Vehicle Tracking: A Beginners Guide

Hi there DM:-

What is it that you want the combo to do? Given that it is a device that monitors for a switch or other input as well as all the tracking.. it qualifiesas an alarm also. I could include message that is sent to your keyfob... but most people prefer the option of a text message to the phone because it has a greater range. Lets face it you might be away on business or holiday and still get the text that tells you it is being moved... at least you can contact the old bill.

I just want a good alarm, if it had a basic tracker or txt alert system too that would be great.

DM It would be worth a chat - It is quite possible to tie an alarm to the tracker... to use the tracker as an alarm.... we could basically design the system to suit. Just a though of course

Hi,
Read this thread with interest. It's been a few months since the last post and i wondered if the information was still up to date? I saw the Amazon units are still for sale and if they are still out there and working i'd be tempted.

That said, if units like PebbleTracker reduced my insurance I'd consider a subscription service.

Having also been concerned for the security / recovery prospects in the worst case I have read the thread with interest. Something that has popped up recently for me is my insurance company offering a 'black box' style system. Its primary purpose is to drive down premiums for safe drivers. :boink:
However it also has a tracker element to it which can be activated in the event of it being stolen. I'm not going to opt into it myself, at the moment at least, but thought it may be of interest.
Personally I think I will eventually go for a proper tracker unit (when cost permits).

Safe Driver Car Insurance - Telematics Car Insurance - Bell Insurance

@shepherd

Sorry but if you are thinking of a tracking device to drop your indurance premium then you are flogging a pretty dead horse. They are invaluable for helping avoid theft and for getting the vehicle back afterwards, however, in most cases they do not affect the premium and will often actually affect an increase in premium if you tell the insurance company you have one.

The only way around this, is to tell the insurance company that you have an after market anti theft system. Do not mention GPS. They may, in some cases, take that into consideration.

The explanation given to me went as follows: If your vehicle is stolen, and is beyond economical repair, the insurance company will write it off. However, you are not abliged to accept their offer and you may wish to have the vehicle repaired irrespective of cost. This is expensive for the insurance company and so once a vehicle is stolen, the insurer prefers that you do not recover it. That's straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and in my opinion is feckin mental!

The black box systems that ADS110 is discussing is a different animal entirely. It works by using GPS to guage your driving skills... it measures braking and acceleration rates, and reports any occurrences of speeding. It is not a device that provides location information on the vehicle on an ongoing basis.

Obviously I prefer small companies with bespoke systems. (Especially since I are one!). I think they are valuable because if you get a decent one they will work with you to make sure that the system you pay for is the system that works best for you. Altering the software is something that we have done for a few LZ members, in fact we are working on a modification to the system at the moment for a member who would like a variation on the current low voltage warning.

I honestly believe that with the thousands of pounds people spend on their vehicles, it is silly to scrimp on a couple of hundred quid's worth of tracking device... in fact sometimes ours are as low as £100 when we get trade ins.

Just my two pen'orth!

Thanks for this thread very informative will buy one very soon !!

Where can I get a good reasonable priced tracker unit nothing too fancy but no rubbish? U just want to have a rough idea where my car is

diko93 said:

Where can I get a good reasonable priced tracker unit nothing too fancy but no rubbish? U just want to have a rough idea where my car is

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I believe there are some that use a sim card that can tell you approx where it is,

I have this one. Bloody brilliant. You can view your last years worth of mileage in detail. Great if youve been laning with someone and want to get the route

http://syrus.visionairegps.co.uk/

this might be better
LandyWatch :: Visionaire GPS vehicle tracking

Oh yeah! That other address is my login page to my tracker info panel where I can get all the map info.

Cant rate it highly enough if I'm honest. My personal fav is the hidden switches that tell me when certain things happen in the car. So when the local stealer claimed they hadn't started work on my car I had nice little texts from the tracker telling me exactly what they were screwing around with!

I own and operate a tracking system... uses hidden switches like those mentioned above.. also allows you to activate switched from either my web site or your mobile phone by GSM.

Check out GPS vehicle tracking and remote telemetry

Ignore the prices on there... they do not apply to LZ members

It is relatively simple to incorporate a phone jammer detection system and hook it to the lights/horn/vehicle immobilisation system.???
were can you buy this piece of kit from I've done a search on ebay but cannot seem to find anything that can do the job

teddykiller said:

I purchased a tracker from a seller on Amazon back in Aug, £65 and uses GPRS GPS and GSM.
it uses a sim card to communicate with the owner, and uses all three services.
placed my disco in the multi storey car park in Leeds and walked away, city centre i then send the message to the phone to respond with its gps coordinates which it did no problem at all.

you can track the car live from a smartphone using google maps etc and remote kill the vehicle with a simple text message.

These subscription services for trackers are good, but imho are not needed if you feel ok about a few wires and hiding the unit in the motor.

I even had my mrs drive away on the car and told go her to go anywhere she wanted and in 30 mins ill ask the tracker to tell me where the motor was. 30 mins later and i rang her and said she was at makro at the bottom of the carpark, sure enough she replied she was.

£65 and 3/4 hour to fit gives me all the piece of mind i need knowing i can track the motor and take my mukkas to go kick some ass.

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teddykiller said:

GPS Car Tracker with GPRS and Vehicle Theft Protection: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics that one, it looks alot to install but its really easy. Hardest part is hiding the unit deep in the dash as you can lol

seriously good bit of kit, you can even stealth call the tracker and listen to the scroats in your motor.

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I've just been reading through this thread, so things have obviously moved on in the five years since it started. This unit is £12 on Amazon now.
I'm presuming the technology has moved on a bit too, so £65 these days will get you an even better system. How easy are these things to fit and are they effective with the basic electrical system of a 300TDi Defender?
Ryder, would you be prepared to PM me with details of what you can offer now?

I brought one of these units for £6.33 off Amazon delivery date is the 17th of August will let you know how I get on with it. I may also post how I wired it into my Landy but not given away were in the Landy I intend to hide it.

John03 said:

I brought one of these units for £6.33 off Amazon delivery date is the 17th of August will let you know how I get on with it. I may also post how I wired it into my Landy but not given away were in the Landy I intend to hide it.

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Cheers, John. Just how difficult it is to wire in and if the sophistication of the Landy wiring allows all the features of the system to work would be great. Be very careful what you post, forums are monitored by bots which feed back all sorts of details to their owners!

No need to worry I intend only to say what wire connects to were, will not disclose were in my vehicle I intend to hide the unit just the best places to wire it up so no wiring is accessible to any would be thief unless they had managed to break into the vehicle without setting the alarm off.

John03 said:

No need to worry I intend only to say what wire connects to were, will not disclose were in my vehicle I intend to hide the unit just the best places to wire it up so no wiring is accessible to any would be thief unless they had managed to break into the vehicle without setting the alarm off.

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Champion.
I'd be very interested in how you get on and what you think of it when it's working. I've got a notification set on this thread, so if you post on here I'll pick it up. Many thanks!

Al2O3 said:

Champion.
I'd be very interested in how you get on and what you think of it when it's working. I've got a notification set on this thread, so if you post on here I'll pick it up. Many thanks!

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Just to keep you updated . I brought the unit from Amazon for the really low price of £6.33 which means its coming from China so expected delivery date is 12th of September. Hopefully it'll arrive sooner but when it does I do promise to give details of how I wire it up.