Home driveway or storage site?

[Dustydog]

Another thread is discussing smaller caravans to fit the home’s drive. I have done both but generally have mixed feelings. The caravan is usually stored at my mates farm in a secure compound. However it does spend time at my home for cleaning , repairs loading etc. The CAMC Insurance cover knows I use both sites as storage throughout the year. NB, if you do the same as me make sure your Insurers know.
So my main concern is that if mainly stored at home, when I go away will the thieves know my home is unoccupied? But when at the farm I can’t tend the caravan , even taking out the battery and bringing it home for TLC.
Just wondered what others do.

 

[Clifford_374377114]

Theives MAY know that your house is unoccupied but your neighbours also do and, I hope, keep more of an eye on it.
Cliff

 

[Jcloughie]

Given the choice I would store at home.

John

 

[Beachball]

We also done both but i prefer the caravan in storage because if at home they always know when you are going away and your house could be burglar

 

[Kevin M]

In our last house, we didn’t have a drive big enough so the van was stored at my mums.
The main driver for our current house was a growing family (and amount of cars once they were of an age) and the ability to store the van here safely.
We have great neighbours and look out for each other, also have very visible CCTV so hopefully that is a deterrent.

Kev

 

[otherclive]

Another thread is discussing smaller caravans to fit the home’s drive. I have done both but generally have mixed feelings. The caravan is usually stored at my mates farm in a secure compound. However it does spend time at my home for cleaning , repairs loading etc. The CAMC Insurance cover knows I use both sites as storage throughout the year. NB, if you do the same as me make sure your Insurers know.
So my main concern is that if mainly stored at home, when I go away will the thieves know my home is unoccupied? But when at the farm I can’t tend the caravan , even taking out the battery and bringing it home for TLC.
Just wondered what others do.

I do exactly the same as you. It mainly sits in store but comes home a couple of days before we go away. If it hasn’t been used for a period then it comes home earlier so any problems can be sorted or if not sorted some workaround approach put in hand.

 

[woodsieboy]

We store at home,2 metre high brick wall on one side, house wall on other side, double gates at the front 2 metre high,gates are padlocked , van has hitch lock, and wheel clamp, and is connected to mains, the area is covered by cctv and sensor operated flood light. We had previous van broken in to in storage, so prefer to keep it at home, ready loaded with basics so we can hitch up and go when we want.Yes people notice when the van is out but we have good neighbours and house alarm, so we can't really do a lot more to prevent theft or break in.

 

[Woodentop]

We have always kept our van on the drive. In addition to Tracker/alarm (factory fitted) and wheel and hitch locks, we have a couple of substantial and removeable steel posts in the drive. Our insurers (CaravanGuard) are quite happy with any two of the three deterents, plus we have PIR floodlights which have remote sensors so would be difficult to disable. Add to that that it takes quite a bit of back/forward shunting to turn it so that it can be got out of the gate on a drive with a slight slope (the 'wrong' way) which means the miscreants would have to stay on site longer than they would like.

If someone <really> wanted the van enough to nick it then you wouldn't want to do too much to stop them as they will just do more damage. What is more if your van is nicked would you <really> want it back?

 

[Beehpee]

I have mine in storage but I bring it home to clean and get things organised, I always take it back to storage a good 5+ days before we go away so we are there for several days before we go, I too have good neighbours who keep an eye on things and I’ve got lights that randomly come on, then there’s music that comes on at random times, and at the end it’s all insured if we were unfortunately burgled, I check the indoor cctv daily so if it got broke into I could get various family members who would make sure it was made safe, not much else I can do other than pray a bit harder.

BP

 

[Dustydog]

We have always kept our van on the drive. In addition to Tracker/alarm (factory fitted) and wheel and hitch locks, we have a couple of substantial and removeable steel posts in the drive. Our insurers (CaravanGuard) are quite happy with any two of the three deterents, plus we have PIR floodlights which have remote sensors so would be difficult to disable. Add to that that it takes quite a bit of back/forward shunting to turn it so that it can be got out of the gate on a drive with a slight slope (the 'wrong' way) which means the miscreants would have to stay on site longer than they would like.

If someone <really> wanted the van enough to nick it then you wouldn't want to do too much to stop them as they will just do more damage. What is more if your van is nicked would you <really> want it back?

Years ago we saw a post theft recovered caravan at Chipping Sodbury Caravans. It was a minger! The owners wanted it written off but sadly the repairs were still economical. It was repaired and traded in for a new one. Fully agree you do not want it back!

 

[Thingy]

I do store at home, but as well as the usual caravan security, I have a sophisticated CCTV system up. We live in a cul-de-sac, and not only is the property covered front and back, the length of the cul-de-sac itself is covered (with all the neighbours blessing). I did this after the morons damaged my caravan with the rugby ball. The beauty of the CCTV system is that you can paint invisible boundaries on screen, and if the lines are crossed, or boundary boxes entered, its sends an immediate notification to my mobile complete with video. Its a full colour system and can operate at almost pitch dark as if it is midday.

 

[Buckman]

Years ago we saw a post theft recovered caravan at Chipping Sodbury Caravans. It was a minger! The owners wanted it written off but sadly the repairs were still economical. It was repaired and traded in for a new one. Fully agree you do not want it back!

If a caravan is recovered after being missing for a few weeks or months, you could probably use Covid as an excuse to not accept it back?

