Alternative methods for securing motorhome on driveway

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Good Evening

I’m looking for information and opinions on a driveway security post or similar. We are considering keeping our motorhome on the drive instead of £60 a month storage.
Would like some kind of lockable structure that goes into the ground?
Or would you suggest another method of security, at a similar cost. We already have a steering wheel disk lock.
Your thoughts are invited!

Thanks

Phil in Northampton
 
Good Morning
Final update on our security posts, as already mentioned ordered from Bollard Security, initial call and spoke with the chap who actually owned the company, that’s always reassuring.
Arranged a fitting day that suited us, a week later.
Good communication from fitter, a few days before and on the day keeping us informed of schedule.
Job completed in about an hour or so, fully explained, all cleaned up. Very impressed and can fully recommend.
Many different options to choose from and no pressure selling.

Phil in Northampton View attachment 849067
Looking good.... However a word of caution , if I may,
My BIL had similar fitted to his driveway and after a while they started jamming up to the point he could not get his car out one morning...
The reason was the small chips on his driveway( as you have ), despite him meticulously trying to keep them away, eventually found their way into the ground socket and subsequently jammed the post in position.. 👍
 
Upvote 1
Good Evening

I’m looking for information and opinions on a driveway security post or similar. We are considering keeping our motorhome on the drive instead of £60 a month storage.
Would like some kind of lockable structure that goes into the ground?
Or would you suggest another method of security, at a similar cost. We already have a steering wheel disk lock.
Your thoughts are invited!

Thanks

Phil in Northampton
Personally i will stick with the storage at a similar cost. We suffer locally more than our fare share of travellers, I know a couple of caravans and a motorhome that have mysteriously disappeared off of drives at night, despite a plethora of security devices, never to be seen again by their rightful owners. Peace of mind and a reduction of the insurance premium as a result of my secure storage makes it the easier option for me.
 
Upvote 0
I have a steering wheel lock to brake pedal ( probably 2 minutes to remove by Thief)
Around the front suspension leg and through the front o/s wheel I have a heavy high tensile chain with a high tensile heavy unpickable pad lock

IMG_20230915_124334811_HDR.jpg

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The best option by far is to make your garage bigger 👌

View attachment 850265

I rebuilt the back wall to make the garage 900mm longer and put a new roof on adding I think 800mm. You can see the old height inside on the photo.

Cost about £2.5k in 2014
What I have converted mine into a study and storeroom
 
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The best option by far is to make your garage bigger 👌

View attachment 850265

I rebuilt the back wall to make the garage 900mm longer and put a new roof on adding I think 800mm. You can see the old height inside on the photo.

Cost about £2.5k in 2014

View attachment 850267
Where does the top section of the door disappear to?

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I was told always drive into any parking space forwards.

Having to reverse out makes it more difficult for the scroates. So, they will go find an easier target.

Also suggested to put the towing eye into place with a chain to something solid.
I could do that, there is already a concreted raised metal clamping point left by the previous caravan owner. My concern is that the eye would strip if you reversed with it still connected. When my previous van was stolen, the main theory is that they easily broke into the van with a screwdriver, manually broke the steering lock, pushed the van backwards down the slight slope into the road, turned it downhill, ran it downhill, pulled out the dashboard ignition cables, started the engine by connecting the broken cable and started it while still rolling. They then turned into the main road, followed by the car they arrived in. At some point they would stick false number plates, and the whole thing would have taken just minutes. So they wouldn't have worried about stripping the towing eye, with a nice 130 bhp multijet!!
 
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PS, Ex-Chief Superintendent lives 4 doors down, not blaming him!! but LAST NIGHT two doors up had back door kicked in, old lady in bed, two people ransacked the house with her awake! This is a seemingly quiet almost posh area. These guys have NO FEAR!! It could easily have been the same people that stole my van. That van was only on the drive a few hours, so someone was watching.
 
Upvote 0
Good Evening

I’m looking for information and opinions on a driveway security post or similar. We are considering keeping our motorhome on the drive instead of £60 a month storage.
Would like some kind of lockable structure that goes into the ground?
Or would you suggest another method of security, at a similar cost. We already have a steering wheel disk lock.
Your thoughts are invited!

Thanks

Phil in Northampton

Why not simply unplug the fuel injector rail
 
Upvote 0
5 or 6 of these at 5T a piece is cheapest option.
Concrete-Security-Blocks.jpg


Hidden battery isolator ?
Got one of those.& a steering lock,
tracker,
12mmm stainless steel bars through B pillar into both door frames,
always double locked
dead locks on the outside cab doors.
internal rear upper & lower shoot bolts,
external rear door milenco locks.

side door milenco lock,
side door anti peel upper rear lock & side door upper location pin to prevent peeling at front end
Where does the top section of the door disappear to?
I believe that it hinges in wards if I remeber from when it was posted before?
Why not simply unplug the fuel injector rail
I might add that to the list😂
 
Upvote 0
I do the usual steering disc lock wheel clamp tracker and also spin driver seat around locked in rear facing position with a motorcycle disc brake lock through 10mm drilled hole in seat swivel base. Like tesco say every little helps🤞
 
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Where does the top section of the door disappear to?
I hinged it at the top so it swings up with rope and pulley to the ceiling inside. 😎

Edit : You can see the rope on the left tied off on the wall.
 
