I donĀ“t think they left it loose. I had the same problem with my 2005 after I bought it new. Only it was the positive terminal that came loose. I tightened it as tight as I could with a screw driver and after a bit of riding it came loose again. After quite a few instances, I finally put lock washers on both screws and used a six pointsocket to tighten them. Battery is pretty easy to get out. Drops out the bottom of the box after you take a couple of screws out. I left the cover off after I had to get into it a few times. I thought it was a pretty stupid place for a battery though.