Looking around at caravans, some manufacturers seem to include it as a standard security feature, wheras with others you have to buy it as an extra. Seems to me that possibly a good reason to go a caravan with tracking manufactured in is that thieves are likely to know this and steal a different (not fitted brand) instead. Does anybody know if this is in fact the case?
Does anybody know if a caravan fitted by the manufactrurer with a tracking system as standard is less likely to be stolen?
- Thread starter haymaker
- Start date
Damian
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The simple facts are, if they want it, they WILL have it, regardless of any security fitted.
From some posts over the last year or so, it seems some trackers may be fitted but not activated, so in effect,,,no tracker.
If a tracker is fitted, and activated, then if it isi stolen, there is a better chance of getting it back, if there are Police available to deal with it.
Conversley, if it is stolen and damaged in the process, do you really want it back?
From some posts over the last year or so, it seems some trackers may be fitted but not activated, so in effect,,,no tracker.
If a tracker is fitted, and activated, then if it isi stolen, there is a better chance of getting it back, if there are Police available to deal with it.
Conversley, if it is stolen and damaged in the process, do you really want it back?
I think the difference is now that they know they are fitted as standard so may or may not take the risk.
They know all the alarms and where they are positioned in the vans so they can tackle them straight away.
Will it make a difference i dont know as the tracker fitment was something the insurance companies requested to help combat the high theft rates.
They know all the alarms and where they are positioned in the vans so they can tackle them straight away.
Will it make a difference i dont know as the tracker fitment was something the insurance companies requested to help combat the high theft rates.
I was wondering because I have been caravanning since 2007 and have kept my caravan in storage, but I have come to the conclusion that that is impractical for quick get aways for the weekend which is what I ewant to do, so I'm thinking of changing my van and keeping it on my drive. I read somewhere that nearly 50% of caravans which are stolen, are stolen from the driveways no matter what physical storage you put in place - therefore I was wondering whether there is any evidence showing that certain caravans fitted as standard with a tracker are less desirable to thieves than those that are not - a bit like they say that burglars will walk past houses with burglar alarms until they find a house that doesn't have an alarm. So my objective is to a) not have it stolen and b) if it was stolen would I want it back - well having lived long enough to experience the joy that is making an insurance claim (can we prove it is your fault and we don't have to pay, long delays, higher premiums and worst of all being refused insurance when the renewal is up (you're a high risk now)) - the answer would be yes if they can get it back as quickly as they claim they can. Does anybody know of any industry bodies that collect this type of data?
Hi Haymaker
See this :- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7005491.ece
A properly secure compound with proper security should in theory be better than the home drive. Whenever your car leaves the drive you are advertising your absence.
However we always bring the caravan back to the home drive for preparation a few days before departure.
Be very careful whatever you do fully complies with all the terms , conditions and warranties on your Insurance policy.
Those who leave their caravans unattended at motorway services and the like do so at their own peril!
I have a Tracker and thank goodness have yet to find out if it works. My Dealer had a caravan recovered a few years ago which had been trashed but was not a constructive total loss. The lady couldn't stand the thought of using it again and it cost them money to px.
Unfortunately no matter how hard you try a caravan will never be fully thief proof.
BTW there are different types of Tracker systems eg GPS or VHF . Once the GPS is in a steel container that's it.
My best advice is just make it as hard as possible for the scum to steal in the first place.
See this :- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7005491.ece
A properly secure compound with proper security should in theory be better than the home drive. Whenever your car leaves the drive you are advertising your absence.
However we always bring the caravan back to the home drive for preparation a few days before departure.
Be very careful whatever you do fully complies with all the terms , conditions and warranties on your Insurance policy.
Those who leave their caravans unattended at motorway services and the like do so at their own peril!
I have a Tracker and thank goodness have yet to find out if it works. My Dealer had a caravan recovered a few years ago which had been trashed but was not a constructive total loss. The lady couldn't stand the thought of using it again and it cost them money to px.
Unfortunately no matter how hard you try a caravan will never be fully thief proof.
BTW there are different types of Tracker systems eg GPS or VHF . Once the GPS is in a steel container that's it.
My best advice is just make it as hard as possible for the scum to steal in the first place.
The point regards terms and conditions with your insurers is an important one.We were recently informed by our insurance company that the van was only covered for three days on the drive because it is normally stored on a cassoa site.
you have to read the insurance details about home storage we had a van stolen from our secure storage and the police would not step in until there was at least 4 car back up.The group off people that stole it say no more were stopped over 100 miles from storage because off the back up the tracker was activated some 10 mins afteer it was removed from storage.the insurance paid book price on van that was so baddly damaged it was a wright off it dinot even take in the amount that the tracker cost to buy and have installed.The owner says he feels he hase lost out by £1400 for the tracker fitting and contract payment and it was not in the valuation of the pay out.
another big problem with the GPS based units is if you go abroad, my transit was fitted a GPS tracking unit as part of the insurance requirements but it was never ever registered for international roaming so when i went to france the tracker just did not work, ive had to get another sim card for it on a pay as you go and load it up with cash and have it authorised for international roaming.
if you have one make sure yours is activated too.
if you have one make sure yours is activated too.
