Huge downside to Phantom alarm and tracker is that you can see your cab battery performance on the app, and its difficult not to keep looking. Recently swapped vans so just getting used to this one. Put it in storage and it was 12.7v on the app. It dropped over a few days and has stabilised at 12.4 (last 5 days, been in storage 9 days total so far). Not sure if it will keep going down as I will be pulling it out for its next trip, however, I was under the impression the battery should stabilise at 12.6, do I need to worry at 12.4? Anyone with the same alarm, do you know if the reading is reasonably accurate? Many thanks
12.4v, should it be higher?
- Thread starter Dolmen
- Start date
Yes you should be worried. Before you start it ,charge your battery up or you may lose your airbag ECU at 12.4 volts.
We have a Phantom alarm fitted also.
It will flatten the battery in two or three weeks.
Do you have solar? You really need solar connected to both leisure and starter batteries to prevent this from happening. (Assuming outdoor storage)
It will flatten the battery in two or three weeks.
Do you have solar? You really need solar connected to both leisure and starter batteries to prevent this from happening. (Assuming outdoor storage)
Thanks, unfortunately I don't have solar so looks like I might need to organise, pity I'm off again, would like to have seen if it drained further in storage, seems to have stabilised at 12.4.
Crikey, thanks for the warning, only been in storage 9 days and I am going to have to call the breakdown company out, not good going forward
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Sorry I now disagree, however in the past would have agreed.
Explanation.. My van when sitting will regularly drop to 12v, I have just checked and it is currently sitting at 12.18v.
It has done this now for all the time I have owned it, 6yrs so i am not in the least bit worried and my battery has never let me down and I have never lost any ECU'S.
Phew! Prefer that answer! Never gave the battery a second thought on my last two vans however long they were in storage, its just this damn readout you get with Phantom and my own inability to stop looking, however, if its running other funsters battery down in 3 weeks I do need to do something for the future
Lenny HB
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I agree with Jim good chance of losing the Airbag ECU at 12.4v.
Mine is charged by solar and never drops below 12.9v.
Mine is charged by solar and never drops below 12.9v.
Thanks, Jim did change his mind I notice, however, never heard of this being a problem before so I guess I need to be cautious, I’ll ring the breakdown company and see if they will come out to it
My cab battery drops to around that figure starts first time. But i think i have a drain from the radio not powering down allways.
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funflair
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If you have no means of charging it ie solar then yes it is going to drop, our Phantom app reads under so it might be worth sticking a voltmeter across the battery posts to see what the real number is, ours is also reading 12.4v with a battery master maintaining it from the Lithium, as I said it is higher than that I know.
PS I know nothing about airbag ECU's as apart from anything we don't have one
PS I know nothing about airbag ECU's as apart from anything we don't have one
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There is the other factor that are you measuring the true battery voltage. If the controller/alarm is taking some power then you aren't seeing the actual battery resting volts? Might account for a 12.4 when it is actually 12.6? Maybe?
Yes! It depends how you measure it. My RapIdo used to show a 0.5 amp drain while standing and would show 12.4 v for weeks. Someone with knowledge told me not to worry about it as the controllers are not accurate. I stopped worrying and never had any battery problems,but kept ehu on when in storage as the van had a device that prevented the batteries from cooking.like battery master
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Mine us in storage. Just checked the tracker and it's showing a voltage of 13.6v.
I better check again after the sun goes down.
I better check again after the sun goes down.
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Like the OP we have the Phantom Tracker and also keep the van in storage. I also have to keep looking to check battery level. However if I see a level I'm not happy with I just contact the storage yard and request a hook up ( at a cost). At least I know I will not have any unpleasant surprises.
Thanks everyone, convinced I'm worrying too much, especially as I haven't confirmed the accuracy of the app read out, in any case I will find out when I pick it up tomorrow. Decided not to ring breakdown service, pretty sure they would laugh their proverbials off at a battery reading 12.4 which reading the internet seems to be O.K. if not perfect, and an engine that will most likely burst into life tomorrow. At least it has caused me to read up as much as I can about airbag ecu failures of which there appear to many, many reasons and equally as many urban rumours spreading, being picked up and repeated as fact, so discounting that as a problem for now as well. Thanks everyone for your contributions, let you know what happens tomorrow
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Yes. 13.6v is the solar volts going in.
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Simplest method of keeping the cab battery charged is to fit a Vanbitz Battery Master, only 3 wires to connect, one pos to leisure battery, one pos to cab battery, and then a common negative. It was designed for doing the job of keeping the cab battery charged up when left standing and not on EHU.
