Cooler Fans

[Ron58]

02 Harley Trike, I was in a Parade this weekend , Trike kept. dying out from the heat, Vapor lock maybe?? The Trike was really cooking, Will the after market fans work that you see on ebay work to move air around the Cylinders??????

Thanks
Ron

 

[tkglider]

Some say the Harley fan is not a great buy.I do not know why you could not buy a small marine bilge blower that would be the size of a beer can and really cool the engine.That should cost $25.

I am thinking of a 2010 HD triglide and have heard they are really hot.

 

[Gorilla]

Ron, Any type of air movement you can provide over the cooling fins will help. You can get into a debate as to the Harley fan being any good vs the after market. My viewpoint would be any air movement is better than none.

Does your trike have an oil cooler? That will help a little also. I'm in the process of installing a couple of fans behind the oil cooler to help there on the slow drive.

If you are not all ready doing so and you are going to be doing a bit of slow riding again synthetic oil is suggested. It is not affected by the high temperatures as much as fossil oil as far as breaking down goes.

 

[1550vt]

Like the above...it's another debate. The HD fan will move more air across the cylinders, but looks like a garbage can lid. The "little" fan is more stylish and easier to mount, but does little good.

 

[Greydog]

Some say the Harley fan is not a great buy.I do not know why you could not buy a small marine bilge blower that would be the size of a beer can and really cool the engine.That should cost $25.

I am thinking of a 2010 HD triglide and have heard they are really hot.

With EPA regs becoming more and more stringent and HD's engines running progressively leaner it's just a matter of time until air cooled engines are a thing of the past. I had an 1100 Shadow Aero with a small thermostat controlled cooling fan that worked great. Wonder if one of those could be modified to mount on a Harley if the cost wasn't prohibitive??

 

[Ron58]

I use Amsoil 20/50 in everything. And I have an oil cooler.

Thanks
Ron

 

[1550vt]

Parade duty is surely hard on a TG, but it has always been hard on any Harley. I haven't since, but in my parade-days I had an EVO like everybody else and you would literally cook those things down. I have been on mine when it was so hot that the oil warning light would not go off and you had to rev it up to get it to even flicker. Oil dip-sticks would blow out of the oil tanks and exhaust would be burning blue with oil smoke. The motors did not have enough sense to stop themselves back in those days so we just kept doing it. All the police bikes around here have Harley fans on them and always have as best that I can remember. That's the only way they can keep them running. Harleys just were not made for stop-n-go parade duty.

 

[roadkill]

i was told this when i bought my trike if it got hot or to the point at a stop it wanted to stall to put it in (N) and roll the throttle back ward it shut down a couple of cylinders and cools the trike down when u are at a stop
and all so down the race tuner all so helps when doing the mufflers

 

[rvtriker]

Roadkill, "a couple of cylinders" hmmmm, that would be not running. I believe you meant the rear cylinder. It's called ETIMS. This occurs under certain conditions when the rear cylinder head temp gets hot, cylinder shuts down and the temp goes down. It can be activated or deactivated by rolling the throttle forward for about 3 seconds until the cruise light on the dash changes color. It's all in the owners manual. Once activated it operates on its own. Fires back up as soon as the throttle is rolled.

 

[saab9k]

Keep the oil cool with a tank and fan placed under trike.
by adding 2 QRts oil will keep the temp Down on engine,l

 

[Fusionfool]

Ok I don't want to start a bashing of fans, but I am on the fence and need advise. I am considering the LuvJugs, or the Wards fans. Please help me understand the benefit of each, lets just start and say the thermostat on the Wards is not and issue any longer.
I would like to understand the following:
LuvJugs basically states, use when at low speed in and around town, turn off when on highway.
Wards I believe states leave on at highway speeds or let the thermostat control. Are both equally effective at highway speed, or does one have an advantage of higher velocity to push more air, therefore better at higher speed?
Any other comments of comparison welcome.

