# Rapido battery drain



## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

I've just had my Rapido at Highbridge for some warranty work to be completed.

After 18 days with them we had an alert from Phantom to say that the tracker had powered down.

This means that the battery has been disconnected or that it has gone flat.

Rang Highbridge who said that the battery had not been disconnected so must have gone flat. I asked Highbridge to investigate as I've had a concern about the vehicle battery holding a charge ever since we bought the MH from them back in 2011. They had infact replaced the battery in the summer as I discovered that the battery supplied by them was not suited to the 3.0L Ducato.

With the warranty work completed I picked the MH up on Friday and asked about the battery going flat.

I was told that everything was in order and that they had checked the drain and measured a current of approx. 110mA. Which was inline with the expected drain of 80mA for the Fiat electronics and a further 30mA for the Phantom Tracker.

With this sort of continuous drain then after 18 days approx 50 amps of the total 100 amp battery would have been consumed. On top of this Highbridge said that the van had been started and moved several times around their yard.

At the time I accepted the explanation, but having thought about it further I know that my BM 5 Series goes through a 'power down' sequence over about 15 minutes from locking the car and the drain then falls to about 5mA.

Any comments?

Richard


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

Our 2008 Rapido has a Pioneer radio with a removable faceplate, taking that off reduces the vehicle battery drain by about 40mA.


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## Jean-Luc (Jul 21, 2005)

I leave ONE OF THESE on the dash of my car when way, after months of being parked up it always starts first turn.
It seems well able to compensate for the self discharge, the drain of the on-board electronics and the alarm system.


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## 100127 (Jul 20, 2006)

On top of this Highbridge said that the van had been started and moved several times around their yard. 


If that was the case then the amount of charge going into the battery every time they started it would not put back what was used to start it.


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## SaddleTramp (Feb 15, 2007)

Hi, You dont happen to have a Battery Master fitted do you ?

I am not saying anything about a battery master as they are fantastic, But not on a Rapido, I had used one on my MH's for years and as I said they are fantastic but when I had it fitted to my Rapido, I had many problems including batteries going flat, it turns out that Rapido already have a very similar system fitted and they work against each other, Hence the problems


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## dolcefarniente (Jan 2, 2012)

I'm a self emp veh tech specialising in electrics. I try to catch any posts relating to repeated flat batteries when standing and have to keep explaining that there is nothing different about X250's. They should not go flat when stood. Current draw should be less than 10ma. Any more and something has been added since it left the factory. The tracker should be hooked up to the leisure battery. 80ma for the factory electronics is wrong. 5 - 10ma max. Hope it helps.


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## Hydrocell (Jan 29, 2011)

Hi Richard

Sorry to hear that you have had problems with a flat battery, but you must find it astonishing that they take bookings knowing full well that your MH will be standing idle for more than two weeks before carrying out work, I’ve been there and not only that it took them six months to get me booked in and order parts, even then they still maid mistakes and they certainly do not like being challenge and always make workload an excuse for there failures.

If I had not had the mined to call at the Rapido factory in Maryanne on my return to the UK from Spain then I’m in no doubt that the warranty work I needed dun would have not been if I left it to Highbridge.

One thing for sure they will not have to worry about taking my cash in the future.

Regards
Ray


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## dolcefarniente (Jan 2, 2012)

p.s. Jean - luc's suggestion does work but it shouldn't be necessary if everything is done properly. It's a very good and effective cure though provided the input is higher than the draw.


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