Have a S6 Senator with the tracker and discontinued its use.My insurance C&CC didnt give any discount for Tracker only requiring Alko lock and hitchlock.My view is as Damiens,I wouldn't want it back if it was stolen and also anyone who could get the Alko lock off would be aware it could be tracked and probably not risk it (or not care).I am not convinced the Police would be too interested in recovering and its insured anyway.Each time I secure it and photo it on my phone for insurance proof,they would have to prove date stamped pics not tampered with to not payout.The Alko lock must be pretty secure else the insurance company would want something else,the hitchlock although the genuine alko one would not deter anyone imo.
I have a Phantom Tracker and get 10% discount off my insurance - so I save £56 a year and the tracker costs me £99 - not sure if this is such a good deal !
Deli Dave, I would have thought the Police would love this kind of thing - easy crime to solve and another tick against their targets !
Deli Dave, I would have thought the Police would love this kind of thing - easy crime to solve and another tick against their targets !
If fitting a tracker saves you money on insurance in the long run it seems a good idea,but dont get fooled into thinking it really does get you good protection. Firstly as big as a caravan is, there arent that many places you could hid them and not have a professional thieve find it, and secondly it appears there are numerous GPS jammers kits out there!
You can get a tracker jamer for less than £15 off inter net so it dont realy matter as damian said if they want it they will have it.
A friend of ours brought a brand new caravan had a everything fitted with security and even a Tracker and they went to fetch it from storage and bring it home ready for going away , this van was on there drive everything was fitted alarm on and they went to lunch and when they came back van was gone, They rung the police and gave them the tracker details and they traced it near sheffield when they got there it was not there van and when the police did find it was burn out so it insurance job now. They have received funds and now have new van it will now be pick up from storage, when going away and drop off on way back and wash it down at storage and not bring it home anymore .
There is a number of opinions given on here that are incorrect/misguided or something along those lines at least, deciding if you want a caravan back in the event of it being stolen is obviously all down to the individual, for what it's worth my opinion on do I want it back would be decided by how quick I could get it back and whether or not the van had been used/lived in before I got it back and if I got it back quick enough would all of my personal stuff still be with the van or not, regarding so called Tracker jammers being available on the net I can confidently say a large proportion, but not all of these will simply not work and a large proportion will not work because they are actually not tracker jammers but GPS signal jammers, not all tracking systems use GPS, one thing that is correct that has been said is that with GPS if it can't see the sky as in once it's in a steel container it can't get a GPS signal, another good reason for not having a purely GPS based system I would have thought? It was said there are a limited number of locations where a tracker can be fitted on a caravan, well that's probably as true as it is vague, if here were ten thousand places to fit it then the statement would be as true as if there were one, there may not be ten thousand but you may or maybe not be surprised as to how many there were, as far as the police are concerned again there are misconceptions as to what happens when your caravan is stolen but I can assure you, and here you will simply have to believe me I'm afraid, in the majority of forces in the uk the police love tracker, why wouldn't they? As someone said it's crime solving made easy for them, someone said if the thief knew there was a tracker fitted would he perhaps move on to another that he thought didn't have a tracker, well the answer here has got to be yes or should I say no, yes he probably would if he wasn't too fussed about make, model, age etc of the caravan but probably no if he was looking for something more specific, let's face it if thieves can break in to and rob banks, art galleries and the like with the sofisticated alarms they have in place what chance does your caravan have if targeted by the determined thief, there seems to be a number of people who use this forum who are either in or around the Daventry area, I would possibly be able to offer further advice in person around here and anyone with specific questions is welcome to get my e mail from wherever it is you would get it from. Beetles
IMO a tracker, would be no deterrent to a thief. The sales pitch is that caravans have been recovered after only 15 minutes, but the idea that the police might drop everything to chase them might be flawed. No offence meant towards the police, but realistically, things ain't what we think they used to be.
Our 'van was stolen in April, from a fairly secure compound on a farm. It had high security hitch and wheel locks and an alarm fitted as standard (not working because it ran the battery down, but the thieves couldn't know that). The police didn't even go to see the farmer, let alone find the caravan, altho they did ring us once, just to say nothing had transpired. We have since heard several tales of people trying without success to get the police to help detain thieves, even when they themselves were actually driving along behind the stolen caravan for 30 miles. Surely there couldn't be a simpler way for the police to get brownie points, but it didn't happen for whatever reason.
The sums didn't add up when we thought about a tracker for our new 'van. 500 quid to fit it, then 100 quid every year to run it, but you only get 10% off your insurance. In the end we decided insurance was the most important thing to have, plus the hitch and wheel locks recommended by the insurer, and storage at a Gold CaSSOA site. Don't get too attached to the 'van, then you can't get upset if it's nicked. And remove everything you can manage between trips, because it costs a fortune to replace all the little bits and pieces that you thought were worth nothing. Definitely don't leave personal stuff in the 'van, otherwise you'll spend the next few months worrying whether the thieves have got your address to burgle at their leisure.
As for statistics about thefts, there was a chap at Devitt's, the insurers used by the Caravan Club, who told me he collected together the details of thefts, so that might be an avenue to explore.
