security alarm

[CHICKDOE]

i wen over to the trailer today to start getting it packed for our trip in a couple of days. we keep it in a storage lot. while is was there two local police cars came into the yard. seeing me one came up and started asking some questions about break ins. apparently a couple units had been broken into and things taken. fortunately ours was untouched. the two officers got out and walked the entire lot looking for any signs of break ins. I talked to them again and said ours sure looks like a potential target and is there anything I could do to help protect it. they really didn't have any ideas but we discussed putting a siren in it and a motion sensor that would trigger the siren. they said in their experience that would probably scare off any unwanted visitors.

of course then there are the details. there is not power in the storage lot so you'd have to power these devices. I was thinking of how to do it. the issue is how to arm these and not draw down the trailer batteries. I was thinking of perhaps putting the siren on a relay that connected it to the batteries when activated. that way it will not drain the battery. then you could wire the motion detector to a smaller separate to power it and activate the relay. this smaller battery would be dedicated to just this purpose. and you would need to include an arm / unarm switch. or possibly get some of those wireless window / door proximity switch that are used for home alarms.

anyway, just thinking about it and thought I would ask if anybody out there has done anything along this line or has any other thoughts.

and I have read posts here where people have had units broken into, batteries taken, power cables taken, etc. my thoughts are with you. the bad guys never seem to be caught when they do this and they probably don't get much for their efforts, but they can cause major damage. what a waste!

[brusso]

A buddy of mine had the same issue while in storage.
I live in mine fulltime. I installed the simply safe wireless alarm system.
On his we installed a solar battery charger On the roof to maintain the batteries. With simply safe you can customize your own components. We did motion, glass breakage, and smoke, and outside siren. The only part the uses electric in the base, everything else has its own battery.
They have 3 monitoring plans. 1- is self monitoring, no call out just siren goes off. 2 - is for $15 a month the base call police and sends them to the address you have it at and the siren. 3 - is for $25 a month it does 2 plus it is sent to your cell phone and if you have a camera you can watech it and monitor your system.
I know it works. One night I was at work and DW deactivated the alarm and as she was walking it the door she did not know that she hit the panic button on her key chain. It sent a silent alarm. Needless to say three sheriff officers showed up in less then 5 min.
As for my buddy he has not had any issue with a dead battery. We put a battery disconnect on rv. Then we wired an inverter to just power the alarm base. Been doing it for 4 months.
Hope it helps.

[Flybob]

There are lots of options from very fancy like the simply safe to just activating a siren. They all require power so which one you choose depends on the availability of power and how often you visit the unit. Some thing as simple a https://www.amazon.com/DOBERMAN-SECU...3H83RWD3R4#Ask if you visit often enough to change batteries or you can add a second small gel cell type battery and solar charger and have something more complex. Remember anything you choose will only deter a criminal, if they really want it they wll get it.

[CHICKDOE]

thanks for the info. i'm thinking something similar. the cops told me that they felt just a siren going off would send any visitors fleeing. they also said one of those flashing led lights that shows a system is armed that was visible would be a good deterrent. and if we did install something we could activate it when we were away at a campground but not at the trailer. the storage area we are at is gated and has barbed wire on top of the chain link fence that surrounds the lot. it's amazing how anybody would go to the effort to get in. the local paper just ran an article about people walking down the streets and trying each car door handle to find those that are unlocked. if they find one and there is anything inside it's gone in a second.

[doc73]

I have heard great things about simply safe as an easy DIY setup. If you want it to call the cops it will also need a cell / wifi connection.

I will start buy saying I have an alarm system on my home...

BUT WARNING LONG WINDED FEELING ON ALARMS.

From my point of view (as leo) alarms may help make the criminal hit your neighbor instead (assuming they do not have an alarm) but that is really just a crap shoot. For us they are very low level response levels since 99% are false alarms. While we will get to them here, some places will not even respond to them at all.

As Flybob said if they want it they will get it, even with an alarm. When they break in they have anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds for the turn off the alarm delay. It then goes off and takes a minute or so for the alarm company to call you to see if you can give the code. It takes a few seconds / half a minute to answer the phone and confirm it was not a mistake. Then they look up your location of record (address they have on file for you, hopefully the address of the RV NOT you). They contact the local county radio room, they pass the info to a call taker who takes it all in. Then they pass it to the correct city / state agency if THEY do not handle the actual police dispatch where it starts a new..

If they put out the calls then they send it to a police dispatcher where it waits for the radio to be clear to assign the call to an officer. Pretty much everything else gets priority so it could be quick, could be long. Lets say 5 to 10 minutes total time from alarm to police sent. Then it can take me anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes to gets to you assuming I am not tied up on another call and where I am starting from. You also need to make sure the police can even GET INTO the storage yard. At night we have a site that is locked, has no code to get in. If there is an issue we look from outside the fence (cannot get in with out climing a tall fence) and then move on.

SO that gives us anywhere from 10 (best case) minutes to well a long time to let the criminal steal what they want. Of the 1000's of alarms we have a year 995 are false. Of those that are real burglaries they are in and out in minutes, which is often no different than when they break into a house without an alarm..

[Gidyupgo]

Our unit, along with the other 10 units, was broken into at our former storage lot over the Christmas weekend. They didn't get inside ours like they did others, but pried outside doors open and took a few tools. We moved to a lot with better lighting and more cameras and are in the process of installing a monitored system with a loud alarm and strobes. It won't stop the smash and grab crowd, but at least there will be flashing lights, a loud alarm and the police, lot owner and I will get notified. I also like having those easy to open compartments connected to an alarm when we are on trips.

[pismolocal]

I purchased "dummy" cameras off of Amazon. They take batteries and have a small red L.E.D light that flashes. I have them velcroed to the top 4 corners of my coach and have two on the inside. They look like the real deal. I also have a 3 battery operated motion sensors that each take a 4 diget code to deactivate. They are perminately mounted to different areas of the coach. They have a 2 minute chirp delay to get them off before the alarm sounds...and it is ear piercing!

Also it's a good idea to mount multiple solar motion sensor lights around the RV. I have these mounted high with Velcro so they can be removed while driving. I need a ladder to pull them down...Just takes about 5 minutes and keeps people away.

I do have one "hunters camera" that is attached and hidden and records motion on an SD card. It is battery operated and weather proof and only turns on if motion is detected.

haven't had anyone break in yet.

Also change all the locks on the outside compartments. The key is standard and there is only a few variations. Chances are 1 in 5 people have a key that will open your storage areas.