Battery-mount trackers (CT-V09, CT-V07): installation guide
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The CT-V07 and CT-V09 are 4G trackers that connect straight to a 12 V or 24 V battery with two wires. There’s no ignition wire to find and no relay to fit: the fork terminals on the lead go under the battery’s terminal nuts, and the tracker sits on or beside the battery. That makes a caravan, a trailer with its own battery, a motorbike or a piece of machinery as easy to track as a ute. This guide covers both trackers; where they differ, it says so.
| CT-V07 | CT-V09 | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | About 70 cm, two wires with fork terminals; plugs into the tracker | About 40 cm, two wires with fork terminals; fixed to the tracker |
| Mounting | On top of or beside the battery, with the supplied double-sided tape | On top of or beside the battery, with the double-sided tape on its back |
| Weather rating | IP69K: sealed against dust, high-pressure water and steam cleaning | IP65: dust-tight and protected against water jets, but not made to go under water |
| SIM size | Nano-SIM | Micro-SIM |
It’s a quick job if you’re used to working on a vehicle battery. If you’re not, have an auto electrician fit it. Damage caused by incorrect installation isn’t covered by the warranty.
Before you start: tell us what it’s going in
The tracker works out when the vehicle is running from the battery’s voltage, or from movement. Its standard set-up suits a car or ute with an ordinary 12 V battery charged by the engine’s alternator. Anything else needs a different set-up, and we do that for you. Contact us when you order, or before you fit it, with the vehicle type and its battery voltage. We can set it up before it ships, or over the mobile network once it’s fitted and online. There’s nothing for you to change on the tracker.
| Vehicle | Battery | What we set up |
|---|---|---|
| Car or ute with an ordinary 12 V battery | 12 V | Our standard set-up. |
| Car or ute with a lithium 12 V battery, a smart alternator or stop-start | 12 V | A voltage range set to suit your vehicle: these batteries sit higher, or charge lower, than an ordinary battery and alternator. Your two voltage readings (below) tell us where to set it. If running and parked are too close together, we use movement instead. |
| Hybrid or electric car | 12 V | Movement. The car tops up its 12 V battery while it’s parked or charging, so the voltage can’t show when it’s being driven. |
| Truck, bus or 24 V machinery | 24 V | A voltage range set for 24 V, so the engine counts as running only above about 26.5 to 27 V. On the standard set-up a 24 V vehicle would always look like it’s running. |
| Motorbike | 12 V | A voltage range set to suit the battery (lithium bike batteries sit higher than lead-acid ones), or movement if running and parked are too close together. Also a deeper sleep between check-ins to go easy on the small battery. |
| Caravan, camper or trailer battery charged by solar, a DC-DC charger or mains power | 12 V or 24 V | Movement: a charger raises the voltage while it’s parked. Also a deeper sleep if it sits for weeks. |
| Boat (CT-V07 only) | 12 V or 24 V | If the battery is charged by the engine only, a voltage range set from your two readings. If solar or a charger also tops it up, movement. |
How it knows the engine is running
Without an ignition wire, the tracker watches the battery’s voltage. While the engine runs, the alternator charges the battery and the voltage goes up; once the engine stops, it settles back down. The tracker counts the engine as running while the voltage is inside a range, and as off when it’s below that range. The range can be changed, and we set it to suit your vehicle. For example, a 24 V truck charges at about 27 to 29 V and sits at about 25 to 26 V when parked, so we set it to count the engine as running only above about 26.5 to 27 V.
📝 Help us get the range right. With a multimeter across the battery terminals, note the voltage with the engine running (give it a few minutes), and again once the engine has been off for at least 30 minutes (straight after you switch off, the reading is a little high). Send us both readings and we’ll set the range between them. If the two readings are too close together, as they can be with some smart alternators or with a battery that a charger or solar panel keeps topped up, the voltage can’t reliably tell running from parked, and we use movement instead.
