Trackers

[Jcloughie]

In 2015 my van came with a Phantom tracker installed with a 1 year subscription. The following year I paid for a further 5 years. That is up in March. I am seeking an alternative. So far I am finding a very wide range of prices.

Some may think they are a waste of time and if someone steals the van they don’t want it back. I have much sympathy for that view, but also would like to see any scroats caught. The other advantage I see from these systems is they keep a complete history of routes taken. In years to come, I think this would be very useful in keeping a record of places visited. I know some do this through a diary or on a spreadsheet.

One professional company do a complete service for £60 per year, plus the cost for the unit. £39 or £89 for one which will integrate with the alarm and report battery voltage. Geofencing can be set and many other functions. And their SIM card operates on all networks all over Europe. Even roaming in the UK.

Others charge for the unit, you put your own SIM card in, O2 do one with works out at less than £1 month. Monitoring is free.

Vodafone do a ‘curve’ for £20 plus £2 per month. But not sure on the functuallity.

My reason for posting is, does anyone else use one or have a suggestion.

John

 

[Raywood]

I appreciate the point about not wanting the van back but tracker recoveries are normally very quick or not at all, so if it is recovered then there is no likely hood of the thieves having caused a problem. Later recoveries will tend to be police raids where they think they can make arrests and the caravans are just one of the things they may be looking for but by then you have probably been paid out.
The option using O2 looks decent, but I have no experience of it, I would google the unit for reviews and see if you can find anything. If you get a discount for the unit you have on the insurance check with them to see if they will accept the new one. Whatever if the tracker is a condition of your insurance you need to inform them of any change.

 

[Jcloughie]

I appreciate the point about not wanting the van back but tracker recoveries are normally very quick or not at all, so if it is recovered then there is no likely hood of the thieves having caused a problem. Later recoveries will tend to be police raids where they think they can make arrests and the caravans are just one of the things they may be looking for but by then you have probably been paid out.
The option using O2 looks decent, but I have no experience of it, I would google the unit for reviews and see if you can find anything. If you get a discount for the unit you have on the insurance check with them to see if they will accept the new one. Whatever if the tracker is a condition of your insurance you need to inform them of any change.

Some good points.

The company I am seriously looking at is this one.

The O2 sim card is designed for trackers at 2p per day.

Even the reviews of the dirt cheap tracker units seem to be quite good. But a bit confusing and leave a lot of unanswered questions.

John

 

[RogerL]

In 2015 my van came with a Phantom tracker installed with a 1 year subscription. The following year I paid for a further 5 years. That is up in March. I am seeking an alternative. So far I am finding a very wide range of prices.

Some may think they are a waste of time and if someone steals the van they don’t want it back. I have much sympathy for that view, but also would like to see any scroats caught. The other advantage I see from these systems is they keep a complete history of routes taken. In years to come, I think this would be very useful in keeping a record of places visited. I know some do this through a diary or on a spreadsheet.

One professional company do a complete service for £60 per year, plus the cost for the unit. £39 or £89 for one which will integrate with the alarm and report battery voltage. Geofencing can be set and many other functions. And their SIM card operates on all networks all over Europe. Even roaming in the UK.

Others charge for the unit, you put your own SIM card in, O2 do one with works out at less than £1 month. Monitoring is free.

Vodafone do a ‘curve’ for £20 plus £2 per month. But not sure on the functuallity.

My reason for posting is, does anyone else use one or have a suggestion.

John

If you don't renew the Phantom tracker subscription, have it removed from your caravan as it will continue to use 12v and regularly try to contact the control centre even though no subscription in place - if you're anywhere with poor mobile phone signal, it'll try continuously and can quickly drain a leisure battery.

 

[Jcloughie]

If you don't renew the Phantom tracker subscription, have it removed from your caravan as it will continue to use 12v and regularly try to contact the control centre even though no subscription in place - if you're anywhere with poor mobile phone signal, it'll try continuously and can quickly drain a leisure battery.

That dead easy. Just unplugs, and I would use the same location and wiring for a new one.

Battery drain has not been an issue, but I have 120 watts of solar.

