Motorhome Alarm false alert

hitchglitch
hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
1000 Comments
edited June 2017 in Motorhomes #1

Not much fun being woken up at 2 am with the horn blaring and hazard lights flashing.  The motorhome is parked on the drive and has interior sensors and door alarms but when I checked in the morning I could see no reason for the alarm to be triggered.  A bit worrying as we leave it in storage for up to a month at a time.

Does anybody know what might set it off and, also, will it eventually reset or does it carry on until the batteries are flat?

Comments

  • triky auto
    triky auto Forum Participant Posts: 8,690
    1000 Comments
    edited June 2017 #2

    wink Hi Hitch'  this used to happen to one of my vehicles if a Spider or Mozzie got in !! Spray inside with a good 'killer' ,check all the little corners and hiding places !! 

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited June 2017 #3

    As Tricky says and put slow release "bug"killer in when storing

  • Snowy1
    Snowy1 Forum Participant Posts: 263
    edited June 2017 #4

    Hi Colin,

    triky-auto has a good point about insects etc. as far as I'm aware, all modern electronic Alarm Systems (home or vehicle etc) auto-reset after they have timed out, some display which area/zone had triggered the alarm. No, in my opinion, it will not flatten the battery unless the cause keeps re-triggering the alarm on a constant basis if you know what I mean.

    Regarding the Interior sensors, often, the sensitivity can be adjusted and the pulse count too, it might be worth investigating this. Sometimes the door and bonnet alarm switches are affected by temperature, in other words, if the switch is not adjusted correctly and it’s riding on the edge of its contact point, as the vehicle body heats up and cools down due to ambient surrounding temperatures which causes expansion & contraction, this can trigger the alarm. Possible cure, adjust the switch or slightly bend the housing or bracket of the switch.

    Hope this helps

    Kind regards

    Colin

     

  • Snowy1
    Snowy1 Forum Participant Posts: 263
    edited June 2017 #5

    PS, forgot to mention, sometimes a dodgy or possible incorrectly adjusted door or bonnet switch can be detected by arming the vehicle and then pushing down hard and sharply upon the vehicle bonnet & doors if you know what I mean, as the pressure of pushing is released, this can trigger the alarm. This method does not always work if the ambient temperature etc at the time of testing is not similar to that of when the alarm was last falsely triggered.

     

  • KeithandMargaret
    KeithandMargaret Forum Participant Posts: 660
    500 Comments
    edited June 2017 #6

    I also agree about the insect problem and a soft brush wiped across the sensors should disturb any cobwebs or dust lurking near them.

    Does your alarm has a motion sensor facility?

    It was a bit draughty last night when I walked the dog around midnight and a gust of wind may have triggered the alarm..

     

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
    1000 Comments
    edited June 2017 #7

    Many thanks for the suggestions above.  Will check insects plus all the other things mentioned.  Managed to dig out the instructions and it seems that there is an auto-recycle of the alarm so that it keeps checking then after nine alarms it will exclude the item that set it off so it seems to preclude continual alarms.

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