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Where do stolen motorhomes end up? I know that cars are broken for spares, cloned or exported but a R/h drive motorhome has limited appeal abroad, but would s/h fridges, cookers, boilers etc have enough market value to be worth stealing a whole motorhome and having somewhere to store it whilst being stripped out and the body disposed of?
 
Upvote 0
Where do stolen motorhomes end up? I know that cars are broken for spares, cloned or exported but a R/h drive motorhome has limited appeal abroad, but would s/h fridges, cookers, boilers etc have enough market value to be worth stealing a whole motorhome and having somewhere to store it whilst being stripped out and the body disposed of?
Locally we are blessed with a travellers site, its a no go area where our protectors rarely venture and then only en mass.
Not all travellers have a nomadic family and a sole traveller fits nicely into a motorhome,, could be one place they disappear to. I was working on mine on hardstanding front of house when the local " rag and bone man " passed by, on his return he, enquired nice van do you want to sell, the next day it went into secure storage, peace of mind, sleep at night not worrying if it would still be outside in the morning.

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From my own personal experience - no matter what you do, if they want to steal anything they will!
A year ago my Motorhome was stolen from in front of my house on the drive. It was locked, plus steering lock, connected to the ehu, driver's/passenger floor up and against passenger door. Tools laid out ready to finish off a b2b replacement warranty job. It was almost ready to be retaxed for the forthcoming trip to France!
How was it done?
They “just“ had to break into the house and find the keys!
At 06.15 this professional thief broke through the door lock system, a reasonably good one, this took a little while, found the keys and then it didn't matter what security I had fitted! All the time this was going on we were upstairs in bed.
At 06.45 after an attempt to start the engine with the ehu lead still attached and that warning going off, the ehu was removed. The van was then driven out of the road we live in, into the next cul-de-sac where it was probably made fully drivable, defrosted, false number plates fitted, seen by another motorhomer out walking his dog, and at 07.15 it was driven off!
I only realised it was missing from in front of the house at 09.45 too late for the police to do much! The police were however, within their limitations, very good and supportive, spending a lot of time with us.
With hindsight - do not leave keys near external doors, fit noisy alarms and immobiliser to van and house, cameras covering van and house doors. Get a big nasty dog!
Of course there is only so much you can do practically, and my military past had me planning watch towers, gun posts, security barriers, and my wife stood naked by the door all night! Scary!!!!
As the police said - if they want it, then they will take it!!

We were very badly effected by the experience and I wouldn't wish it on anyone!
 
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Locally we are blessed with a travellers site, its a no go area where our protectors rarely venture and then only en mass.
I was working on a roof near Grotport Airwick and a couple of guys hooked up a generator, loaded tools into their pickup and drove off with it all. I gave the police the reg'n number and description. They said they would be travellers from an established encampment near the airport but they only venture in there twice a year, en masse in riot gear so the best thing we could do was to notify the local newspaper who would publicise that people should be on guard. Hmm, I didn't as I wasn't keen to have them come back to harrass us.

I'll give you a clue:madder:
"Common Travel Area" (CTA)
I had to look that up but the CTA is a pretty small market. Surely a stolen m/h would trigger the ANPR as these folk wouldn't be able to tax and insure a stolen m /h.

1704141118083.png
 
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PS, Ex-Chief Superintendent lives 4 doors down, not blaming him!! but LAST NIGHT two doors up had back door kicked in, old lady in bed, two people ransacked the house with her awake! This is a seemingly quiet almost posh area. These guys have NO FEAR!! It could easily have been the same people that stole my van. That van was only on the drive a few hours, so someone was watching.
I was travelling back from reporting the van theft to the police in their main local connect hub (which was closed so we had to flag down a passing police van), but as we drove back past a traveller's illegal encampment I suggested we call in to see if my van was there. My local politician neighbour who was driving, said that no way would we be going in there! I guess that's life as it stands!
 
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I was working on a roof near Grotport Airwick and a couple of guys hooked up a generator, loaded tools into their pickup and drove off with it all. I gave the police the reg'n number and description. They said they would be travellers from an established encampment near the airport but they only venture in there twice a year, en masse in riot gear so the best thing we could do was to notify the local newspaper who would publicise that people should be on guard. Hmm, I didn't as I wasn't keen to have them come back to harrass us.


I had to look that up but the CTA is a pretty small market. Surely a stolen m/h would trigger the ANPR as these folk wouldn't be able to tax and insure a stolen m /h.

