Trackers

[Buckman]

The tracker will not send an alert to the control centre and alert you if your particular model of tracker has the facility until the caravan is being towed, if someone enters the van to steal items inside, the tracker will not alert and the crook can also spend time trying to find and disconnect the tracker before towing the caravan, most reputable tracker systems will de activate the tracker signal to the caravan owner and only have the signal sent to themselves so they can update the location to the police, they don’t want owners tracking the caravan due to the unknown person or persons who have stolen it reacting violently should the owner try to stop them, the signal is not sent first hand to the police, it’s location is forwarded by the tracker company, the trackers fitted by Tracker Network is to my knowledge the only system that the police actually track themselves.

BP

If you have the Phantom tracker which is proactive, if any one interferes with the caravan i.e. enters the caravan the call centre will be alerted. If they remove the tracker or the battery the call centre are alerted.

Phantom Tracker work in conjunction with the police like the other Tracker Retrieve as both are recognised by the police.

It would have to be a very foolish persons who tries to apprehend the thieves due to their tracker notifying them only of the theft. Also unlikely the police will respond to such a call from a member of the public using and unrecognised tracker which is fair enough.

 

[Beehpee]

If a tracker retrieve is activated because of theft it sends out a signal which is picked up by the control centre and any police car with the receiving equipment of which there are many can pick up the signal, the only signal that is transmitting and therefore picked up by the police is a stolen vehicle, the phantom will alert the control centre for phantom and they contact the police with a location that they can keep updating and the police if manpower allows, the police don’t pick up a signal direct from the tracker into their police car direct from the phantom unit that’s sending a signal.

BP

 

[ProfJohnL]

As far as I can see no tracker or alarm system can be "Proactive" A definition of proactive is
"creating or controlling or preventing a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened. "

The alarm or tracker has to be triggered in some way to make it indicate to its monitoring station, so it "reactive"

The only way such a device might be considered to be "proactive" is if its presence is known and it it deters a thief. But to that extent a notice to that effect would be just as effective

The Phantom brand is no more "proactive" than any other make and I suspect its advertising hype to make you think it is somehow better at preventing theft or tampering than other brands.

 

[Jcloughie]

Also unlikely the police will respond to such a call from a member of the public using and unrecognised tracker which is fair enough.

Phantom don’t automatically call the police, that would not work as there are too many false alarms. However, after they call the owner and a problem is reported, Phantom will work with the police to do the tracking.

I see no reason why the police would not work with individuals or companies if your assets is reported as stolen. It’s in the interest of everyone. It only requires the owner to pass on internet access password for the tracker map.

Many companies use the cheaper trackers in their thousands due to the cost of Thatcham approved ones.

The tracker will not send an alert to the control centre and alert you if your particular model of tracker has the facility until the caravan is being towed, if someone enters the van to steal items inside, the tracker will not alert and the crook can also spend time trying to find and disconnect the tracker before towing the caravan, most reputable tracker systems will de activate the tracker signal to the caravan owner and only have the signal sent to themselves so they can update the location to the police, they don’t want owners tracking the caravan due to the unknown person or persons who have stolen it reacting violently should the owner try to stop them, the signal is not sent first hand to the police, it’s location is forwarded by the tracker company, the trackers fitted by Tracker Network is to my knowledge the only system that the police actually track themselves.

BP

Lots of trackers are integrated to the alarm system so will send an alert if broken into.

*************

I still agree that Phantom is the best value for money far a Thatcham approved device. But they don’t share route history. However they have told me that they will provide one route upon application. I think that is too much of a faff.

But to go back to the original point. I expected some to say they would not want a tracker and I understand and respect that position. The objective of this topic was to obtain the best way to keep a long time history of trips.

Too this end, I have just purchased a cheap option to try. It’s a Sinotrack ST-902. £26. This is OBD device so for car use only. SIM card less than £2/month with free tracking. I will see how well this works and make my mind up about the van later.

John

 

[Beehpee]

There is no advantage with any system regarding stopping the theft what the owner of the stolen vehicle wants is a quick locating of the vehicle, with a retrieve it sends its signal and gets picked up by any fitted police car within signal range, the others rely on the control centres passing information to the police.

