Vehicle Battery Going Flat

You've ended up with a flat battery after a telematics device has been installed, now what can we do?

About flat batteries after installation...

We understand how frustrating a flat battery can be, especially when it happens shortly after a new device is installed. The TRACKbox unit uses a very small amount of power when the vehicle is turned off (around 40–50 mA in standard configuration), which is similar to many standard vehicle systems such as alarms or keyless entry. In a vehicle with a healthy battery, this level of draw does not cause any issues.

When a battery is nearing the end of its life, however, it may no longer have enough reserve capacity to cope with even small continuous loads while the vehicle is parked. In these cases, adding any new electrical component — not just a tracking device — can be enough to expose an existing battery weakness. The battery may have appeared fine during normal driving, but its condition was already degraded.

While it can feel like the TRACKbox caused the issue, what’s usually happening is that the installation has simply highlighted an underlying battery problem that would likely have surfaced soon anyway. For this reason, we recommend having the vehicle battery tested, particularly if it is more than a few years old or the vehicle is not driven regularly.

Power modes and feature availability

TRACKbox supports optional low-power operating modes that can further reduce standby current draw in vehicles that are parked for extended periods or have limited usage. These modes are designed to protect battery health but involve trade-offs.

Some features — including remote vehicle access and certain real-time functions — require the device to remain in a higher-availability state and are not compatible with low-power modes. For this reason, low-power settings are not enabled by default and are applied selectively based on vehicle usage and feature requirements. Please contact us to discuss options.

What this means in practical terms

If a battery fails within days or a week of installation, this is a strong indication the battery was already degraded or nearing end-of-life.

Most vehicles will struggle to start once a battery drops to around 50% usable capacity, not when it is completely flat. To understand how long you should expect your vehicles battery to last when not being driven, please see the two examples below.

Cars

A typical car battery has a typical capacity that meets or exceeds 40 Amp-hours (Ah).

Using a conservative standby draw of 50 mA (0.05 A):

• Usable capacity before starting issues: ~20 Ah

• 20 Ah ÷ 0.05 A = ~400 hours

This equates to approximately 16 days of no driving before starting performance may be affected — assuming the battery is healthy.

Trucks

A typical truck battery configured in 24V arrangement has a typical capacity that exceeds 100Ah.

Using the conservative standby rate of 30mA (0.03 A):

• Usable capacity before starting issues: ~50 Ah

• 50 Ah ÷ 0.03 A = ~1666 hours

This equates to approximately 69 days of no driving before starting performance may be affected — assuming the battery is healthy.