Van Bitz alarm. We are having our second one fixed 10th April. Its not cheap but its exactly what you want. Can also be used when you sleep in it overnight too.
http://www.vanbitz.com/

 

A bit of an aside .... my Renault van has two settings for the intruder alarm one setting (normal) uses a PIR in the cab area and will detect the motion of my dogs if they stray from their dog beds. The other setting is for when you lock it but leave animals/people in, or set it whilst inside. When I set it normally the other day my dogs triggered it and it went off when I was a short distance away. When I returned the sight of a dog sitting on each of the front seats trying to convey the impression that they didn't do it had me bent over laughing.

Regards Frank

 

We have a Cobra Thatcham 1 that you can turn off the zone detectors while you are inside but the doors and lockers are still covered

Hugh

 

We've got a 'Sparkrite' alarm from Halfords, apart from alarming all the doors, it has a motion detector but you can make it insensitive for when you are asleep in van...in case you turn over violently.

Texas

 

The VAN BITZ Strikeback alarm is GREAT.

This is our 5th MH and have had one on 4 of them. Did have a Brownhills SIGMA one but that kept going OFF everytime it became windy!!!!

So it was back to the Van Bitz one..........we can set it for normal or doggy/sleep mode. Easy too...........the Sigma one had to turn key in ignition, then press fob. Also when starting had to use alarm fob now just put key in ignition and off we go. (after turning off the alarm of course :wink: )

 

Thank you

Thank you for all the replies, I have a couple of questions though!

Can anyone give me a ball park figure of what the Van Bitz alarm may cost? Same goes for the Thatcham alarm?

Also what security would you recommend for the side door? I've been reading the forums and realise that basically alarms are to prevent people stealing the van but that we would be wise to have additional security to prevent opportunist thiefs. We are considering buying the web strap that goes from the passenger to drivers door and have also considered the Bar that goes across the side door, that also acts as a handle for getting in and out of the van, but would we be better to go for something that is fixed inside so it's harder to tamper with?

Our last van came with an alarm so this is all a bit new to us. Thanks for all your help.

 

£575 for van bitz. That is what we had lat time. This covers the doors and one locker. This time we are going to add the devils wail. This is the price list. We wild camp and will not go if we did not have this alarm

http://www.vanbitz.com/products.cfm?cfid=1864415&cftoken=27871887&mode=productlist&catID=4

The only thing with the webbing is that thieves will probably be prepared and cut it anyway. Abroad, they tend to take the quarter light out on the cab doors.

Dent really see the use of the bar across door because I assume that you would have to lock this from outside if you were sleeping inside.

 

I think most are Thatcham 1 the Cobra cost us £499 thats for 2 lockers doors, 1 x House door, cab doors and the 2 motion detectors you can add another 2 sensors if required

Hugh

 

Hi, Thatham recommend that you use a member of the VSIB to install your alarm check their web site on www.vsib.co.uk you can then find the nearest member to where you are ?

Vehicle Systems Installation Board. The VSIB is the National Regulatory and Accreditation body for Vehicle Systems Installers

you could fit your own alarm then if it had a fault while you were away you could repair it yourselves ? just a thought and perhaps a lot cheaper ?

 

Thanks again! Only two choices left now

Hi, we are getting there slowly. Have now narrowed it down to two option, the first being the Van Bitz alarm which appears to come highly recommended, only slight snag is we would have to go to Devon to have it fitted but they have told us they have camping facilities on site.

The second is the Thatcham Cobra 2 alarm, which our dealers can arrange to get fitted for us, however I have to admit I've been a bit put off as it's just taken me 4 phone calls to confirm that it definetly has an option to switch off the internal movement sensor. Also they kept going on about if the side door was not made of metal then was talking about wireless transmitters as £100 each and saying that the magnetic switches weren't much good. So far Van Bitz have proven to be the best, when I rang them then had answers to all my questions and it only took a couple of minutes to work out what we wanted.

We've also decided to go for the Bar that fits across the side door, this is mainly for security when we are not in the motorhome, it's in storage some of the time and will be useful as a handle to help get in and out of the van.

I should explain that we are a mother and daughter team, me being in my 30's and mother being a bit older! We've had a 5 berth motorhome for the last year, but my grandmother is moving down to live with us and has decided to come away with us in the motorhome so we've had to upgrade to a 6 berth, she is 84 and fit as a fiddle with only slight hearing loss. Our last van came with security already on it, this one is less than 3 years old with nothing added, which suprised us somewhat.

But we are getting there. Thanks for all your suggestions and advice. I think this forum is an excellent service for motor home owners.

 

Hi TravelBug

If you book your Strikeback through www.outdoorbits.com you will get a the Van Bitz Battery Master fitted FOC this unit is normally £69.95 if fitted at the same time as Strikeback and or £99.00 if fitted as a separate install. The Battery Master will allow the security system to share the load of the security system (and any other queisecent device such as radio memory for example) between the leisure battery and the engine battery. If you need more information about Battery Master you can find that on Outdoorbits as well

Just for the record, Wire free sensors! we don't use them because they will not work if used in conjunction with any other device transmitting on 433.92 Mhz The list of other devices includes car alarm remote controls, paging systems garage and drive remotes In short anything that is licence exempt. So in effect useless! IE Hold a remote button down while opening the door will 'jam' the signal sent from the switch and stop the alarm triggering!

Hard wired magnetic contact switches on the other hand are used in the millions in domestic and commercial security systems very reliably

outdoorbits.com

 

Travelbug, I whole-heartedly agree with the folks recommending the Van Bitz Strikeback installation. No, it's not cheap, especially if you link it to a tracker as we did. BUT - What price peace of mind? Also, I'd go with the 'Devil's Wail' siren 8O 8O It's as loud as its name suggests! Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but (for insurance purposes) a Thatcham category A alarm *must* be fitted professionally??

Incidentally, we had ours fitted here:

http://www.jmbadditions.com/

along with air-con and a 60W solar panel, and I can really recommend Mike's work: not a wire to be seen, and everything works perfectly. It's good to be able to praise firms, rather than criticising them, for a nice change.