What do you do with your spare keys?

[ElliesBoss]

Each of us carry a set.

(Then if one of us falls off a cliff………………)

Falls or pushed?

 

[Downsie]

put a spare set of keys within the dog collar

Now that I do like!

 

[Minxy]

See my post

Spare keys left at home. Can always be sent if required.

Will just get in-laws, or other family to go to house and express post them. Whilst I go to a hotel for a night.

Another question is how many people have lost their keys? I’ve never have


And let’s be honest. If you had to, they are not hard to get into. Just wouldn’t be able to drive it, and the have to fix window/roof vent.

All pretty inconvenient though simply because you only took one set of keys out with you.

 

[two]

I'm not sure, but I think that roadside assistance can enter and start a vehicle if you lose a key.
After all, thieves manage to do so without too much difficulty.

 

[ElliesBoss]

Two weeks back a friend had his house burgled. Spare vehicle keys taken so he had to get everything reprogrammed. Very expensive (type of vehicle). Insurance company wanted to know if the spare keys were kept secure, who had access to them etc. So when you've finished worrying about the keys you have with you, think about the ones you're leaving behind!

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[Minxy]

Two weeks back a friend had his house burgled. Spare vehicle keys taken so he had to get everything reprogrammed. Very expensive (type of vehicle). Insurance company wanted to know if the spare keys were kept secure, who had access to them etc. So when you've finished worrying about the keys you have with you, think about the ones you're leaving behind!

When we go away on holiday etc we always hide any keys left at home along with other stuff such as credit debit cards we don't need with us, it would take a long time for anyone to find them.

 

[two]

When I was burgled, they didn't bother with keys, just smashed their way to what they wanted.
Their mindset is quite different to that of 'normal' people, especially when on drugs.

 

[nicholsong]

Apologies that I have not read all 4 pages.

I carry the main set of keys. Basia carries a spare habitation door key in her wallet, and the rest of the spares are well hidden inside the MH.

Geoff

 

[pandas]

I'm not sure, but I think that roadside assistance can enter and start a vehicle if you lose a key.
After all, thieves manage to do so without too much difficulty.

Hmm think the alarm might be an issue

 

[cyberyacht]

I have a set of "van" keys which include front door. OH carries a mirror set. My normal "home" set which includes OH's car ones go in to the safe at home along with OH's "home" set.

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[DDJC]

When I was burgled, they didn't bother with keys, just smashed their way to what they wanted.
Their mindset is quite different to that of 'normal' people, especially when on drugs.

I remember a Police Crime Prevention Officer telling my dad something like, "I'm not really a Crime Prevention Officer, I'm more of a Crime Displacement Officer. My job in talking to you is to advise you to take action to make a burglar think that your house is too risky, so he displaces to burgle someone else's house that is easier."

So, stick one of these on your hab door:

They probably wouldn't believe it but it might create sufficient doubt so that even the most junked crackhead would look at your neighbours moho before he started rummaging in yours.

Which is, after all, the aim.

 

[CamperJack]

I have one set in my pocket. The other set I have on a chain attached to my belt loops on my jeans. I often use the chained set to get back in the van after locking the unchained set in the van when I leave them on the kitchen counter etc.

At night the set on the chain hangs from a hook on the ceiling, down over the door latch. That way I have to see them before I open the door and don't forget them.

It's the things you have to do when you're as daft as me...

 

[Coolcats]

Two weeks back a friend had his house burgled. Spare vehicle keys taken so he had to get everything reprogrammed. Very expensive (type of vehicle). Insurance company wanted to know if the spare keys were kept secure, who had access to them etc. So when you've finished worrying about the keys you have with you, think about the ones you're leaving behind!

It’s all a compromise but just don’t keep the spare set in the van insurance companies get upset about that along with keys that can be viewed from outside the home.

 

[MitchandJenny]

So you've parked up on site, be it field, aire or campsite for the day/night and you decide to walk into town. Do you always take your spare keys with you as well as the main set, or do you leave them in the van? Suppose you lose your main set while you're out then if your spares are in the van what do you do, other than break in?