As others have mentioned, prime concern to me would be the Passenger Air Bag ECU if battery voltage is outside normal parameters, its very common issue on 2017/18 Fiat Vans, and can be costly to fix outside of warranty, some have tried using Crash Data Company to re-programme it with varying results, others have purchased a new ECU from Fiat costing as much as £400 supplied & fitted.
LES
As others have mentioned, prime concern to me would be the Passenger Air Bag ECU if battery voltage is outside normal parameters, its very common issue on 2017/18 Fiat Vans, and can be costly to fix outside of warranty, some have tried using Crash Data Company to re-programme it with varying results, others have purchased a new ECU from Fiat costing as much as £400 supplied & fitted.
LES
Yes, I like the idea of the battery master, especially as I will soon have plenty of leisure battery capacity and it could be used to top up cab battery, high on my priorities, thanks
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Our old MH used to nestle at 12.4 and when it dropped to 12.2, we'd make sure it had a good run, but never an issue.
Our new van now has solar feeding leisure and cab, and now nestles at 14 odd.
Solar's a good idea if in storage, assuming its outside and not under cover, of course...but, if it doesn't drop too low (12.2) can't see you having an issue (other than Airbag ECU....which I've not hear of myself, but seems a potential issue judging by other posts)
Can you trickle charge where its stored?
Regarding getting breakdown, can you use a jump start instead if it is flat?
Our tracker checks battery health and alerts when too low...which they say is 8v!!!! I had to correct them and say anything 12v and under us technically a flat battery...they thrn spoke to their in house tech team, snd upped the alert to 10v or below...still useless! This is GTE Track...a well known and fairly large company too
Our new van now has solar feeding leisure and cab, and now nestles at 14 odd.
Solar's a good idea if in storage, assuming its outside and not under cover, of course...but, if it doesn't drop too low (12.2) can't see you having an issue (other than Airbag ECU....which I've not hear of myself, but seems a potential issue judging by other posts)
Can you trickle charge where its stored?
Regarding getting breakdown, can you use a jump start instead if it is flat?
Our tracker checks battery health and alerts when too low...which they say is 8v!!!! I had to correct them and say anything 12v and under us technically a flat battery...they thrn spoke to their in house tech team, snd upped the alert to 10v or below...still useless! This is GTE Track...a well known and fairly large company too
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I wonder what a breakdown chap would think when he attends the vehicle and he is told that it needs a jump start because the voltage is under 12.4V? I suspect he will not be impressed.
a resting 12v is not technically a flat battery. It is technically a battery at around 50% charge (if Lead Acid). A flat battery (i.e. no charge) is around 10.8V IIRC.
What is generally a good idea when starting an engine is to turn on the ignition but DO NOT attempt to immediately start the engine. Wait a short time for the glowplugs to finish getting their charge (the glowplug light will extinguish) and THEN start. This will reduce the overall voltage drop on the battery when starting (it will get well below 12.4V when starting!).
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Very true. 2 hours after sunset and still 13.3v. The surface charge hangs around a long time. I'm not staying up all night to wait for a resting charge, and anyway it will be light again in a few hours.Yes. 13.6v is the solar volts going in.
Clive Mott
Funster
Aftermarket alarms and trackers are bad news for vans without solar panels in storage.
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Any updates?
Yes, thanks for asking. App showed battery at 12.4 this morning where it has been for the last 6 or 7 days so pretty stable. Picked the van up a short while ago and it instantly burst into life so it seems I've been letting the app read out worry me too much. Either 12.4 is its steady state and its OK or the read out of 12.4 isn't very accurate. Unfortunately I was so eager to start I forgot to put the meter across it. Anyway, panic over, I have a 230ah lithium coming soon and with a battery master (or equivalent) it will look after itself in storage without the need for solar.
Alls well that ends well. Panic over.
How will that work? If you have nothing charging it you will end up with two flat batteries , battery master only charges one battery off another it doesn't make electric out of thin air.
You can't, Oh s***
This is my plan (gulp) - When I put the van in storage there will be 230ah in lithium leisure battery that will provide many weeks of maintaining any drop in cab battery voltage using a battery master, certainly enough for the length of time I store it for as I use van throughout the year. I will recharge the lithium either on ehu or when driving using the b to b. b to b will charge lithium nicely, my Swift on board charger not bad but not perfect, however, I am not going to let perfection be the enemy of good as they say, I never stop for more than a few nights and fridge, heating and cooker are all gas so 230ah lithium will see me through quite nicely, just a plan, will it work?
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