⚠️ 12 V and 24 V batteries only. The CT-V07 and CT-V09 take 10 to 30 volts. Never connect them to an e-bike, e-scooter or e-motorbike battery, to any 36 V, 48 V or higher system (such as many golf carts and forklifts), or to a hybrid or electric car’s high-voltage battery or orange cables. For those, the CT-V06 runs on up to 84 V. A 24 V forklift or golf-cart battery can also go above 30 V while it’s charging: talk to us before fitting to one.
ℹ️ Tow alerts and movement. Where we use movement to tell when the vehicle is running (the rows in the table above that say “movement”), the tracker can’t tell being towed or carried away from being driven, so you won’t get a separate tow alert. You’ll still see every move on the map, and a geofence alert around where it’s kept is the best way to know it has left.
📝 Left parked for weeks? The tracker draws a little power from the battery all the time. On a caravan, boat or anything stored for long stretches, tell us and we’ll set it to sleep more deeply between check-ins. A motorbike battery is small: if the bike is stored for long stretches, keep it on a battery maintainer. A deeper sleep means it checks in less often while parked, so some alerts can arrive late, and in the deepest sleep the tow and battery-disconnect alerts are off.
What’s included
| Item | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Tracker | If you bought it with one of our plans, the SIM is already fitted. |
| Lead | Ends in two fork terminals: red for the battery’s positive (+) terminal, black for the negative (−). On the CT-V07 it plugs into the tracker; on the CT-V09 it’s fixed to it. |
| Double-sided tape | Holds the tracker in place. On the CT-V07 it comes loose with the tracker; on the CT-V09 it’s already on the tracker’s back. |
Nothing else is included. You’ll also need a spanner to fit your battery’s terminal nuts, a clean cloth and a few cable ties to tidy the lead (and fresh double-sided tape if you ever move the tracker).
ℹ️ Bringing your own SIM? The CT-V07 takes a nano-SIM and the CT-V09 a Micro-SIM, and some networks need a setting (the APN) changed on the tracker before it will connect. Turn off the SIM’s PIN lock first (put it in a phone to do it). Fitting a SIM means opening the tracker with the power disconnected, so contact us before you fit it and we’ll walk you through it.
Where to fit it
On top of or beside the battery, label side up. The GPS and 4G antennas are built in, so give the tracker the clearest view of the sky you can: plastic, fibreglass or canvas above it is fine. A steel or aluminium battery box or lid sitting right over it blocks GPS, so mount the tracker outside the box. Keep it clear of anything that gets very hot (the exhaust, turbo or radiator) and anything that moves. Good spots are the battery under a car or ute’s bonnet, a battery box on a caravan or trailer, or the battery compartment under a motorbike seat.
ℹ️ Battery under the bonnet? That’s where most cars and utes keep it, and the tracker is made to go there. Three things to know:
- Heat. The tracker’s electronics are rated to 85 °C, but with its small backup battery fitted the rating is 40 °C, and an engine bay often gets hotter than that. Heat wears the backup battery out sooner. The tracker runs off your vehicle’s battery; the backup battery is there for when that battery is disconnected, so the tracker can send the alert and keep reporting for a while. If it ever stops holding a charge, contact us.
- GPS. A steel bonnet costs a little accuracy, so positions can be a few metres out.
- Washing. The CT-V07 is sealed against pressure washing and steam cleaning. The CT-V09 handles rain and road spray, but don’t aim a pressure washer at it.
Fit the tracker, step by step
⚠️ Wear eye protection, and don’t let a spanner touch both battery terminals at once, or a terminal and bare metal. Remove rings and watches first.
- Switch off. Switch the vehicle fully off and take the key out. If the battery has an isolator or master switch, you can leave it as it is: the tracker goes straight onto the battery terminals, before the switch, so it keeps working when the switch is off.
- CT-V07 only: plug the lead into the tracker. Push the plug fully home before you go near the battery. The CT-V09’s lead is fixed to the tracker, so skip this step.
- Disconnect the negative terminal. Loosen the nut on the battery’s negative (−) clamp and lift the clamp off the post. Tuck it aside so it can’t spring back onto the post.
- Fit the red fork to the positive (+) terminal. Loosen the positive clamp’s nut, slide the red fork terminal under it, and tighten the nut firmly. Don’t take the positive clamp off the post.
