Security options for home & on the move

Looking for people's thoughts/recommendations on how best to avoid being unexpectedly relieved of my soon to be received pride & joy.

It's going to be stored on my drive, backed right up to a garage. The drive is slightly longer than the van but only by 1m/1.5m. The van is worth approx £7k so i'm quite prepared to pay for quality security, but need to look for best bang for buck, rather than maybe the out and out top of the range solutions. I'm anticipating 2 solutions, one purely for home, and a second which would be for home use & also more when out and about with it.

My immediate thoughts are that my primary concern is stopping it being nicked, rather than necessarily stopping it being broken into. Obviously that would still be a very bad show, but I don't anticipate leaving much of value in it when at home so would rather spend money on stopping it moving. It comes fitted with an immobiliser.

My initial thoughts are to go for a security post bolted into the driveway, and then either a disklok for the steering wheel, or a wheel clamp. In addition I might look for a tracker that I can hide away in a cupboard.

Visible deterrents for the most part, and stuff that is hopefully noisy and slow-ish for a thief to overcome.

Thoughts, advice & recommendations? If you have experience of using these solutions, are there any brands/models that you can recommend? For example Screwfix sell 4 different security posts but none have reviews available so no idea if they're worth the money or not. And no idea yet if Disklok do anything big enough?

Thanks in advance

Dave

Disklok and wheel clamp would be cheap (ish) and very visual, added advantage you can take them with you to use on sites/aires

What Ian said, but I would take only the disklok on our travels - unless you intend to do a lot of off piste camping.

It's very unlikely the van would be nicked from a pukka campsite, and in my opinion the disklok is plenty of deterrent.

A good alarm system is also a possibility, although I have to say we find ours most useful when on an aire in France (or similar off piste spots) when it gives us peace of mind for a good night's sleep. Ours is a Growler [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which is not cheap, but very visible if you have extra flashing neons fitted on all sides, and if anyone did break in it would wake innocent residents for several miles around. (I exaggerate only slightly!!)

Dave

As others have said a disclock or slightly cheaper stoplock pro which actually  beat disclock in independent  tests due to value is a good start. These will only give a 5 minute window to determined attack but give a visual deterrent. If Handy with electrics etc forget expensive alarms , a simple latching alarm and the biggest noisier sounder will wake the dead and put any thief off! Also a simple hidden  switch wired into a fuel or ignition cct will frustrate thieves trying to  make off with your pride and joy. You can have the  most expensive alarm system and  professionals will know how to defeat them easily , that is their profession / business and they are good at it!  the amateurs will simply cause damage and run off to easier pickings .
    Security post is a reasonable idea but only if buried / anchored 3 feet into reinforced concrete block over a wide area , a stolen 4x4 will quickly pull, out anything less with a chain in seconds. After all , its not their car so why worry about damage  ?  Get into this mindset and you will not go far wrong. 
         Without being cheeky , the professional will only target new high value Van's but it is the average ned/ tealeaf you need to  be concerned about  Simple low cost steps above will deter , defeat or simply scare off thieves as your whole street wakes up to the sound of armageddon!  Above all have decent insurance if it all goes wrong! 

Our Rienza came with a Fiamma dead lock on the outside of the habitation door so as a first move I fitted dead locks to the inside of the cab doors. I know this is no guarantee of keeping low life’s out but it is a start.
When we are at home there is a car parked across the top of the drive. The idea of having to move a car first before trying to reverse out of a very tight drive I hope will be a deterrent. 
As people have said a disc lock makes a good visible deterrent.

Present the thief with the unexpected... something homemade for instance. Trackers can be jammed, audible alarms ignored, wheel clamp and disklock cut, immobiliser overridden. Pedal lock box will slow them down. However, if they want it they’ll steal it as many have found out so go with reputable insurer not necessarily the cheapest.

Present the thief with the unexpected... something homemade for instance. Trackers can be jammed, audible alarms ignored, wheel clamp and disklock cut, immobiliser overridden. Pedal lock box will slow them down. However, if they want it they’ll steal it as many have found out so go with reputable insurer not necessarily the cheapest.

If it's a 1992 Trident you've got then in my view it's portable contents will have more value to a tea-leaf than them taking your van. A professional will seek out a higher value van to steal, then sell it on, or possibly export. You need though to deter the opportunist, and a disklok at least is visible and shows to others you mean business about security.

Remember to keep your motohome locked. I suspect that most motorhome thefts happen when they are parked on the owner's driveway, the theft of your motorhome's contents happen more when away, at a campsite or Aire, even when you're asleep.

Other suggestions I've read on here suggest parking your van in an awkward place, against a wall, perhaps driving front end into your drive and park up leaving the front wheels at an angle.

I've a disklok and pedal box lock at home and a modified clutch claw for when we're away. I did buy a Bulldog wheel clamp but I haven't used it yet. Will I ever?

Others have suggested getting a radio alarm to put in your van, you keep the receiver in your house, if anyone enters your van when parked on your driveway the alarm sounds in your house. There are loads available on Amazon and they are relatively cheap.

How long will it be parked on the driveway without being used at any one time?

If weeks, I'd personally remove the vehicle battery, and probably a wheel or two as well.

And/or a couple of the HT leads too (don't forget to label everything first!)

Looking at the vehicle age, it may not have a steering wheel airbag, or, indeed, radio controls. On my 1991 Renault Trafic Eribacar, I could remove the steering wheel, just one nut. If we went away on an aeroplane holiday I did just that and had a neighbour store the steering wheel for me!
If it has an airbag, don't even think about it!

I remember reading a report some time ago that said cars are less likely to be stolen from driveways if they're driven on rather than reversed. Apparently thieves don't do reversing.
Rich..

Dave, you may wish to consider on of these if your concern is theft of the camper

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

It has a removeable screw which you take out and a small continuation wire to keep van electrics happy. If anyone tries to start the engine, the fuse in the continuation wire blows and of course it just won't start. its a case of frustrating the thief so they go away. Its a bit of a pain remembering to remove it, especially in the rain but it could be worth considering.

One aspect people haven't covered is your house security.

As others have said, you shouldn't be too high a target as it's not a highly prized van, but one the increasing ways they like to steal vehicles is an easy break-in of the property to grab the keys and then simply drive off.

This solves a lot of problems for them.  Most people keep the keys for disklocks and other things on the same keyring as the van, so they instantly have the means to remove the additional items you put on and turn off alarms etc via the fob.

If you haven't already get a house alarm and make sure your door and window locks are up to scratch, especially things like old Euro locks that are snapped and removed in seconds, or UPVC doors that they simply blowtorch and the lock falls out.

No need to live in fear, just have a common sense approach to keeping them at bay.  The best security is to simply keep it in a storage location.  This has an added cost but usually offset slightly with cheaper insurance and peace of mind.  This also has the benefit that a van that is regularly on the driveway is a good way for them to see whern you've gone away in it, leaving the house empty for breaking in.  Having it in storage means there's no longer a visual indicator of this.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. After weighing everything up, and given my knowledge (or lack of) of electrics etc, I think i'm going to go with disklok & clutch claw as best bang for buck options, and quite possibly install a security post too, though i'm weighing that up as it might even attract attention.

Thanks for the tips on home security, i'm already well into the habit of having keys for different locks squirrelled away in different and less obvious places. For example the key for the bike lock doesn't go anywhere near other sets of house or car keys.

Thanks again