View attachment 850333
Where they go they dont pay any tax of any sort whatsoever. In fact they rarely pay for anything.

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Cold hard fact is that any security post that can be installed in under an hour can be removed in minutes with a strap and 4x4. Seen it done a few times, or the results of. Seen several where a car backed into them slowly by accident and left them at an angle. They are a visual deterrent with the security capability of a chocolate teapot.

We installed some posh cast iron ones at a church, as chosen by the architect. 6 months later we went back to replace the first one as a hearse had knocked it and it shattered. No damage to the hearse apparently. They were set in a 2ft cube of concrete with brick paviers on the top. It took a day to dig the concrete out. Couple of months later another was smashed and the church chose to replace with scaffold tube concreted into the hollow of the original then painted to match. I pass that church occasionally and most of the posts are now scaffold tubes. They have been there 20 years and still rock solid

My advice would be a ground anchor under the van with a heavy chain and two good padlocks. Drive over it then wrap chain round back axle and lock it. 2 minutes to lock or unlock but a noisy awkward job to get under the van with a grinder. Decent chain and locks can be bought that are nearly impossible to grind and would be way cheaper than a quality post and installation
 
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There has to be a limit. We shouldn't, as law abiding citizens, be living through this wild west sort of life. Police not interested in high value theft. I guess it sounds corny. Wealthy people (definitely not me), bleating about stolen stuff which they are lucky to have in the first place. It is not going to court public sympathy, so not really worth concentrating on, wasting public money. Let the victims sort it, or whatever. That's what it seems to me. It should not be so.

In reality, there's little that we, the victims, can do. After all, we are insured. For which we have to pay ever increasing premiums. Happy New Year 😀
 
Upvote 0
Cold hard fact is that any security post that can be installed in under an hour can be removed in minutes with a strap and 4x4. Seen it done a few times, or the results of. Seen several where a car backed into them slowly by accident and left them at an angle. They are a visual deterrent with the security capability of a chocolate teapot.

We installed some posh cast iron ones at a church, as chosen by the architect. 6 months later we went back to replace the first one as a hearse had knocked it and it shattered. No damage to the hearse apparently. They were set in a 2ft cube of concrete with brick paviers on the top. It took a day to dig the concrete out. Couple of months later another was smashed and the church chose to replace with scaffold tube concreted into the hollow of the original then painted to match. I pass that church occasionally and most of the posts are now scaffold tubes. They have been there 20 years and still rock solid

My advice would be a ground anchor under the van with a heavy chain and two good padlocks. Drive over it then wrap chain round back axle and lock it. 2 minutes to lock or unlock but a noisy awkward job to get under the van with a grinder. Decent chain and locks can be bought that are nearly impossible to grind and would be way cheaper than a quality post and installation
I used chains that are supplied to anchor ships at Felixstowe Docks ,and I assure you, you would need a good portable angle grinder to cut chain and lock. and a few discs.
 
Upvote 0
From my own personal experience - no matter what you do, if they want to steal anything they will!
A year ago my Motorhome was stolen from in front of my house on the drive. It was locked, plus steering lock, connected to the ehu, driver's/passenger floor up and against passenger door. Tools laid out ready to finish off a b2b replacement warranty job. It was almost ready to be retaxed for the forthcoming trip to France!
How was it done?
They “just“ had to break into the house and find the keys!
At 06.15 this professional thief broke through the door lock system, a reasonably good one, this took a little while, found the keys and then it didn't matter what security I had fitted! All the time this was going on we were upstairs in bed.
At 06.45 after an attempt to start the engine with the ehu lead still attached and that warning going off, the ehu was removed. The van was then driven out of the road we live in, into the next cul-de-sac where it was probably made fully drivable, defrosted, false number plates fitted, seen by another motorhomer out walking his dog, and at 07.15 it was driven off!
I only realised it was missing from in front of the house at 09.45 too late for the police to do much! The police were however, within their limitations, very good and supportive, spending a lot of time with us.
With hindsight - do not leave keys near external doors, fit noisy alarms and immobiliser to van and house, cameras covering van and house doors. Get a big nasty dog!
Of course there is only so much you can do practically, and my military past had me planning watch towers, gun posts, security barriers, and my wife stood naked by the door all night! Scary!!!!
As the police said - if they want it, then they will take it!!

We were very badly effected by the experience and I wouldn't wish it on anyone!
if they had múrdered you, the police would probably have caught them.

But your alive and the motorhome is insured. Why waste dwindling, limited, valuable resources.
 
Upvote 0
On our last van I had wheel lock, steering lock and used a motorbike lock to lock the driver seat in the reverse position. New van will have a Vanbitz Raptor system fitted.

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Wheel clamps are useless, I can remove them,with the help of Plumbers Freeze and a club hammer, in minutes and I'm only amateur.
does that include the Milenco triple one !
 
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