 

[Buckman]

If a tracker retrieve is activated because of theft it sends out a signal which is picked up by the control centre and any police car with the receiving equipment of which there are many can pick up the signal, the only signal that is transmitting and therefore picked up by the police is a stolen vehicle, the phantom will alert the control centre for phantom and they contact the police with a location that they can keep updating and the police if manpower allows, the police don’t pick up a signal direct from the tracker into their police car direct from the phantom unit that’s sending a signal.

BP

A Tracker Retrieve is NOT activated by theft. It is activated by call centre after the consumer has notified the call centre that the vehicle has been stolen. By that time the vehicle is long gone and the Tracker has probably been removed so it is as much good as a wet paper bag.
The Phantom which is Proactive will help prevent the theft taking place by notifying the call centre that someone is interfering with the caravan. All insurance companies regard the Phantom as being Proactive in helping prevent the theft.

 

[Beehpee]

Hi John that sounds like a bargain price but I’m sceptical that if you called the police and reported it stolen they’d respond, my daughter had her iPhone stolen she activated the find my phone option and called the police and said she could follow it live, what did the police do?
Absolutely not interested .
I might look into the box you just mention though just for my own use and interest, where did you buy it from.
BP

 

[Beehpee]

Shame that it’s not good enough for the police forces to want to have the tracking equipment fitted, at the price they charge (phantom)it’s track it yourself lots of the time, your comparison is between the lowest priced equipment from one company, you could easily pay phantoms prices and get same spec with the backing of every police force in the UK

 

[Jcloughie]

Hi John that sounds like a bargain price but I’m sceptical that if you called the police and reported it stolen they’d respond, my daughter had her iPhone stolen she activated the find my phone option and called the police and said she could follow it live, what did the police do?
Absolutely not interested .
I might look into the box you just mention though just for my own use and interest, where did you buy it from.
BP

I got this one.

I will add, initial programming is not too easy. Watch this space, I will report back.

Re the phone, it can depend on police force and also how busy they are. Next question would be, would they respond any better if Phantom put in the request? Who knows.

John

 

[Beehpee]

I doubt they would John, if it were mine I’d take a mate with me and decide when I see who I have to confront.

 

[Raywood]

Any tracker will only deter a thief if there is a sticker in the window which also gives the thief prior notice it’s fitted.

Not sure it will deter them, what it does is warn them and they may simply look and find it and then remove it. Warnings are a double edged sword on that one. Possibly the sticker and no tracker will delay them as they look in vain for it.

 

[Beachball]

I personally would not want the caravan back, Imagine if the van is just on the point of, Recoverable / Rightoff. And you get get it back trashed inside.
No thank you. No tracker for me.

Hi Hutch
i think we are at cross purpose Buckman was on about renewal price at £399 for 5 years at £6.65 he will be renewing that what i said it was a good deal enjoy ( post 40)

 

[Beachball]

When my caravan was at service at the dealer last year i saw a van that did have one fitted it was in for repair it was taken from caravan storage it was a insurance job

 

[Beehpee]

And what is your conclusion from seeing it?

BP

 

[JezzerB]

Apparently tracker or phantom work closely with the police and inform them rather than the user doing it. And the police do respond so the ads say. Not sure if it's true or not?

 

[otherclive]

Apparently tracker or phantom work closely with the police and inform them rather than the user doing it. And the police do respond so the ads say. Not sure if it's true or not?

Tracker used to have an excellent reputation for aiding the recovery of stolen cars. But even then I think it was only fitted to traffic police cars not the local patrol cars. Of course traffic police car number have been reduced over the years since the 2008 financial crash as a savings measure.

 

[Beachball]

And what is your conclusion from seeing it?

BP

What i saw of the caravan it was in a very rough state the caravan was a twin axle some one pride and joy i would not take it back

 

[RogerL]

Tracker used to have an excellent reputation for aiding the recovery of stolen cars. But even then I think it was only fitted to traffic police cars not the local patrol cars. Of course traffic police car number have been reduced over the years since the 2008 financial crash as a savings measure.

In many forces, Traffic has been merged with Firearms and Rapid Response - so there are more traffic cars but they don't spend all their time on road policing.