Our 'van was stolen in April, from a fairly secure compound on a farm. It had high security hitch and wheel locks and an alarm fitted as standard (not working because it ran the battery down, but the thieves couldn't know that). The police didn't even go to see the farmer, let alone find the caravan, altho they did ring us once, just to say nothing had transpired. We have since heard several tales of people trying without success to get the police to help detain thieves, even when they themselves were actually driving along behind the stolen caravan for 30 miles. Surely there couldn't be a simpler way for the police to get brownie points, but it didn't happen for whatever reason.
The sums didn't add up when we thought about a tracker for our new 'van. 500 quid to fit it, then 100 quid every year to run it, but you only get 10% off your insurance. In the end we decided insurance was the most important thing to have, plus the hitch and wheel locks recommended by the insurer, and storage at a Gold CaSSOA site. Don't get too attached to the 'van, then you can't get upset if it's nicked. And remove everything you can manage between trips, because it costs a fortune to replace all the little bits and pieces that you thought were worth nothing. Definitely don't leave personal stuff in the 'van, otherwise you'll spend the next few months worrying whether the thieves have got your address to burgle at their leisure.
As for statistics about thefts, there was a chap at Devitt's, the insurers used by the Caravan Club, who told me he collected together the details of thefts, so that might be an avenue to explore.
We came back from France late on Saturday night and noticed a transit type van following us along the A43,it became a little more obvious as other cars overtook on the wider parts .It followed into Daventry and along Western Avenue so we pulled into a layby when it went past.Once we couldnt see it we pulled into our road and blocked it on drive with car and locks etc.Could have been a coincidence of course but still a bit concerned til we got it back into storage.Tried to get van number just in case but it was unreadable especially as many streetlights have been turned off around here
Visiting The Lawns caravan show I was reliably informed that Coachman do not fit the Phantom tracker on their 2012 range except for the Laser models and the reason given was to keep the cost down.
From all the figures I've seen, trackers aren't cost effective - insurers do give a discount on premiums, presumably in line with reduced claims cost, but that discount is only a fraction of the overall cost of a tracker.
In operation, trackers can be very effective in the first hour after theft but only if the police have the resources, and we all know they're being reduced by cutbacks.
After the first hour, it's a case of "do you really want your caravan back" because it won't be in the same condition!
I feel that trackers aren't worth the money but may make you feel good.
As far as home storage goes, the insurance discount from using an approved storage site is only a fraction of the storage fees so not cost effective. The argument about being obvious you're on holiday doesn't carry any weight with Crime Prevention Officers, at least no more than the car being missing during the day.
Perhaps my views are coloured by the fact that I don't buy a big flashy caravan - if you look like a ***** then they'll probably try to steal your caravan.
In operation, trackers can be very effective in the first hour after theft but only if the police have the resources, and we all know they're being reduced by cutbacks.
After the first hour, it's a case of "do you really want your caravan back" because it won't be in the same condition!
I feel that trackers aren't worth the money but may make you feel good.
As far as home storage goes, the insurance discount from using an approved storage site is only a fraction of the storage fees so not cost effective. The argument about being obvious you're on holiday doesn't carry any weight with Crime Prevention Officers, at least no more than the car being missing during the day.
Perhaps my views are coloured by the fact that I don't buy a big flashy caravan - if you look like a ***** then they'll probably try to steal your caravan.
I think it will come down to want the insurance companies request you have fitted.I couldnt get insurance on my van without having tracker fitted.
I had a choice of £99 a year or no insurance,irrespective if it works or not?
One thing i have noticed on insurance is most now request your van has to be in a secured compound or storage facility, the closest i could have got with space available was 3/4 hrs drive away.
To be honest i they all started specifying that i would propably give up caravanning.
I had a choice of £99 a year or no insurance,irrespective if it works or not?
One thing i have noticed on insurance is most now request your van has to be in a secured compound or storage facility, the closest i could have got with space available was 3/4 hrs drive away.
To be honest i they all started specifying that i would propably give up caravanning.
If you have an old mobile phone, and I guess most people have, put it on a Pay as You tariff and use it as a tracker.
Of course it will have to be registered with an internet mobile search company and somehow connected to the caravan battery to keep it charged through a car charger of sorts, but it is a cheap way of tracking your van either by laptop or new type smart phone.
I don't expect you will get a discount on your insurance premium but at least you could recover the van and bring the wrong doers to book so they get a suspended sentence or a couple of hours community service.
Sorry, my cynicism come with age.
Of course it will have to be registered with an internet mobile search company and somehow connected to the caravan battery to keep it charged through a car charger of sorts, but it is a cheap way of tracking your van either by laptop or new type smart phone.
I don't expect you will get a discount on your insurance premium but at least you could recover the van and bring the wrong doers to book so they get a suspended sentence or a couple of hours community service.
Sorry, my cynicism come with age.
Other Trackers do use the same technology ie gsm and gps , the problem with the Tracker duration subscription is it stays with the van and is not transferable so its means you have to make the purchase all over again if you change your van.
Others will move it for you.
Others will move it for you.
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