How we know our caravan is still at the storage ?
Want to share a recommendation of a great product which I recently fitted.
Unfortunately, the closest caravan storage facility to us is about 25minutes drive away, so checking that our caravan is still at the storage site a couple of times a week is unrealistic.
Our caravan, a new Eldiss, does have a tracker, the kind where you phone them when you realise the caravan is missing, and they work with the police to recover. But this of course is a reactive process, the tracker company do not proactively inform us if it is stolen.
An addition challenge for us is we occasionally go abroad for quite a few weeks with the caravan left at the storage site as normal.
So what I wanted to a device that could tell the location of our caravan.
After a few false starts, we found a great solution by using a GPS tracker (which is completely different to the factory supplied tracker/tracking service). The GPS tracker I fitted is commonly installed on motorcycles or fleet vehicles (such as lorries). The model number is a TK104, doubtless made in the orient and sold and branded by numerous makes. Just Google TK104 if you are interested.
Logically the TK104 unit is virtually a smart-phone (but without the display screen nor a keyboard). But otherwise very similar it has GPS (so it knows its own location) it has GSM and a PAYG SIM card (so it can receive phone calls and it can send SMS text messages) and like a smart phone it has some smart programmability.
Key features that are useful to me are:
- it sends me an SMS text message at 9am every morning to confirm its GPS location including a Googlemaps link
- it is set to send me an adhoc SMS text message if it starts to travel in excess of 30mph
- it is set to send me an adhoc SMS text message if its location changes by more than 500m.
- Additionally if I want to confirm the location on an adhoc basis, then I simply ring the unit, it then replies with a location SMS text message.
This scheduled location text could be every 5mins if you are paranoid enough to pay for that many SMS messages.
If you pay the extra for a SIM service which includes data, then rather than receive SMS texts, the tracker can instead send data to a website where you can log in to view the location - but I don't use this as a daily SMS suffices.
Of course, this tracker is no good in terms of recover as I understand the police are unlikely to act on the info - but that is what the factory tracker does. I also so know so of the more top end caravan and other brands have more proactive trackers built in. But for the rest of us, I'd thoroughly recommend this unit.
In terms of ease of installation, simply run the black + red power leads to the leisure battery (I believe the power the unit draws is pretty low so ought not to substantially increase power drain (plus the unit can be set to put inset to sleep and wake up occasionally to confirm location). Also I used the extra GSM & GPS aerials that were included to maximise the chances of getting the daily SMS. I personally didn't work to hard to make the installation completely hidden. Someone stealing a van is likely to find and rip out devices no matter how well hidden, but in that case I'll notice that the daily SMS text stops.
Prior to the TK104, I had 2 failed attempts to install the cheaper TK103 tracker. On paper the features are similar but the TK103 seemed like an older design, I suspect one of the reasons why it was tough to get it working is it requires a 2G SIM and network (whereas most of the cell companies are investing in improving their 3G and 4G coverage and some cell companies do not support 2G such as the 3 network). Also an advantage for the TK104 is a bigger built in battery (i.e. it will carry on sending SMS for longer if the leisure battery was disconnected by a theft) and unlike the TK103, the TK104 has a sleep function where it can for example put itself into minimal power consumption standby, then wake itself up to a schedule, send an SMS and if there are not any location or speed alarms then it goes back to sleep until tomorrow.
If anyone else would appreciate this form of reassurance - then I recommend the TK104
Comments
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Does anyone else check "a couple of times a week" if their caravan is still at the storage compound?
The tracker does sound a good idea but we are happy to rely on our "new for old" insurance policy.
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Thanks for posting, I'm sure this will be of interest to many; including me.
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We have one for our dog that works on an iPhone, Apple TV, Android and Windows Phone and allows us to see his location on an interactive map as he has a habit of disappearing into woodland and hedgerows when we're walking o'er hill and dale.
My son can access it from anywhere, even when he's abroad on business (that's 'he' as in my son, not the dog) and tell me to where the wandering scoundrel has scarpered. I could access it myself if I took the time to learn, or give the dog a mobile and teach
him to let me know where he is.0 -
Might get one for my wife, we will be walking down the high street and I find I'm talking to no-one, she has disappeared into a shop so I just stand stationary awaiting an exit from one of many doorways
But ours in storage only has one entrance and exit, CCTV and locked out of hours. But if its gone then its gone and I don't want it back, but I can understand a need for one by some.
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If your caravan is fitted with a Phantom Tracker, you can download the phone app and see the battery condition and the location of the caravan. if the alarm goes off (even in Spain! whoops!) they call you within minutes to see if all is okay!
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Make sure you do not press the sos button or it will constantly send text.As good as the Phanton tracker with no additional costs
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My caravan is parked/stored in a friends garden and is covered by a security camera, linked to my smart phone. I can view my caravan from wherever I am, at any time of the day or night. The picture is "live" as I often see animals etc moving in the area.
TF
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My office computer is set to log into the Phantom site every morning.
Quick location check (at the storage site) and a battery voltage check.
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I must admit that I am assuming that if the motorhome is stolen I will get a phone call from the storage owner to say that there has been a break-in. The GPS tracker is a better solution - can you get one disguised as a salt cellar?
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Isn't this what we pay insurance for? Like AstralRanger12 I pay a new for old premium so I don't have to keep checking on it. In addition mine is stored on a CASSoA Gold site with 24/7 access via a smart card and full CCTV and in the 30 years they've been
trading have never had a van stolen.0 -
At renewal time this Autumn I sought an insurance quote from SAGA for my comparatively low value van. It is stored on a site which was CASOA gold until its operators decided to resign from CASOA for "political" reasons a couple of years ago. SAGA refused
to quote because the vans presence on the site "would not be checked weekly". I pointed out that anyone having two weeks holiday couldn't meet that condition but they wouldn't budge. So checking presence can be significant albeit no problem insuring competitively
with other mainstream insurers.0 -
I posted the recommendation here mainly for anyone who had a similar desire to be "kept reassured" but whose van doesn't provide the best features that the top/modern alarms/trackers that some owners enjoy.
Actually, it is stored at CASSoA gold site, with CCTV, high fences and access control - but they couldn't or wouldn't allow me to have realtime viewing of their CCTV (probably becuase it is a low-tech system) and I know that replicating the "credit card"
needed to access the gate is something a theft can easilly clone. But I also have a new-for-old insurance policy, and I have made sure my sum-insured would comfortably cover full replace of the van and all contents (this is an area I suspect many underestimate
and leads to reduced payouts). And I also am not sure I would want it back if it was stolen.But even worse is finding out it is gone when we go to collect it at the start of a few weeks holiday - so this tracker provides me with the reasurance of a daily SMS text that it is where it ought to be and if not, then I have options......
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