Tracker

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DGY

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My T6 comes with the standard alarm but I'm looking at installing a Tracker; its a big investment. Is it a DIY job or specialist? Can anyone supply recommended companies operating in NE England.

It may be a daft question but having tried to sleep in a car with an alarm fitted only to be woken up a number of times as it alarmed can the T6 have its alarmed switched off when you are asleep?
 
If it's a high line with factory alarm there is a button on the B pillar beside drivers seat that disables interior sensor, it's documented in the manual
 
Back2you tracker not expensive easy to install.
 
Pauly said:
If it's a high line with factory alarm there is a button on the B pillar beside drivers seat that disables interior sensor, it's documented in the manual
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Many thanks, I pick the vehicle up next week so haven't read the book yet chers
 
Trackers as in products that tell you where the vehicle is and has been using GPRS (small packets of data across mobile networks) to send small data packets every 30 to 60 seconds with the vehicle speed, location, ignition state and other data as customised.
There are some cheep eBay special type devices that use SMS to send this data but they are stand alone and send it to you direct rather than communicating to a server. I think SMS are about 15p per message these days so costs can soon mount up and there is no data security or integeraty should you wish to review at a later date.
The former are fairly accurate and cost from around £10-30per month though there are huge disparities in the service and the quality of the software depending on provider. Downside is that with the right kit GSM networks can be blocked relatively easily and found and ripped out even easier.

Tracker as a company do all of the above along with using UHF to transmit a signal that can be detected by police forces from the 4 aerials on the roof of most traffic cars.

What's the concern and procived risk your attempting to mitigate?

I use several devices and occasionally sell a OBD plug in device that tracks and sends basic telematics along with vehicle faults to a server that you can view from a online portal. They are quite good bang for buck, not purchased any in a few months but I'll did the details out and post them up later with some costings.
 
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I don't think the police have the time or inclination to do vehicle recovery for insurance companies to be honest.
If you can tell them where it is, they will go to it...

Plus with all these things if the thief is determined enough they will shield it from all RF.

But, used in conjunction with other preventative measures will firstly get you insurance and hopefully deter it from disappearing altogether.

one feature I like with the back2you is the ability to send it a "Stop" code to cut the engine...
 
Loz said:
I don't think the police have the time or inclination to do vehicle recovery for insurance companies to be honest.
If you can tell them where it is, they will go to it...
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Agreed. Have a look at CanTrack Asset - they employ their own investigators to do the tracking. Easy to self install with relatively small annual maintenance charge. Asset Tracking and Theft Recovery
 
Davenjo said:
Agreed. Have a look at CanTrack Asset - they employ their own investigators to do the tracking. Easy to self install with relatively small annual maintenance charge. Asset Tracking and Theft Recovery
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Coincidentally, I saw a a story on a couple of Facebook groups earlier today about a Hymer Motorhome going missing overnight - just seen an update saying it has already been recovered thanks to a Cantrack device
 
Has having can track fitted lowered insurance for anyone or is it a piece of mind thing?
 
Ed Webb said:
Has having can track fitted lowered insurance for anyone or is it a piece of mind thing?
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As well as piece of mind, in my case it was a condition of insurance that I had a tracker fitted - went for this one as it was being recommended by the Camping and Caravan Club who I insure with.

I've had a bit of an issue with my battery that only cropped up a few weeks ago - I thought I was on target to get about 7 or 8 years out of it but they changed the algorithms used to calculate and I lost about 40% overnight.

Apparently I had it configured badly (silly me for making use of some of the reporting options available!!). Had the algorithms been working correctly I would have spotted something wrong much sooner and sorted before losing 60% of my battery!!). I have now stripped all of the reporting out and just get a daily wake up email telling me where the van is. My battery has remained at 40% since the change.

As it stands, I am monitoring the rate of battery depletion and will probably renew the contract in October but until I am confident that its depleting at a rate that means I will still get another 3 or 4 years out of the unit I no longer feel able to recommend the product.
 
Honest review thank you. Instead of having an email each day is it possible to request an email during the unfortunate event of a theft to avoid the chance of having to wait 23 hours for the next email.
 
Ed Webb said:
Honest review thank you. Instead of having an email each day is it possible to request an email during the unfortunate event of a theft to avoid the chance of having to wait 23 hours for the next email.
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That is pretty much what I had configured it to do via logging any movement of the van every 10 minutes whilst in motion to give me an idea where it had gone - still would only report once per day (could set up to report as many times as you want but that would all eat up battery).

It does not work in the same way as, say, a Cat 5 tracker (which I have on another vehicle), and I think once you get your head around that its still a decent alternative product and much less susceptible to jamming and or being found (if its not broadcasting 24/7 there is no signal for them to trace in the van) - its just that its still bleeding edge technology and the advertised battery life is not realistic given all of the reports and activations that you would reasonably expect to configure.

I'm not against the tracker or the technology behind how it works but disappointed that the battery depleted so quickly and they have not offered me a new unit to replace.
 
They do offer an extended battery model but there is no reference to how long it lasts though. From what I've seen it doesn't seem a bad concept and is tempting. I'm sure an email in the morning is best placed, if vehicle is stolen at night it would be a good time to get a report. I shall just do some more research into possibly cat 5 trackers but they all seem double the price of cantrack. It's tough as you hope to never need it but you'd be grateful the day you wake up to an empty drive.
 
Ed Webb said:
They do offer an extended battery model but there is no reference to how long it lasts though. From what I've seen it doesn't seem a bad concept and is tempting. I'm sure an email in the morning is best placed, if vehicle is stolen at night it would be a good time to get a report. I shall just do some more research into possibly cat 5 trackers but they all seem double the price of cantrack. It's tough as you hope to never need it but you'd be grateful the day you wake up to an empty drive.
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I have the extended battery version!

The downside of cat 5 trackers is that you need a separate fob which if you leave with your keys and/or in the vehicle would probably give your insurers a get out of jail free card if you had declared such a tracker on your insurance. Also, as you say, initial outlay is £700+ with circa £200 per annum ongoing contract fees. This is what made the Cantrack, in conjunction with other layers of security, attractive to me over another Cat 5.
 
Im having an autowatch ghost imobiliser installed next week, it uses your steering wheel buttons as pin code and won't start if not enteted, so even with the keys can't be knicked
 
Hickey said:
Im having an autowatch ghost imobiliser installed next week, it uses your steering wheel buttons as pin code and won't start if not enteted, so even with the keys can't be knicked
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Good bit of kit - takes a bit of getting used to though - I got caught out a few times when I first got the van and forget to enter the code before attempting to start (usually when refuelling) - you have to take the keys out and wait circa 30 seconds before trying again.
 
Spoke to Brentacre today, fitting a tracker won't benefit your premium unless your vehicle is valued at over £45000. It would need to be Thatcham 5.
 
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