Starter Battery (1 Viewer)

[Tony Wilson]

Hi All, I was wondering if I could get some advice. I have a brand new Adria Sonic Supreme and to insure this I have had to have a cat 6 Tracker. Since picking up the MH I have had Battery Problems and found that there is a 1.7amp drain from the tracker. I have spoken to the Tracker provider and they suggest there is very little they can do and the amount of drain should not be overly significant as long as I run it at regular intervals. This has since been compounded by a failure of the battery which I am currently looking to replace (Best Battery Recommendations Welcome).
I would however, like to know if there is anything I can do to offset this drain and maintain the battery especially through the winter months and not rely on Jump leads to potentially pull me out of danger. I am new to motor homing and as of today know very little about MH electronics although am trying to read as much as possible. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much.....an enthusiastic novice!

 

[IRHP]

Got the Tracker provider to come out and have a look at the drain, however, their response has been "When the tracker is "asleep" - ie collecting information in standby mode it draws 23mA. When it is fully "awake" - ie moving, ignition on, actively collecting data, it draws an average of 88mA. Neither of these is enough to drain the battery."

So it’s either something wrong with your tracker or the 1.7amps draw is coming from somewhere else. Time to start disconnecting things or pulling fuses. Has it only happened since the tracker was fitted or did you collect it with it already fitted. How are you measuring the draw?

 

[autorouter]

Got the Tracker provider to come out and have a look at the drain, however, their response has been "When the tracker is "asleep" - ie collecting information in standby mode it draws 23mA. When it is fully "awake" - ie moving, ignition on, actively collecting data, it draws an average of 88mA. Neither of these is enough to drain the battery."

Those figures sound reasonable. Are they the actual measured values or the figures in the spec sheet? If the tracker is faulty, it might for example be staying in bulk charging mode and not switching to the sleep/low power modes.

You shouldn't have to do this, but the best way to trace this fault is to use a DC clamp meter. A clamp meter clips around a wire and measures the current (amps) by sensing the magnetic field that the current produces. No disconnecting, no probing.

If you are buying one, be careful, some only do AC current, and some of the DC ones only do high currents. A good one for measuring small DC currents is the UNI-T UT-210E. It's a very useful meter to have around in a MH, it does voltage, resistance and continuity measurements too.

UNI-T UT210E current clamp and multimeter

UNI-T UT210E current clamp and multimeter with True RMS, 600V, 100A, AC, DC

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[Landy Andy]

Do you have a 1.7 tracker drain or a 1.7 drain that includes your tracker?

What is all the other stuff totalling?
Are you measuring JUST the tracker drain?