BUYING a caravan or motorhome is a major expense.
How galling it must be to find your pride and joy broken into or stolen, especially as insurers are reluctant to pay out on lost contents without proper receipts. This is why it makes sense to fit a sophisticated alarm, preferably in conjunction with a tracking device, to ensure rapid recovery in the unlikely event that a thief will get through the first level of security.
One system which ticks all the boxes is a new product from Yorkshire company ‘Outsmart the Thief Limited’. Their Sold-Secure, TÜV and CE approved ‘Defender’ system was fitted to our Ford Transit campervan earlier this year, and we’re well pleased with it. Defender is made to Outsmart’s design by Italian specialist company Gemini Technologies, using Siemens components. Ours was installed at our home by Outsmart’s managing director, Carl Meyer, a friendly and most knowledgeable chap.
When laid out on the kitchen table, there seems little to the kit – a modest cable loom, a couple of remote fobs, two dongles and a Black Box containing the magic. The very tidy installation took only a couple of hours as most equipment is wireless; only a tiny dashboard dongle-park, and discreet ultrasonic, door, and the PIR motion sensors are visible.
How can ‘Defender’ protect your van? Put simply, it combines alarm and tracker functions. The alarm defends the perimeter, sounding a siren if a door is opened, whilst sensors detect a change of air pressure (as when a window is opened) or a shift in the van – wind buffet is ignored. Moreover, a night-time setting enables secure sleep without triggering the alarm. If the siren sounds, Outsmart has its own monitoring station which immediately calls the owner on home or mobile phone, so they can call the police.
If a thief tries to steal the van, Defender really comes into play. With the alarm activated, the engine won’t start until the alarm is de-activated by the key-fob. If the thief found and destroyed the black box, then the vehicle wouldn’t start until Outsmart returned to fix it. Tamper with the vehicle battery when the alarm is active, and the Monitoring Station is alerted, but with the alarm switched off, the battery can be changed easily.
Should thieves steal your keys, (an increasingly common scenario these days), they must deactivate the alarm before starting-up. When the owner discovers the theft, he contacts the Monitoring Station, which tracks the vehicle and liases with the authorities.
Here’s the ‘Unique Selling Point’ – Outsmart can arrange with the constabulary to immobilise the vehicle as soon as it comes to a halt at a safe place, such as a road junction, for instance. The engine switches off and won’t start again until the police ask Outsmart to release it. This is a clever feature that avoids dangerous chases, with the attendant risks of damage or injury.
Of particular interest to caravan owners is Outsmart’s ‘Geo-fencing’ feature. Once armed, any change in location, say if the caravan is pushed, will alert the monitoring station, which will contact the owner to ascertain if the movement is lawful. If the caravan cable is plugged into a tow-car electric socket, the alarm sounds and all outside lights flash and again, the monitoring station is alerted.
We find the system simple to use, it has every feature we could wish for and peace of mind is included in the price. Supplied and fitted at your home, the Defender costs £649, with an additional monitoring cost of £95 per annum, or £395 for five years. For owners with a suitable alarm already fitted to their motorhome, the Defender Tracker can be fitted in conjunction with the existing alarm for £495 fitted. This will still allow the Safe Stop feature to be used.
By Andrew and Rona Bromley.
Some months ago we published a feature about the four main companies who supply tracking devices to the caravan industry. Since then we’ve come across another company which has recently entered the market with a state-of-the art system specifically designed for caravans. It’s produced by Outsmart the Thief Ltd and has so many features that we thought it would be worthwhile telling you about them.
The company has been in the tracking business for some 20 years although its monitoring centre was established several years before that, back in 1981. In addition to monitoring its own tracking units, the centre is also responsible for monitoring trackers of several other tracking companies.
The most important thing about the Defender is that it is pro-active and protects the caravan 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Any unauthorised movement, or interference with the alarm, such as cutting the wiring to the siren, automatically – and silently – alerts the monitoring centre which then contacts the owner via any of several landline or mobile phone numbers. Incidentally, the company always advises the owner not to attempt to recover the caravan himself but to contact the police and obtain a crime reference number which he then gives to the monitoring centre. It then takes over and liaises with the police keeping them informed of the location of the caravan, plus it’s speed and direction. Importantly too, the Defender enables caravans to be tracked not only throughout the UK, but throughout the EU and beyond.
Outsmart the Thief offers two systems for caravans: one for use with the caravan’s existing alarm, whilst the second is a complete system which includes the company’s own PIR alarm and 120 decibel siren. Recently, I was lucky enough to be able to see OTT’s managing director, Carl Meyer, install a tracker in a caravan which already had a sophisticated PIR alarm installed. The reason I say, sophisticated, is because the existing alarm included reed switches on the door, windows and even the fridge ventilator grill. At first I couldn’t understand why anyone would alarm a ventilator grill, but Carl told me it was because the thieves would remove it to cut the wiring to the siren – caravans with fridges fitted on the nearside, often have the siren fitted adjacent to them, he told me.
For obvious reasons, I can’t say where Carl fitted the tracker. However, I have always said that given 10-15 minutes I could find a tracker in any caravan you like to name. I was wrong! Carl hid his tracker so well, that I am totally convinced that no thief will ever find it unless he takes the caravan to bits. I cannot over-emphasise the importance of concealing the unit because I have been told of instances where thieves have had no problem in finding a tracker which they then ripped out so that when the police arrived all they found was the tracker lying on the ground where the caravan had been.
One of the first things I noticed about the Defender is that it is very small – about the size of a packet of cigarettes, although slightly thicker. But its size belies its features which include both a tow alert which triggers the siren when the caravan is plugged into the tow vehicle, and a dual tilt sensor, to detect fore and aft, and side to side movement. There is also a geo-fence facility which will silently alert the monitoring centre if the caravan is moved outside the perimeter of the geo-fence. Yet another feature actually enables the Defender to be armed even whilst you are in the caravan – during the night when you are asleep, for example, or if you leave your pet alone in the caravan.
Something which has always concerned me about tracking systems is how do you know they are working? In the case of Defender, if any fault develops, or the unit fails, the monitoring centre is alerted, and as part of the company’s policy, it will immediately arrange for a technician to visit the caravan and rectify the fault, or replace the tracker if necessary. Similarly, if the caravan battery runs down or is disconnected the Defender’s back-up battery takes over – and alerts the monitoring centre. However, the Defender’s current drain is so tiny that it would take several months before the caravan battery’s voltage dropped to the point where the back-up battery was needed. Two more features: the system can be activated direct from the monitoring centre if necessary; and activation is always silent – there is no audible sound to alert anyone, only the side lights flash.
Defender has been tested by Sold Secure to Gold standard, in addition to which it has also received European TUV accreditation – the highest award available. As a result, the majority of insurance companies give discounts ranging from 10 – 25 per cent when it is fitted to caravans. The unit comes with a two year parts and labour warranty, and importantly, is transferable from caravan to caravan and owner to owner.
The bespoke system – the one which comes complete with the PIR alarm – costs £649 supplied and fitted, whilst the basic system for use with an existing caravan alarm is £495. In both cases, monitoring is £95 per year, or £395 for five years.
Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that there is also a dedicated Defender for motorhomes. It has all the features mentioned, plus an additional one which enables the monitoring centre to switch the engine off when it is safe to do so, after which the thieves cannot restart it – even with the key.
Douglas King, Technical editor.