under the nut... viola, spring tension on the nut that can be pulled out after the screw catches...

[maxtog]

It is funny to read all these posts of people (like myself) fixing what I think is a design problem that Yuasa still hasn't addressed after all these years