Mighty mites question

[FuzzyWuzHe]

First off, I'd like to apologize for anything I may of ever said about mighty mites that was negative. For a long time, I believed they were a gimmick to get my $$ ... LOL ... I mean really, how could these addy bitty fans cool down the beast ... just did not compute. Again, GIGO ... I had put garbage in my brain, so garbage came out. Having been using these for about a year ... WOW ... the numbers on the Power Vision gauge set do not lie.

Okay, so back to my question.



If you look closely where the logo is, there are two of them. One is on a spacer. My question is, would removing that spacer have any ill effects like voiding the warrantee (HD has taught me to be gun shy). More importantly, I'd like to remove it for two reasons:

1) drives me crazy there are two logos ... I know ... annal ... this is the big reason

2) my A.B. Normal Engineering brain never lets anything go. So, if the fans being 3/8" from the head cools well, wouldn't them being 1/8" from the head cool it better?

There may be some negatives of moving the fans closer, like less room for the air flow to get off the heads. If the air gets trapped between the fans and the heads may actually cause less cooling. I'm not sure, but, moving the fans closer, might actually allow the fans to "bump" the heads when you hit a bump.

Another option may be to remove the spacer, sand the back if it's not chrome, then paint it flat black and mount it black out. This solves the annal issue, but, if just removing it allows for better cooling, I'm in.

So, Obi Wan Kenobi (okay, just the group), has anyone done this? What was your experience when doing it? Even though I've been using these for about a year, I'm still the newby here.

 

[Jack Klarich]

If you remove the spacer the fans will not be as effective and shorter lived, heat will eat them alive, You could remove the spacer, measure the thickness and add your own made from some metal you probably have in your Magic Garage

 

[Mykneesbehurtin]

I agree with Jack,these things are the bomb if all else fails you could cover the second logo with a scooby doo bandaid.

 

[Gone2Three]

Fat bottoms and Love Jugs go hand and hand....

just leave it! :yahoo:

 

[Sully]

My mount looks a little different than yours. It's a Horn mount and the fans stick out about an inch out from the motor. They work great.

 

[nucseal]

I used the horn mount for two years without the spacer and had no problems, except eventually the vibration from the motor was destroying the fans. Also, the vibration had eaten through the wires connecting the fans inside the metal tubing. Talked with Dave @ Love Jugs suggested I move to a frame mount. Which I did. Buy the way absolutely great service at love jugs, fixed my fans at no cost.

 

[DK Custom Products]

I've run fans on 5 different personal bikes over the years. They have all been between 1/8" and 3/8" away from the fins.

If the rubber isolator is in good condition, I never had the fans bump into the fins. However, when the isolator begins to fail, bumping into the fins is your early warning signal that it is starting to go. :laugh:

In over 200,000 miles of riding with fans I've had two isolators bite the dust, and I've had one motor fail...that motor failure was on a Twin Cam and attributed to vibration, not heat.

I just went out and measured my 2019 M8 TG. It is 3/8" away. I measured my 2012 Twin Cam Softail and it is 1/8" away.

The real danger, or so I've been told by the manufacturers, is that if it is too close, the heat will accelerate failure of the fan motor.

The back of the fans have a little heat shield stuck to them to help protect them from the heat.

Since I know the warnings above, I usually (always when it is fully heat soaked) leave the fans on for 1-4 minutes after shutting the engine down. The heat damage, if it were to occur, happens when the fans are not running and the engine is hot. Thus my reason for leaving them running for a bit after shutting down.

In our testing, we have always had the fans between 1/8" - 3/8" away from the fins...except once, we had them about 3/4" away and they did not cool as well. There is a report on Trike Talk of our fan testing at this LINK.

However, since I run closer than factory recommended, I am pretty sure the reason that I have not had heat damage to the fan motors is due to running them after shutting the engine down. So, I would not move them closer unless you are willing to do that extra step of letting them run a bit.

OH, and one warning on that...I have forgotten to turn them off and walked away a few times. Once was at a motel, and I did not discover it until the next morning. It did kill the battery (it was already close, but this sealed the deal). Another time was in my bike room for two days. The battery was completely dead, but I charged the battery up, and am still using the same battery 3 years later.

Several times I walked away and came back 2-3 hours later...zero issues, bike started right up.

Kevin

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Mine is the horn mount ... but it has the new "bracket". I have actually watched the fans at idle, arguably the most vibration the engine sees, the fans hardly move.

I wish I knew if that spacer is chrome on both sides. When my fingers heal, I guess the scubbie doo band aide is a temp fix.

 

[OLBLU]

The spacer is chrome on both sides , so you can flip it.

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

The spacer is chrome on both sides , so you can flip it.

Sounds good ... I have my fans on the ignition switch ... cause I know I wouldn't remember to turn them on ... LOL. When I did the map update, I turned them off cause it was gonna be about an hour our so. Of course, after the update, I shut the bike down.

It was about a week later, I realized I hadn't turned them back on. When the fingers heal, I'll flip the spacer, won't even notice it without the logo.

 

[Tomswede]

I've run fans on 5 different personal bikes over the years. They have all been between 1/8" and 3/8" away from the fins.

If the rubber isolator is in good condition, I never had the fans bump into the fins. However, when the isolator begins to fail, bumping into the fins is your early warning signal that it is starting to go. :laugh:

In over 200,000 miles of riding with fans I've had two isolators bite the dust, and I've had one motor fail...that motor failure was on a Twin Cam and attributed to vibration, not heat.