John

 

[Buckman]

However if you go with one of the other trackers do they have a call centre and will the police respond to a request from them?
The idea of the tracker is for you to be notified before the scroutes disappear with the caravan and with a bit of luck apprehended.
Our 5 year subscription finishes in Oct as we had the subscription transferred from the rejected 2015 caravan to the new 2018 caravan. Rather than faff around looking to save a few bob we will probably renew for another 5 years. I am not sure of the cost of renewing now for 5 years, but it was about £399?

 

[Parksy]

There was a Phantom tracker fitted to our caravan when we bought it new and I continued with the subscription for the first five years.
The service was patchy, if we went away and forgot to inform their tracking centre I'd sometimes get a call after a day or two to tell me that our caravan had been moved.
They contacted me after 5 years to tell me that I needed a new tracker as part of a system upgrade.
The new tracker was about £300, but the insurance discount for having the tracker was less than the subscription so I didn't renew or have the new tracker.

 

[Jcloughie]

However if you go with one of the other trackers do they have a call centre and will the police respond to a request from them?
The idea of the tracker is for you to be notified before the scroutes disappear with the caravan and with a bit of luck apprehended.
Our 5 year subscription finishes in Oct as we had the subscription transferred from the rejected 2015 caravan to the new 2018 caravan. Rather than faff around looking to save a few bob we will probably renew for another 5 years. I am not sure of the cost of renewing now for 5 years, but it was about £399?

Yes and no to the first question. Phantom call centre have been good in contacting me for false alarms. The other systems rely on text messages for the basic systems, they can call more than 1 number I think. But there is no reason why the police would not respond in the same way. Rewire, and no doubt others, also have a call centres as an option.

But Phantom do not provide a route history. Which would be nice, (for me), to look back on in years to come. Also they don’t do real time tracking. At least not in the caravan package.

I am learning that some other companies are just as responsible and have better functionality for a much better price. But for budget lovers it’s possible to use an old Android phone with a free app as the device with a €15 per year monitoring contract plus sim contract for 2p per day.

One vehicle system provided by a division of a major company provide a system pre fitted to exclusive cars for £200/year. But £600 for so called super cars. Someone is taking them to court on unfair contract terms as the systems are identical. I have not named the company as my info is only from YouTube.

We may be tempted to use Phantom as it is pre fitted. Good marketing on their part me thinks.

John

 

[Jcloughie]

There was a Phantom tracker fitted to our caravan when we bought it new and I continued with the subscription for the first five years.
The service was patchy, if we went away and forgot to inform their tracking centre I'd sometimes get a call after a day or two to tell me that our caravan had been moved.
They contacted me after 5 years to tell me that I needed a new tracker as part of a system upgrade.
The new tracker was about £300, but the insurance discount for having the tracker was less than the subscription so I didn't renew or have the new tracker.

I have not had your poor location experience with Phantom but I do think they are overpriced for what they provide.

John

 

[Buckman]

I have not had your poor location experience with Phantom but I do think they are overpriced for what they provide.

John

I think £6.65 per month over 5 years for having a professional company monitor your pride and joy quite reasonable. Two drinks in the local can cost you more. LOL!

 

[Dustydog]

Once the 5 years was up we binned the Tracker. The extra insurance premium without it was a no brainer. Trust me. You do not want a stolen , recovered caravan back. I have seen a damaged recovered one which wasn’t bad enough to write off. The SWMBO couldn’t hack it. They px’d It and lost cash on the deal.

 

[Beehpee]

What ever system you use there are a couple of things to bear in mind, if the tracker is fitted by the manufacturer whether car or caravan then each car and caravan will be fitted in the same location, so car 1 will have a location car 2 another and so on, the same with caravans, so once the thieves find where one is fitted they know where the next is, there are lots of tracking blockers easily and cheaply available to block signals, if it’s fitted by an after market company then it’s only as good as the guy who fitted it, the trouble there is companies rarely employ fitters and pay absolute peanuts to self employed fitters so as the saying goes you pay peanuts you get monkeys , lastly, in my experience police will act on reports of vehicles stolen that can be tracked if it suits them or if they have manpower to do so and often they don’t, I may sound very sceptical about trackers but I’m not at all, I’ve fitted them professionally for more years than I care to think about but I’ve seen far too many bad instals and not many good.

