seriously thinking of having a security system and immobiliser fitted...any advice would be welcomed.
yup , disconnect yer coil , remove the main dissy lead, have a quick release conn. on your batt. and use it .a serious chain running between your pedal and steering wheel is a must >>little cost , time critical theft potential , worked so far for this guy , best wishes !
I recommend an engine bay lock and a stop lock attached to the pedels. And doing the above as mentioned by Skint. Then the usual immobiliser devices and GPS type systems. It's horses for courses and depends on your budget. I wouldn't worry about "woo woo" alarms because no one pays any attention to them these days. A tracker by Tracker with fitting and life subscription will cost £750. You can get GPS systems for much less and they are just as effective.
^^^^^^^^ what he said^^^^^^^^ You can get vehicle trackers now for about £45 on flea jay. Have heard they are pretty good.
First step, engine lid lock as Birdy says. Second, always engage the standard steering lock, if you've got one. Hefty aftermarket steering lock's a visible deterrent. Cheap & cheerful: remove the dissy rotor & stick it in your pocket. The GPS systems work well, but take about 2 seconds to disable (by a couple of methods) if they're not well installed.
As said these van are simple if you can get to the engine bay all you need is 1m of cable and a screw driver and you can start the van bypassing the most expensive immobiliser. Physical barriers are the best park a car in front/behind and a wheel clamp is good
Matty isn't wrong. We've had one or two buses in that have had to have some form of hot wiring done to them for this that or other. It's really not rocket science of I'm honest. It's why I'm such a bully when people bring them in with no devices of any kind fitted. I don't mean to, it's just that I'm passionate about these things
Oh my word. With in the spar of an hour my friend had his Mercedes 124 stationwagon stolen from the street. Must have gone between 20.10 - 21.10. It was outside 2 houses and under street lights. There was however no visual deterrent. They make a difference. Get something visual.
Most trackers use a GSM signal to communicate (in effect a text message) and a GPS signal to locate themselves. Thieves use GSM jammers - they are doing this more widespread for other sorts of crime so the sale and use of these is being clamped down on. The story about underground carparks and steel containers mostly blocks the GPS signal, and can effect the GSM signal too. If you have a monitored system (i.e. the expensive ones with a subscription and manned monitoring station), as soon as the signal is jammed the monitoring station will contact you and you can then alert based on the last known location (at least you know pretty much instantly something is going on). Depending on how often a system polls (i.e. either the monitoring system sends a check message to the tracker, or vice versa) the accuracy of this can be affected e.g. if you poll once a day, the [glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow] that no contact can be made to the jammed system can mean its been gone for up to 24hrs before you realise it (if it senses its moving, its being jammed from contacting you, so the much vaunted geo fencing is useless when being jammed), obviously this error is worse if its once monthly. Most thieves don't use this technology for car crime as it blocks their phones too. Better GSM/GPS systems use something called Serf4 chips which need ultra low signal access to get a location - so once the thieves switch the jammer off the tracker should poll as good ones are aware of when they are being jammed and keep sending location signals (poor GPS location chips mean cheap systems just conclude they have no location signal so don't send location update communications). Tracker (i.e. brand name Tracker) uses RF technology - so they use a network of radio receivers/transmitters to locate themselves and communicate and can't be jammed by the GSM jammers. They are comparatively expensive is why the other systems are more popular. Tracker is also no use abroad on on ferries etc - GSM signals can be traced wherever there are mobile phone networks. So - if you do have a cheaper GSM tracker make sure you have the thing set to poll regularly and understand that the Police WILL NOT recover your vehicle unless you can confirm its been taken without your consent and in effect you can see it and are following it - the monitored systems have recovery by the police as part of the package (people need to understand this - similar to Police do not respond to burglar alarms unless you phone and tell them the burglars are still in the house - whereas they do respond to monitored burglar alarm systems). Finally - where you hide the thing matters bigtime - the better hidden the better chance of it still functioning when the signal jammer is switched off. If you put a Thatcham Category 2 immobiliser on your bus, it will have in effect the same protection as all UK car's have since 1996 - and should therefore be as hard to steal (if fitted correctly). Physical deterrent - those whole steering covering Stoplock locks are good, and for longer term there are ex dvla wheel clamps on ebay for around £80.
To add a bit more background on cheap GPS/GSM trackers, I bought one for a friend an set it up for him, he has a dog walking business and some of them run off. There are two methods of communication, SMS and GPRS. SMS obviously can communicate with you directly and give you a location on demand. GPRS is a server based solution that is more suitable for tracking and ongoing monitoring. The tracker makes a connection to a server and uploads information, using this you can have a much shorter polling interval which may be useful. You log onto a web site to view the way points and current location. I wonder how effective jammers are and if you could shield your tracker so it had a view of the sky but was shielded from the inside of the van where the jammer is likely to be. At the end of the day we have little choice - either stump up for the cost of Tracker (tm) or buy a cheap one and hope for the best. I wonder what the recovery rate is for both systems?
i have one of these - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW-HEAVY-DUTY-WHEEL-CLAMP-TRAILER-LOCK-CARAVAN-CAR-SECURITY-/130765595199?pt=UK_Car_Accessories_Safety_Security&hash=item1e723ca23f - less than £20 and very easy to get on and off and store.