I just went out and measured my 2019 M8 TG. It is 3/8" away. I measured my 2012 Twin Cam Softail and it is 1/8" away.

The real danger, or so I've been told by the manufacturers, is that if it is too close, the heat will accelerate failure of the fan motor.

The back of the fans have a little heat shield stuck to them to help protect them from the heat.

Since I know the warnings above, I usually (always when it is fully heat soaked) leave the fans on for 1-4 minutes after shutting the engine down. The heat damage, if it were to occur, happens when the fans are not running and the engine is hot. Thus my reason for leaving them running for a bit after shutting down.

In our testing, we have always had the fans between 1/8" - 3/8" away from the fins...except once, we had them about 3/4" away and they did not cool as well. There is a report on Trike Talk of our fan testing at this LINK.

However, since I run closer than factory recommended, I am pretty sure the reason that I have not had heat damage to the fan motors is due to running them after shutting the engine down. So, I would not move them closer unless you are willing to do that extra step of letting them run a bit.

OH, and one warning on that...I have forgotten to turn them off and walked away a few times. Once was at a motel, and I did not discover it until the next morning. It did kill the battery (it was already close, but this sealed the deal). Another time was in my bike room for two days. The battery was completely dead, but I charged the battery up, and am still using the same battery 3 years later.

Several times I walked away and came back 2-3 hours later...zero issues, bike started right up.

Kevin

I'm contemplating to follow the many suggestions to add a set of cooling fans to my 2016

Triglide, mostly to protect my investment,but also to avoid a breakdown somewhere on the road, my question is: how to most effectively wire the fans , if I wire them directly to the ignition switch to turn them on as soon as I start the bike, then incorporate a "Timeout off

relay " set for 3 minutes that keeps the fans running to cool after the bike and the ignition

Is turned off, that way I can leave the bike safely without risk of draining the battery.

Has anyone wired the fans that way and have any pros or cons, ???

 

[Fearless]

I'm contemplating to follow the many suggestions to add a set of cooling fans to my 2016

Triglide, mostly to protect my investment,but also to avoid a breakdown somewhere on the road, my question is: how to most effectively wire the fans , if I wire them directly to the ignition switch to turn them on as soon as I start the bike, then incorporate a "Timeout off

relay " set for 3 minutes that keeps the fans running to cool after the bike and the ignition

Is turned off, that way I can leave the bike safely without risk of draining the battery.

Has anyone wired the fans that way and have any pros or cons, ???

I think that would be great to do that I had an interference problem that is why I just wired mine direct to the battery. Keep me posted on the progress if you do sounds interesting to me. I like the Idea of automatic shut down on the fans after a preset time. Travel safe Fred

 

[PosseRider]

First off, I'd like to apologize for anything I may of ever said about mighty mites that was negative. For a long time, I believed they were a gimmick to get my $$ ... LOL ... I mean really, how could these addy bitty fans cool down the beast ... just did not compute. Again, GIGO ... I had put garbage in my brain, so garbage came out. Having been using these for about a year ... WOW ... the numbers on the Power Vision gauge set do not lie.

Okay, so back to my question.

View attachment 86883

If you look closely where the logo is, there are two of them. One is on a spacer. My question is, would removing that spacer have any ill effects like voiding the warrantee (HD has taught me to be gun shy). More importantly, I'd like to remove it for two reasons:

1) drives me crazy there are two logos ... I know ... annal ... this is the big reason

2) my A.B. Normal Engineering brain never lets anything go. So, if the fans being 3/8" from the head cools well, wouldn't them being 1/8" from the head cool it better?

There may be some negatives of moving the fans closer, like less room for the air flow to get off the heads. If the air gets trapped between the fans and the heads may actually cause less cooling. I'm not sure, but, moving the fans closer, might actually allow the fans to "bump" the heads when you hit a bump.

Another option may be to remove the spacer, sand the back if it's not chrome, then paint it flat black and mount it black out. This solves the annal issue, but, if just removing it allows for better cooling, I'm in.

So, Obi Wan Kenobi (okay, just the group), has anyone done this? What was your experience when doing it? Even though I've been using these for about a year, I'm still the newby here.

did you put them on right side up ??? just asking

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

did you put them on right side up ??? just asking

Cute

 

[PosseRider]

I'm contemplating to follow the many suggestions to add a set of cooling fans to my 2016

Triglide, mostly to protect my investment,but also to avoid a breakdown somewhere on the road, my question is: how to most effectively wire the fans , if I wire them directly to the ignition switch to turn them on as soon as I start the bike, then incorporate a "Timeout off

relay " set for 3 minutes that keeps the fans running to cool after the bike and the ignition

Is turned off, that way I can leave the bike safely without risk of draining the battery.

Has anyone wired the fans that way and have any pros or cons, ???

I think Lady on a Mission has hers wired to a "heat sensor" & they turn the fans on & when she parks ,they turn off after motor cools. You might ask her as I am going from memory as to how hers work.

 

[LadyonaMission]

I think Lady on a Mission has hers wired to a "heat sensor" & they turn the fans on & when she parks ,they turn off after motor cools. You might ask her as I am going from memory as to how hers work.

Mine are wired to start and shut down with the ignition. At first they were wired to the battery but I would sometimes forget to turn them on.