 

[bigjohn2345]

I have wards fans and they work great on my 2013 trike
bigjohn

 

[DK Custom Products]

Ok I don't want to start a bashing of fans, but I am on the fence and need advise. I am considering the LuvJugs, or the Wards fans. Please help me understand the benefit of each, lets just start and say the thermostat on the Wards is not and issue any longer.
I would like to understand the following:
LuvJugs basically states, use when at low speed in and around town, turn off when on highway.
Wards I believe states leave on at highway speeds or let the thermostat control. Are both equally effective at highway speed, or does one have an advantage of higher velocity to push more air, therefore better at higher speed?
Any other comments of comparison welcome.

I have the Wards fans. I have the manual switch...just a personal preference over the thermostat controlled ones.

I have somewhere around 20k miles on them, including lots of rain, sleet, snow, 110* temps, and all the dust and crap from the trip up to Alaska and back. No issues, still working fine.

I switch them on when my head temp hits 200-210 degrees.

I have played with them quite a bit, and they are good for lowering head temps (and oil temps as a result) anywhere from standing still to up around 80 MPH. Between 60-80 mph they do not lower the head temp as much as at lower speeds.

Just yesterday I was doing some work in the garage (ambient temp 65*) and after idling for awhile the head temp was up to 246* and still climbing. I then switched on the fans and within a couple of minutes the head temp had dropped down to 204* and still dropping.

Last week I was running down the interstate for awhile and decided to play a bit. Ambient temp was 55*. I had the fans on and head temp was fluctuating between 202-208. (speed was 70-85 mph) I switched the fans off and over a few minute period the head temps rose to 230*.

I have never used the Love Juggs, I just have not gotten past the look of them. I do like in their video how they submerse them to show how impervious they are to water. I did wonder why in their comparison they do not include the Wards fans.

If the Wards fans did not exist, or if they did not cool sufficiently, I would bite the bullet on looks and get the Love Juggs.

Wish I could give you an apple to apple comparison, but hopefully the above info is somewhat helpful.

Kevin

 

[DTR 11TG]

...
Any other comments of comparison welcome.

I have a set of Ward's fans, I liked the looks & smaller size and the reason behind the size, the Ward's fans have worked great. I did a lot of checking before buys Ward's, many already had Ward's & loved them, some had the HD fan & had mixed reviews most wish they had something else, a few mentioned a Lenale fan, but not good reviews and one person told me about some other twin fan set-up, but his comment was that they were so big that he might as well mount a leaf blower on the side of his trike.
I also liked the fact that Jason, of Ward's fans, was a current member of our Armed Forces, so besides helping a member of our Military, he had a great product.

 

[Fusionfool]

Thanks all for the reply's / comments. I am leaning toward the Wards for two reasons.
1. Size, if they do the job, I like the smaller size compared to the Luv Jugs.
2. Thermostat, and the fact people such as Kevin have stated facts that even at highway speed they do cool.
Keep the comments coming I am still interested in hearing the Luv Jug side if anyone has them please help.
Thanks again.

 

[tbear]

two of my buddies have put LARGER OIL PANS on their bikes plus electric oil coolers w/synthetic oil and temps have improved tremendously but they also retuned their engines adding more fuel etc.....:Coffee:

 

[Fusionfool]

OK, so I fell off the fence today and ordered the Wards fan kit with thermostat. Will not actually put it on until end of April when I take the trike out of storage, but looking forward to a cooler ride this summer. Thanks for the comments an help.

 

[screwball]

Just curious, to those who have fans of any kind on their trike, Does the fan blow the air onto your leg?? Just from the pictures it looks like they would, either brand, big or small.

 

[PIGGI]

Just curious, to those who have fans of any kind on their trike, Does the fan blow the air onto your leg?? Just from the pictures it looks like they would, either brand, big or small.

Yup, it blows on the right leg but it's still not as bad as the heat from the cat was at low speed.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Just curious, to those who have fans of any kind on their trike, Does the fan blow the air onto your leg?? Just from the pictures it looks like they would, either brand, big or small.