 

[JezzerB]

We definitely need more police on the road. Driving seems to have worsened over lockdown.

 

[Beehpee]

The police forces where I fitted the tracking equipment for them it was all types of police cars not just traffic, and the police took great pleasure when they picked up a signal because there was an excellent chance they would find and recover the stolen vehicle, the fitters that worked for tracker fitted the units in customers cars as well as fitting them in police vehicles and all staff with company cars had the tracking equipment the same as the police cars, on many occasions if police had no equipped cars available one of the staff members would do the tracking with a couple of none equipped police vehicles following us until we reached the thieves location, I have to admit to it being a pretty high adrenaline event when I did the tracking for the police.

BP

 

[Jcloughie]

The police forces where I fitted the tracking equipment for them it was all types of police cars not just traffic, and the police took great pleasure when they picked up a signal because there was an excellent chance they would find and recover the stolen vehicle, the fitters that worked for tracker fitted the units in customers cars as well as fitting them in police vehicles and all staff with company cars had the tracking equipment the same as the police cars, on many occasions if police had no equipped cars available one of the staff members would do the tracking with a couple of none equipped police vehicles following us until we reached the thieves location, I have to admit to it being a pretty high adrenaline event when I did the tracking for the police.

BP

Was that different than today’s systems?

Seems to me that tracking can be done with an internet connection and the right username and password.

The samples I have viewed even clearly show what side of the road the target is on. Accuracy is governed by the time between coordinate pings. The one I have just purchased has a default of 20 secs.

I believe that lag can be a problem, don’t know what causes that. One report I read said that his tracking was 15 mins behind real time.

My guess is that with a monitored unit like Phantom. The ping will be well spaced out with The operator increasing the rate if it’s required.

John

 

[Beachball]

We definitely need more police on the road. Driving seems to have worsened over lockdown.

Hi JezzerB l am in agreement with you we do need more police on roads .

 

[Buckman]

Was that different than today’s systems?

Seems to me that tracking can be done with an internet connection and the right username and password.

The samples I have viewed even clearly show what side of the road the target is on. Accuracy is governed by the time between coordinate pings. The one I have just purchased has a default of 20 secs.

I believe that lag can be a problem, don’t know what causes that. One report I read said that his tracking was 15 mins behind real time.

My guess is that with a monitored unit like Phantom. The ping will be well spaced out with The operator increasing the rate if it’s required.

John

I think a big issue is if someone is using a tracker that is not recognised by the police, the police would be reluctant to respond to a call about a stolen caravan as they have no way of knowing if the call is genuine or not.
Secondly it is unlikely that the police will take instructions from a member of the public telling the police where the caravan is going plus the fact that the call has to be relayed via a police call centre so by the time the police in the vehicle get the instruction, the thieves may have gone down another road. Lastly there is always the danger it is a hoax call.
However if the call was coming from a known reputable tracking centre like Tracker or Phantom Tracker, they will probably respond

 

[otherclive]

I think a big issue is if someone is using a tracker that is not recognised by the police, the police would be reluctant to respond to a call about a stolen caravan as they have no way of knowing if the call is genuine or not.
Secondly it is unlikely that the police will take instructions from a member of the public telling the police where the caravan is going plus the fact that the call has to be relayed via a police call centre so by the time the police in the vehicle get the instruction, the thieves may have gone down another road. Lastly there is always the danger it is a hoax call.
However if the call was coming from a known reputable tracking centre like Tracker or Phantom Tracker, they will probably respond

Police will also track vehicles reported stolen by ANPR cameras. Where we last lived a neighbour had his new Navarra stolen and police tracked it down a B road and onto the A4 then M4. Unfortunately it wasn’t reported stolen in sufficient time for the police to apprehend the thieves as they were having to play catch up.

 

[Buckman]

Police will also track vehicles reported stolen by ANPR cameras. Where we last lived a neighbour had his new Navarra stolen and police tracked it down a B road and onto the A4 then M4. Unfortunately it wasn’t reported stolen in sufficient time for the police to apprehend the thieves as they were having to play catch up.

I doubt if they can track a caravan being towed using ANPR as no info.