Would a Phantom Tracker drain a Leisure battery ?

Belinda - although not a lot of help - I can confirm that our tracker - a 'Re-Wire Security' one that I fitted - does drain the battery at a similar rate.  I must admit that I was surprised that it did.  It's normally not a problem because we keep the van on the drive and it's permanently plugged in. However, last Wednesday, it went to the dealers and is currently sitting in their yard.  The voltage is currently 12.5v - but dropping every day.  Since it is absolutely impossible to get the van on the drive without the mover, they always make sure the battery is put on charge before they bring it back.  Their delivery van doesn't have 12v charging either.

It seems that getting your car's charging circuit sorted out is a priority - but whether or not that will put enough charge back in the battery whilst travelling to site is questionable.

Two thoughts - does the tracker have a built-in battery which will keep it going for a couple of days whilst you take your battery out and charge it.  Some do.

Secondly - is it a requirement of your insurance that a tracker is fitted? Or is it fitted just to earn a discount? I fitted mine simply for my own peace of mind and doesn't feature in the insurance.  If it is the latter, you could always forget the discount and then it wouldn't matter whether it was working or not - other than for your own peace of mind.

I don't understand these things very well but would a solar charger avoid this?

You could have a solar panel fitted as a permanent thing or you could buy a small one and place it in a sunny window and connect to the battery.

Our motorhome had a solar panel and allows off grid stops so an additional benefit. But prior to that we bought a small portable one from Maplins 😉 over 10 years ago and put it in our car whilst we had 6 months in NZ over the winter. It provided enough power to keep battery topped up. We had it in the sunniest window on an almost north facing drive. I'm sure technology has improved since.

The tracker we had in our caravan certainly didn’t drain the battery that quickly. I had two batteries and used to swap them over every 5 to 6 weeks, although they would have done a few weeks more. Our van did have a master on off but that didn’t apply to the fridge light if the door was left open, unless I remembered to turn the switch from the towing position to off. Your right about swapping over batteries, ours weighed in at 23 kg and getting them in and out in the narrow confines of a storage compound not good for my back. It was the main reason that when we switched to a MH I had solar panels installed which keep both batteries charged all year, despite the drain of a tracker and alarm. They proved invaluable during covid when we could not get to it for months. They have also proved very useful in using the MH off grid, something we had never done before.

Thank you all so much for the replies, you have been more helpful than the Caravan suppliers!!

We just need to decide what to do to make it as effortless as possible. I think a solar panel left in the window during the summer to trickle charge it will problem solve the problem when we are using the van alot. I just need to be shown how I can connect it to the battery....hopefully the caravan suppliers can help with this.

Will need to have an experiment with charging it from our vehicle once I have the wires changed so  the pins have full function.

In the winter I will have two accept removing the battery and bringing it home from the storage facility to charge it properly ....at least it will give my biceps a good work out!

The only positive about the tracker is that I can actually see how charged the battery is any time and can take some action before a trip.

Thanks so much again

I assume the leisure battery in the van was a new one? Not been standing around in a dealer’s years uncharged for a while? Just that drop seems quite a lot in a short time. Letting a battery go below about 12.1 or 12.2 on a regular basis is not good for the battery. Also beware some of the small solar panels. They are not all as good as they try to make out. Is there no solar panel on the roof of your van? I thought many caravans came with that as standard now. If not it might well be worth you considering having a panel installed then you wouldn’t have to faff with connecting it to the battery each time. For reference, we have a 120 w panel which keeps our leisure battery fully charged all year. If you do do down that route, just make sure they install a mppt solar controller to maximise solar input to the battery.

We have a Phantom Tracker, van is 15 years old and we had to replace the tracker last year as it stopped working.  Our one has its own rechargeable battery which is charged via the caravan battery, but the tracker battery on ours will last 3 months.   We also keep ours on the driveway, plugged in, so charging the battery  is not a problem.

Have you got a big red on/off switch for your mover that you turn off when in storage, the mover can draw quite a bit of power even when not in use.

Hello thanks again for all the sound advice.

Yes the battery is brand new and in fact they replaced the first one as it had gone completely flat.....

I guess another option is to remove the battery every time we store it and leave it charged on our smart charger at home.

Thanks for the advice re motor mover. Yes we switch off the mover and remove the red key whenever we finish moving it.

If you reckon everything is switched off in the van, do you have a clamp meter that can measure DC amps?  Attach it to the cable from the battery + and see if you get a reading.

On a similar note. My uncle runs an E Class Mercedes that has a tracker fitted. When he took his first holiday of over two weeks the car battery was drained and the culprit was the tracker. He now has a dashboard style solar panel that just about keeps the battery up to standard.

Colin

I have a Phantom tracker- I used to keep the van in indoor storage, so solar panel no good. Note it is the van battery that is the problem, not the stand by battery within the Phantom system. I kept a spare leisure battery on trickle charge at home, and swapped it out on a monthly basis. There is no doubt that the tracker drains the battery - remember that it is in constant communication with the mothership over the internet.

No longer a problem following a house move as I now keep the van at home and plugged in.