-
Fit the black fork to the negative (−) clamp. Slide the black fork terminal under the negative clamp’s nut, refit the clamp to the post and tighten it firmly.
- Stop-start cars: if a sensor is clipped onto the battery’s negative terminal, the black wire mustn’t go on the terminal. Fit it where the battery’s negative cable bolts to the body instead. If the lead won’t reach, contact us.
- Check the lights. The tracker’s two lights should come on within a few seconds. Check them now (see Check it’s working below).
- Stick the tracker in place. Wipe the spot clean and dry. On the CT-V07, stick the supplied tape to the flat back of the tracker first. Peel the backing off the tape and press the tracker down firmly, label side up. Keep it clear of the battery’s vent caps and anything that moves.
- Tidy the lead. Tie any spare lead back with cable ties so it can’t rub on sharp edges or touch hot or moving parts. Refit any battery cover.
Check it’s working
Status lights
Both trackers have two status lights on top: Navigate (GPS) and Status.
| Light | What you see | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Navigate | Blinking once a second | Working normally, with a GPS fix |
| On all the time | Looking for GPS. Give it a few minutes with a clear view of the sky | |
| Blinking fast, non-stop | Updating its software. Leave it powered | |
| Off | GPS is off: the tracker is asleep, or not working | |
| Status | Blinking once a second | Working normally |
| Blinking every two seconds | Asleep. This is normal while the vehicle is parked | |
| Short bursts of fast blinks | Sending data. This is normal | |
| Off | Starting up, or not working |
If we’ve set your tracker to sleep deeply while it’s parked, both lights go off while it sleeps. That’s normal: check them with the vehicle switched on.
On the Open Platform
Log in to the Open Platform at platform.crucialtracking.com.au and check the tracker shows as online with a position. Out in the open, the first GPS fix usually takes under a minute. Then take a short drive (or tow) and watch the position move: every 10 seconds on our Real-Time plan, or every 2 minutes on Power Saver. If your vehicle isn’t a car or ute with an ordinary 12 V battery and you haven’t told us yet, let us know now so we can set it up.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to try |
|---|---|
| No lights at all | Check the lead is pushed fully into the tracker (CT-V07), both fork terminals are tight under their nuts, red on positive (+) and black on negative (−), and that the battery isn’t flat. If they are and there are still no lights, contact us. |
| Not showing on the platform | Give it a few minutes outside with a clear view of the sky, then take a short drive. Check you’re in 4G coverage. If you fitted your own SIM, check it’s active with data, and contact us about the APN setting. |
| Always shows as running, or never does | Its voltage range needs adjusting for your vehicle. Send us the battery voltage with the engine running and again after it’s been off for 30 minutes (see How it knows the engine is running), and tell us how the battery is charged. |
| Position jumps around or drops out | Under a bonnet, positions can wander by a few metres; that’s normal. If it’s worse, check the label faces up and nothing metal sits directly on top of it, such as a battery-box lid. Still bad? Contact us. |
| A battery-disconnect alert when nobody touched it | Check both fork terminals and the battery clamps are tight. A loose terminal can drop the power for a moment. |
| The battery goes flat while the vehicle is stored | Contact us to set a deeper sleep, and keep a small battery (a motorbike’s, say) on a maintainer while it’s stored. |
Moving it to another vehicle
Switch the vehicle off. Take the negative clamp off the post and remove the black fork, then loosen the positive clamp’s nut, remove the red fork and tighten the positive nut again. Refit the negative clamp and tighten it, then peel the tracker off (use new tape when you refit it). Fit it to the next battery exactly as above, and tell us about the new vehicle so we can set it up for it. You’ll get a battery-disconnect alert when you remove it; that’s normal.
Need more?
Full specifications and purchase options are on the CT-V07 and CT-V09 product pages. Once the tracker is online, the GPS Tracking Platform User Guide explains events, geofences and trips, and Install the Open Platform as an App puts it on your phone’s home screen.
Stuck on a step? Call us on 0413 418 743 during business hours, email team@crucialtracking.com.au or request a callback and we’ll walk you through it.