I am interested in using a heated vest this cold season.  Has anyone here used one with success on  the GS500?

Does anyone know what the wattage rating of the alternator is?  The Clymer and  factory manuals simply states that the GS 500 has a "Three-phase A.C. generator"  with no reference to values!  

If the electrical system will manage it I guess I will have to rig up a socket  for the vest plug.  Any ideas?

Thanks for any help.

No idea about the rating. I am interested in knowing what you find though. I am considering adding an electric vest in the whish list for Santa too.
Or I could make my own, like this.

For the connector, Aereostich sells all kinds and they are not very expensive. I considered doing something like Kerry did (see the how-to on this web site), but it's not worth my time.

According to http://www.eurospares.com/gsfaq.htm, the max output power is 225 watts (~16A).

Not much.

 D.

I have a Gerber heated jacket (takes 77 watts) which did cause me problems.  After about 3 days of using it the battery became flat.

I did tests with a voltmeter and found with it on the charging of the battery got up to about 14.5 volts so I assumed the system could cope.

But I accidently left the jacket connected for about 60 seconds with the engine turned off and found the battery was flat.

I bought a new battery and now all seems fine.  The bike was new in April so the battery was not old.

The advice I received was to turn the jacket off 5 minutes before the end of the journey to ensure the battery is charged.

So if the headlight is 55w, taillight 20W(?), jacket 77W then that leaves 73Watts?? Might not bother with the heated socks then.

The jacket is really good though.

I have a Gerbing heated vest. Works great!!. You're going to love it, really extends the riding season

Well, thanks to all for the valuable information.

I suppose I could do the alternator test using an additional load of 45/50 watts and if the alternator is within specs then things will probably be OK.

Does this sound good?

Thanks again.