 

[otherclive]

If a caravan is recovered after being missing for a few weeks or months, you could probably use Covid as an excuse to not accept it back?

Why would Covid be an excuse to reject it? The virus life cycle plus sanitising measures would render it “ clean” and zero risk. The virus spreads predominantly by airborne transmission not via surfaces. A study published by the CDC considered that the risk of infection from surfaces was less than 1 in 10000 compared to the risk from airborne infection. Cleaning and residence time reduces that surface risk level even further. You don’t reject the car or van after servicing do you?

 

[Buckman]

Why would Covid be an excuse to reject it? The virus life cycle plus sanitising measures would render it “ clean” and zero risk. The virus spreads predominantly by airborne transmission not via surfaces. A study published by the CDC considered that the risk of infection from surfaces was less than 1 in 10000 compared to the risk from airborne infection. Cleaning and residence time reduces that surface risk level even further. You don’t reject the car or van after servicing do you?

Sorry I should have put a smiley at the end as it was tongue in cheek.

 

[Thingy]

I have to say that if I had a caravan, or car stolen, I would not want it back. Its not covid or anything like that, just the violation and not knowing what had been done to it. For sure, it wont be treated with respect.

I assume its the same being burgled, a feeling of violation and impotent rage.

 

[Buckman]

I have to say that if I had a caravan, or car stolen, I would not want it back. Its not covid or anything like that, just the violation and not knowing what had been done to it. For sure, it wont be treated with respect.

I assume its the same being burgled, a feeling of violation and impotent rage.

If your home was burgled would you move out?

 

[Hutch]

If your home was burgled would you move out?

Maybe not, But I would place a bet to say my wife would want the house redecorated with a new 3 piece suite.

 

[Buckman]

Maybe not, But I would place a bet to say my wife would want the house redecorated with a new 3 piece suite.

I think we would all face that same problem! LOL!

 

[Thingy]

Would you move out, for me .....no. But madam Im not sure how she would react.

More to the point, what would you do if you were in the house with a burglar. Only two ways to go, forwards or backwards. In the 25 years we have lived here, there has only been one bruglary in the village and it was next door but one. On the same night, 3 neighbouring villages had one each, and they were all people that lived alone. In our case, our neighbour and a good friend had just lost her husband and herself been diagnosed with cancer. She woke up to find the burglar at her bedside. She has passed now, but for the remaining two years of her life she was absolutely petrified at night.

These trash neither understand or care about the misery they leave behind under the surface of the burglary.

 

[otherclive]

I have to say that if I had a caravan, or car stolen, I would not want it back. Its not covid or anything like that, just the violation and not knowing what had been done to it. For sure, it wont be treated with respect.

I assume its the same being burgled, a feeling of violation and impotent rage.

We were burgled some years back and the most difficult aspect was reaching a settlement with the insurer as some of the items were presents and had no receipts. Getting the tv and vcr replaced quickly was the easy part. It was made a bit more difficult as at the time we were living in Cumbria and our daughter with young grandson were renting the house off of us. Living on her own it did upset her but fortunately when it occurred she was staying with us in Cumbria. Very little damage done and we had a good inkling who had done it.

Since then both ourselves and daughter save receipts in the cloud as well as on paper. And photograph and video the rooms or belongings too.

 

[Buckman]

Would you move out, for me .....no. But madam Im not sure how she would react.

More to the point, what would you do if you were in the house with a burglar. Only two ways to go, forwards or backwards. In the 25 years we have lived here, there has only been one buglary in the village and it was next door but one. On the same night, 3 neighbouring villages had one each, and they were all people that lived alone. In our case, our neighbour and a good friend had just lost her husband and herself been diagnosed with cancer. She woke up to find the burglar at her bedside. She has passed now, but for the remaining two years of her life she was absolutely petrified at night.

These trash neither understand or care about the misery they leave behind under the surface of the burglary.

Many years ago I was in the home sleeping when we were burgled. They even enter the bedroom to steal my trousers hanging over the end of the bed without me waking up. Probably because I had a couple of beers to celebrate as had just returned from the bush.

By sheer luck earlier that evening I had dropped off all my weapons at the local police station for safe keeping otherwise I shudder to think of the possible consequences.

In all my years I have only been burgled twice, once when away on holiday and the other time when at home.

 

[Thingy]

I have never suffered a burglary, but the very first car I owned was stolen, and that broke my heart. Mind you, back then you could open and start them with a paper clip.

 

[Buckman]

We have had two cars stolen. One an old Mini from outside the place where my ex's worked and the other a Corolla company car from the car park at our local pub. Never recovered the Mini, but found the Corolla estate upside down in a ditch many miles away. With the latter we suspect joy riders as car was full of empties, obviously speeding as they could not make the bend where the car was found.

 

[Beachball]

We had one car stolen never found it and other they broke the glass and took the radio out

 

[Raywood]

Having worked all my life in insurance claims I have never come across a claim where the caravan was away and thieves broke in. That does not mean it has never happened most break ins are random though so it must be very rare. The risk will depend on where you live to some extent. With a house on a main road with lots of passing traffic the absence might be spotted, but if stored at the end of a culdesac with no passing traffic it is not going to be noticed when it is away.
You should notify your insurer of the two locations and the insurer will probably charge on the one it thinks is most likely to be the most risky.