Denali Power Hub 2
/I bought this months ago, and finally got around to installing it. Having a garage really helps, and since I'm now garage equipped, it was easier to work on the bike. I bought the power hub because I have too many electrical devices hard wired directly to my bikes battery. That and my aux lights could be turned on at any time because of the way they were wired, key in or not.
The idea behind the power hub, or similar devices, is that you have a central hub that goes somewhere out of the way where all your electrical accessories get hooked in to. That hub then gets hard wired to the battery. You have a positive and negative set of wires coming out of the power hub going straight to the bikes battery. That was easy enough, once we knew the general location of the power hub (under the seat), we cut down the wires to size, crimped on the terminals, and connected to the battery.
You also have a yellow wire coming out of the power hub, which you are supposed to connect to any wire on the bike that feeds a "switched" electrical part. Switched meaning that the line is only active when the key is in and the bike is on. The idea behind that is that the accessories you wire in to the power hub can either be "always on" or "switched". So for instance, my aux lights i would want switched so that they only are on when the bike is on, but my GPS Trackimo locator is always on regardless of key.
They provided a posi-tap connector allowing us to easily splice the yellow wire in to a switched connection on our bike. You can splice in to anything like a headlight or tail light or whatever is easily accessible. Some bikes are trickier (CANBUS?) and you might need an additional accessory in that case. For my bike, i took the easiest path which was the AUX DIN connector right near the battery. The din connector is the mini cigarette charger port near the ignition. That specific connection actually stays on for 30 seconds after turning off the bike, but thats fine with me. The posi-tap connects to the red wire and doesnt need any splicing. You just press it on, and then connect the yellow wire to the end. Google posi-tap to find out more on that.
I connected my aux lights, as switched, my gerbing heat controller as switched, and my trackimo as always on. I plan to add a battery tender connection which i can then use for USB charging, charging the bikes battery, or a volt meter connection.
Overall it was pretty easy to install this. The challenge was finding a spot under the seat that would fit the power hub. Its pretty small, but there isn't much room under the seat. I also had to figure out a way to hide all the extra wire so that everything would fit. I'd like to return and shorten the aux light wires as they came with way too much slack.
The device itself is well made, but not perfect. The elastic bands that hold the top on could have been thought out better. The mini fuses (purchased separately) are a bit tall and don't let the top fit perfectly flush. Otherwise I think I'm happy. Having devices connected in a cleaner manner, with the ability to choose if they are switched or always on is worth the price of around $110.