The reason I ask is that typically, through laziness or negligence (you decide) we do take only the main set with us and do leave the spares in the van, which I admit seems a bit stupid.

So I've been thinking about getting a keysafe fitted to a discreet external part of the van, into which I can store the spares, like under the gas locker. Does this sound reasonable? Anyone done something similar or had a better idea.

Magnetic key box

So you've parked up on site, be it field, aire or campsite for the day/night and you decide to walk into town. Do you always take your spare keys with you as well as the main set, or do you leave them in the van? Suppose you lose your main set while you're out then if your spares are in the van what do you do, other than break in?

The reason I ask is that typically, through laziness or negligence (you decide) we do take only the main set with us and do leave the spares in the van, which I admit seems a bit stupid.

So I've been thinking about getting a keysafe fitted to a discreet external part of the van, into which I can store the spares, like under the gas locker. Does this sound reasonable? Anyone done something similar or had a better idea.

Magnetic key-box stuck to the van (somewhere only you know) .
They are cheap and easy.
Scrotes don’t look that hard.
Mitch.

 

[MartinW]

As a solo traveller I used to keep one set of keys safely hidden inside the motorhome, the other I carried with me. That worked well until a couple of months ago when after a day's sight-seeing I walked back to where I had left my locked bike near the Uffizi in Florence to discover that I no longer had my keys. Not only had a full set of motorhome keys gone, but I could not unlock my bike. It was getting dark and I had no choice but to walk about 5 miles back to the free car park where I had left my van in the hope that I would somehow be able to break in without causing too much damage.

I went round checking each window and door, looking for weaknesses and hoping that perhaps I had left something not properly fastened. No such luck. Every door and window was locked and each motorhome window had one or two Lock-m-Out gadgets fixed which I thought meant the windows were pretty well thief-proof. In despair, and desperate for the loo, I was just about to throw a brick through the passenger side door window when another car pulled into the car park. I did not want to be seen breaking the window so I had one last go at trying the habitation windows. Using just my bare hands I gripped with my fingers under one of the side windows, gave it all a pull upwards, and found that the locked and Lock-m-Out reinforced window opened very easily, without any damage at all. It seems that the plastic windows in motorhomes have enough flexibility to give way and bend when put under sufficient force, and since at 68 I do not have a lot of muscle power I think that just about anybody could do it.

During the winter I am going to make some changes to the security of my van, which will mean deadlocks on the three doors and proper locks on the windows. I have also bought an expandable key-chain, which I will wear whenever on my travels in the hope that I never lose my keys again. What I will do with my spare set of keys, when I have collected duplicates, sorry that will remain a secret.

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[Minxy]

Using just my bare hands I gripped with my fingers under one of the side windows, gave it all a pull upwards, and found that the locked and Lock-m-Out reinforced window opened very easily, without any damage at all. It seems that the plastic windows in motorhomes have enough flexibility to give way and bend when put under sufficient force, and since at 68 I do not have a lot of muscle power I think that just about anybody could do it.

Unfortunately we had our window forced in Pisa, the only damage we had were a couple of securing catches had broken but the window itself wasn't so we were able to secure it with straps afterwards. Many years before we saw the 'Lock-m-out' devices and were concerned then as to how good they would be and whether a window with them installed would crack instead of the catches, or still be able to be opened, at the time the seller hadn't previously tried and wasn't willing attempt it with the demo window to see what would happen, so we didn't get them.

A few years ago we were in Spain and noticed a MH pull up with a window covered in gaffer tape - he'd been broken into but as the catches hadn't given way the window itself cracked with large pieces coming out of it, it was a major issue for him as he was on at the start of a long trip so didn't want to return to the UK to have it repaired so he'd got some Perspex, glue and gaffer tape and made a temporary repair (stronger than the original window!) and his insurer was happy for him to continue his trip and fully insure him still.

 

[63720]

A policeman in Spain once told that the best deterrent is additional, and visible, locks on the doors. Someone intent on breaking in to a van may use the window to gain entry but usually exits through the door because their hands are full of your property so if it's deadlocked they can't get out quickly and may just move on.