BP

 

[JezzerB]

I am seriously tempted by tthe Streetwise Tracker Aldi were selling at £40-sold out apparently with no subscription charges-but they are available elsewhere for a tad more-
I don't subscribe to the ';would you want the van back after that'-even if you don't want to get the caravan back I'd like it if the crims got caught-just for others and personal pleasure!

 

[Dustydog]

Beachball my boy you hit the nail on the head. The thief knows where the OEM kit is fitted😢😢😢

 

[otherclive]

Beachball my boy you hit the nail on the head. The thief knows where the OEM kit is fitted😢😢😢

??????

 

[Beachball]

I think £6.65 per month over 5 years for having a professional company monitor your pride and joy quite reasonable. Two drinks in the local can cost you more. LOL!

I am in agreement with you that sounds quite reasonable to have your pride and joy protected but in my case i don"t drink much

 

[Galgo slave]

PAJ GPS Allround Finder Version 2020 GPS tracker - Personal GPS tracker devices for Real-time positioning- Antitheft protection: locate cars, motorcycles, luggage, people and more- German brand: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy PAJ GPS Allround Finder Version 2020 GPS tracker - Personal GPS tracker devices for Real-time positioning- Antitheft protection: locate cars, motorcycles, luggage, people and more- German brand at Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk

This is my set up. The tracker is very very well hidden. There is no other costs than the purchase price of £50 for the unit. To run i use a giff gaff pay as you go sim card and top up roughly £10 per year as it works on text messages. The settings have it digitally pinned to within 50m of its position and i even get texts when the wind rattles the caravan.

A lot cheaper and just as good as anything else. My big bug bear was that all the insurance trackers for discounted prices, never actually reduced my price but sold me another expensive gizmo with another expensive monthly outlay

 

[Beachball]

Beachball my boy you hit the nail on the head. The thief knows where the OEM kit is fitted😢😢😢

Hi Dusty don"t understand this have you made a error?

 

[Hutch]

I certainly would not want my stolen caravan returned, Just give me the value of the caravan, but what would that be, the price that dealers are selling them for, or what dealers are buying them for?
Where do you find the value of your caravan.

This thread could pass over to the Caravan insurance thread.

 

[Jcloughie]

PAJ GPS Allround Finder Version 2020 GPS tracker - Personal GPS tracker devices for Real-time positioning- Antitheft protection: locate cars, motorcycles, luggage, people and more- German brand: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy PAJ GPS Allround Finder Version 2020 GPS tracker - Personal GPS tracker devices for Real-time positioning- Antitheft protection: locate cars, motorcycles, luggage, people and more- German brand at Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk

This is my set up. The tracker is very very well hidden. There is no other costs than the purchase price of £50 for the unit. To run i use a giff gaff pay as you go sim card and top up roughly £10 per year as it works on text messages. The settings have it digitally pinned to within 50m of its position and i even get texts when the wind rattles the caravan.

A lot cheaper and just as good as anything else. My big bug bear was that all the insurance trackers for discounted prices, never actually reduced my price but sold me another expensive gizmo with another expensive monthly outlay

Thanks Galgo. that's the info I am after. It's not just the cost I am considering, though I don't wish to pay out more without any discernible advantage.

As does Phantom, the unit I am looking at will tell me the:

1. Caravan voltage.
2. It is geofenced to any location set.
3. It can be linked to the alarm.

But over and above Phantom it:

1. It could remotely disable the fuel pump, if there was one.
2. It has shock sensor to detect movement.
3. There is a large backup battery.
4. It can be hidden in many places.
5. Its waterproof.
6. But most importantly (for me). It shows very detailed routes and locations in real time which are downloadable.

The fact that it's much cheaper is a bonus.

The advantages of Phantom is (Ithink) it is insurance approved and attracts a discount.

John

 

[Jcloughie]

This thread could pass over to the Caravan insurance thread.

That's where it is!

John

 

[Dustydog]

??????

All Baileys of my era had them located in the same place

 

[Hutch]

That's where it is!

John

I meant the new thread about caravan insurance renewal.

 

[otherclive]

All Baileys of my era had them located in the same place

It was your reply to Beachball not BP. C’est etc etc....⛽. 🤭

 

[Dustydog]

It was your reply to Beachball not BP. C’est etc etc....⛽. 🤭

A faux pas😋😋