I thought I would really feel it. Not so much...it's there but not bad at all.

Kevin

 

[Fusionfool]

two of my buddies have put LARGER OIL PANS on their bikes plus electric oil coolers w/synthetic oil and temps have improved tremendously but they also retuned their engines adding more fuel etc.....:Coffee:

Tbear, when you say they are adding more fuel, you mean they have returned to a tune that richened right. So the question is was it the tune, or the oil capacity and cooler that helped them the most?

 

[msocko3]

Tbear, when you say they are adding more fuel, you mean they have returned to a tune that richened right. So the question is was it the tune, or the oil capacity and cooler that helped them the most?

I'd say the oil cooler and the tune did more than the capacity. With added capacity it will just take a little longer to get hot, then you have 5 qts of hot oil instead of 4. IMO if there was more to this more oil is better oil pan a whole lot more folks running some monster builds would be using them instead of the stock pan. I know of one guy who put on a whole lot of miles traveling and doing Iron butt rides with a 120R that has had the compression bumped up along with some other changes, he runs the stock oil pan still.

 

[Sloufoot]

Along with the extra quart of oil there would also be more pan area to dissipate heat from. If you could keep people from using the oil pan as a lifting platform for the trike they could put fins on the pan when manufactured for a lot more cooling. But we all know what would happen then....:cxtv:

 

[Husker]

I just ordered the Love Jugs fan kit. As soon as the weather gets above 30, I'll roll around on the garage floor and put them on. I'll post the results here.

Two years ago at Rolling Thunder in D.C., we got stuck in the parking garage at Arlington Cemetery. Evidently there was a motorcycle accident and fire on the Memorial Bridge, and no traffic allowed across the bridge. So, we spent about one hour in a line of traffic trying to get out of the garage. Harley has that procedure where you can disable the firing on the rear cylinder to let the bike run cooler, but it had absolutely no effect. I guess the fact that it was also 95 degrees out didn't help matters either. I just ended up shutting the trike off, and restarting it to move. Let's see how those fans are going to work?

 

[Husker]

Well, the temperature climbed to a balmy 35, so I put the Love Jugs fans on the trike. They do blow a lot of air when their running (albeit cold air at 35 degrees). Installation was straight forward and simple, hooked right up to the accessory connector under the seat. Once it starts getting warm here in New England, around August, I'll let you know how effective they are.

 

[KindaOldTriker]

Are yours the horn mounts or frame mounts. I don't know what diff would be other than amount of shaking??
It sure looks like , compairing Luv Jugs and Wards videos, that the Lov Jugs cool the engine a LOT more and Faster.


I'm also curious if they add any noise while the bike is running/moving?

 

[Husker]

Are yours the horn mounts or frame mounts. I don't know what diff would be other than amount of shaking??
It sure looks like , compairing Luv Jugs and Wards videos, that the Lov Jugs cool the engine a LOT more and Faster.


I'm also curious if they add any noise while the bike is running/moving?

When I switched the fans on, you could barely hear them running. I put my hand behind them and there is a significant amount of air being circulated. Yes, I did order the frame mounted kit, and they are quality chromed pieces. The mount attaches to the motorcycle backbone with SS hose clamps, then the other pieces are bolted to it. I did swap out the supplied 1/4" ss nuts to 1/4" ss nylon lock nuts. I didn't want them coming loose and having to pull the gas tank to get back at them. I don't know about the vibration question: The old horn bracket was mounted to each cylinder head, so when the motor is running the horn is vibrating. With the fan now being mounted to the frame, I'm sure there will be less vibration, but the bike frame is still vibrating, isn't it?

 

[rap47]

Ok, I will say it. Those things are HUGE!

 

[Lakeman]

Yes they are.

 

[Fusionfool]

Husker I love that horn cover. Where did you get it? Or was it custom painted?

Kind of cool how the solder stands guard to make sure the Love Jugs don't take over the power plant.
Sorry man could not resist a little jab at the size of those fans. I do like the horn cover though.