Caravan Battery

[MHOLLY]

Hi everyone I’m hoping for some of your expert advice and experience. We have a coachman caravan with a tracker, which is a condition of insurance. We have no idea how long a battery will last as the tracker is a constant draw on it, or what we should do to keep it charged (we’ve already ruined two batteries!).

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RogerL]

Do you keep the caravan at home, or at a storage facility?

If it's kept at home it's usually possibly to create an electric hook-up and keep the caravan permanently connected so the battery will always be charged.

If it's kept in storage, a solar panel will help keep the battery charged.

 

[MHOLLY]

Do you keep the caravan at home, or at a storage facility?

If it's kept at home it's usually possibly to create an electric hook-up and keep the caravan permanently connected so the battery will always be charged.

If it's kept in storage, a solar panel will help keep the battery charged.

We keep it in storage and it is fitted with a solar panel but it still runs flat.

 

[Hutch]

Hiya, I had a 2010, Coachman 545VIP, with the tracker, It would drain the battery within 5 weeks, and send alerts to Phantom.
I talked to the rep at the NEC and he took my detail and by total remote, reset the unit, it would then go for over 8 weeks without an alarm going off.
Solar panel no good for us in storage as we are under cover.
Talk to whoever the tracker unit is supplied by.
My present Coachman doesn't have a tracker. I would not want the van back if it has been "Molested" by the tow rags.

 

[Ferrodo]

We keep it in storage and it is fitted with a solar panel but it still runs flat.

I then would suggest that you have a fault somewhere. A solar panel should keep your battery charged. You need to check the performance of the solar panel and controller. If you know how to handle a multimeter it’s not a difficult job.

 

[Buckman]

We keep it in storage and it is fitted with a solar panel but it still runs flat.

That suggests that there is a possibility the 12v switch is being left on?

 

[Dustydog]

My 15 year old Tracker has its own dedicated PSU. Lasts about three months.However it does link to the leisure battery when fitted.

 

[Buckman]

My 15 year old Tracker has its own dedicated PSU. Lasts about three months.However it does link to the leisure battery when fitted.

Don't Tracker advise that the back up battery needs to be changed every 5 years? We do have the useless Tracker Retrieve unit where we would have to contact them to advise that the caravan has been stolen.

We have never activated the Tracker Retrieve and instead had the Proactive Phantom tracker fitted. As your caravan is 15 years old I would think that you had the original full blown proactive Tracker fitted.

 

[Dustydog]

Don't Tracker advise that the back up battery needs to be changed every 5 years? We do have the useless Tracker Retrieve unit where we would have to contact them to advise that the caravan has been stolen.

We have never activated the Tracker Retrieve and instead had the Proactive Phantom tracker fitted. As your caravan is 15 years old I would think that you had the original full blown proactive Tracker fitted.

Not when mine was new. I no longer pay Tracker the annual fee as it’s no longer a requirement for the caravan insurance. But it still works and links to Trackers HO as I discovered some months ago when asking them a technical question. The chap it was one of their very first models!

 

[Buckman]

Not when mine was new. I no longer pay Tracker the annual fee as it’s no longer a requirement for the caravan insurance. But it still works and links to Trackers HO as I discovered some months ago when asking them a technical question. The chap it was one of their very first models!

Sounds like you had the Tracker Monitor which was excellent. I am not sure about our Phantom Tracker, but if the main battery is disconnected, the tracking company are notified immediately. I think that the Phantom Tracker which is now 6 years old may have a small built in battery that is topped up by the main 12v battery.

 

[Woodentop]

The earlier Tracker unit was a s*d to find but comprised a small black box about 5in square on a base and about 1.5in thick. At the side of it was a 12V 7Ah gel lead acid battery, usually either Panasonic or Yuasa. The charging was simple, just a diode and a (power) resistor. It was very common for the7Ah battery to overheat and get distorted and then fail.
The modern Phantom Tracker can also be a *** to find but is much smaller. Its a white box about4x3in and about ¾in thick. I presume its backup is a rechargeable Lithium as the new device will be all CMOS and thus take minimal current and there is no visible other specific battery.