Hi everybody, we're back with another van life security post and this time we are covering our favourite GPS tracker.
Van and Campervan theft on the rise across the country it has never been more important to protect your pride and joy. The best case scenario would be to prevent the theft from happening in the first place so you don't have to go through the stress of it however is a skilled criminal wants to steal your pride and joy he will always find a way and this would be devastating for you.
For more info on how to prevent your van being stoled please check out this blog post
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Although GPS trackers do have their downsides and the same skilled criminal I mentioned above will easily find them and remove them however they are your best chance of ever seeing your vehicle again if it does get taken.
There are also few things we can do to make them more effective like hide them somewhere hard to get to and hide the wires. This way even if they can see them it might take them a few mins to get to it and remove it. it might put them off or buy you enough time to see the last location before it gets pulled.
If you have a leisure battery in the back of your vehicle you could wire it to that and hide it out of the way. Again this will buy you extra time as the first place anybody will look will be the starter battery, fuse box, engine bay etc. If you could disguise it as something else even better.
You could even secure it to the underside of one of your solar panels mounted to your roof and run the power cables to your leisure battery fuse box. Who would expect that? The possibilities are endless.
If the worst does happen and somebody does manage to steal your pride you really need to act fast. The faster you act the more likely you are to get your vehicle back.
If your van has just been stolen then you need to call the police straight away, tell them your vehicle has been stolen and it is still on the move and you are following it on your tracker app. Police love action, chases and above all making high energy arrests, they don't like paperwork and investigating or solving anything boring so it is your best chance to get the police interested in it at all. If it is still moving and you can direct them to it they will love it.
If your van was stolen in the night and it took you a few hours to notice there is a good chance that it won't be moving anymore. But don't worry you may still have a chance to get it back.
Most thieves won't have the sophisticated equipment that can scan for your tracker and if you have hidden it well they probably won't have found it. What they do is park the vehicle up somewhere with no connection to them so they can keep an eye on it and see if it is being tracked. They will normally leave it for a few days before going back to it when they know the coast is clear.
All you need to do in this situation is log into the app and see where it is parked and call the police on 999 and tell them you have just noticed your van has been stolen but you can see where it is and it isn't moving. Hopefully they will send somebody on blues straight away. Do not ring them and tell them that it is stolen before you have tracked it as they will be less than helpful. They might send somebody to have a look in a few hours or so. If the police are not interested in going them get a posse together and head to the location with your keys and steal it back. I shouldn't imagine anybody will try and stop you but it is always good to have company if they do. They might have damaged the ignition when stealing it so you might have to sit with it and call the police when you are there so some friends to play I spy with will come in handy.
If the worst of the worst happens and your vehicle is stolen, you don't notice for a while, they manage to park up, find the tracker and remove the tracker then your chances of getting your van back are really starting to fade away fast however there are a few things that can be done. You can look on the app at the last registered location before it was pulled out. This means you can contact the relevant local police and ask them to be on the lookout for it. You can also post to facebook groups etc local to the last seen location and get the public to keep an eye out for it and to call the police if they see it or you could simply gather up your posse and go look for it yourselves... Don't forget your keys.
Another problem is people breaking into your van to steal stuff instead of your van, to see one of the scary methods they use and how to stop it please check out our youtube video below.
So with that all being said and the title of the blog post being The Best GPS Tracker For Van Life - No Monthly Subscription we have a clear favourite to recommend to you.
Our recommendation is the GPS BOB because...
They have live tracking and your live location updates every 30 secs
They will store all of your location history data for 30 days
You can add multiple trackers to the same tracking panel, this is perfect for multiple vehicle households or families. Even personal trackers for children and vulnerable people can be added to the same panel so you can keep track of them when needed. (please see picture below)
And most importantly It is a one off payment at the start and then you don't have to pay a monthly subscription at all
This means it works out about £150 to buy the tracker and for the first 5 years of data.then all you have to do is top up your data when it runs out and it is good to go for another 5 years
With other brands you need to buy the tracker for about £50 then pay at least £10 per month so after 5 years it will have cost you over £650. Obviously a huge difference!
We can actually recommend two of their units as we have been testing them out over the past year or so. They are the two that would be the hardest to find, obviously we don't recommend their OBD port model as it is way too easy to find and remove and you don't even need to be a master criminal to do it. The ones we recommend can be wired directly to your starter battery, leisure battery, fuse box etc so they are easy to hide.
2G VERSION (WORKS IN UK AND EUROPE)
GPSBob FMT100 12/24v Wired GPS Tracker, All Inclusive, No Monthly Fees, No Subscriptions, One Off Fee, 5 Years Service Included, Car, Van, Truck, Caravan, Motorhome Tracker, Plug and Play
Amazon - https://amzn.to/3t1HrzC
Ebay - https://ebay.us/fzPgPX
4G VERSION (FUTURE PROOF, WORKS IN UK, EU & WORLDWIDE)
GPSBob GB100MG 4G 12/24v Wired GPS Tracker, All Inclusive, No Monthly Fees, No Subscriptions, One Off Fee, 5 Years Service Included, Car, Van, Truck, Caravan, Motorhome Tracker, Plug and Play
Amazon - https://amzn.to/3fF8CNy
Ebay - https://ebay.us/sE6xWP
WEBSITE AND PHONE APPS
You can easily track your van at anytime from anywhere as long as you have a mobile device like your phone, tablet or computer and an internet connection. As soon as you are registered you can track it at anytime you like as many times as you like. This makes it handy for multiple reasons to not just crime. If you get lost and forget where you parked, get your phone out and locate it. If you are worried that a loved one that has got lost in your van, track it. If you want a loved one to be able to track your journey and keep an eye on your progress give them your log in details and let them track you mile by mile.
You are only limited by your imagination.
With the live tracking your live location updates every 30 secs
The will store all of your location history data for 30 days
You can add multiple trackers to the same tracking panel, this is perfect for multiple vehicle households or families.
Please find links below to the website and app store downloads
WEBSITE
(YOU WILL NEED THE IMEI AND PASSCODE FROM THE BOX TO REGISTER)
PHONE APPS
FOR MORE INFO ON THE GPSBOB PLEASE WATCH OUR BRAND NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO ABOUT THEM...
So that's it from us today we hope you all found it helpful, please keep scrolling for more van life related blog posts and youtube videos. If you like our content please consider subscribing to our youtube channel for weekly videos and to our blog mailing list so you can be notified when we post new content.
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