cameras, motion detectors, break ins

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I have both motion sensing cameras and a couple of motion activated lights. Motion sensing lights are a cheap way to go for night time deterrents. Motion sensing cameras are best for after the fact. Just had a guy convicted of being naughty by supplying photos to LEOs. Cameras sometimes do not stop the idiots and are only useful in a clean up kind of way. If parked in the Boonies, I mount the cameras above head height close by, if possible. Historical phots suggest people about to do bad things rarely look up. The body language is interesting as they all seem to be doing lots of looking for someone coming.

Some of the Nanny Cams available now are really tiny. I recently made two small signs to put up "If you do not wish to be photographed, do not approach any closer than 6 Feet". I don't really know how effective my lights and the signs are or have been but the cameras have shown quite a few who have been curious about my vehicle.
 
I may eventually do some external monitoring whether motion or video, but would have to be low power consumption.
I did buy a backup/dash cam that has a parking monitor feature, not sure if it's just the dash cam or also backup cam.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DF94H7D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For now during my build I'm looking at installing latches on my doors to deter/slow entry. Even if breaking a window and unlocking the latch would be another prevention of doors opening.
This would only be for while I'm inside of course.

Also, my van is a conversion van and I've decided to cover up the conversion windows when I get to building the interior. Initially just with insulation and wood, but am now thinking of getting pieces of sheet metal large enough to cover the windows screwed to the body strengthening ribs in the case of breaking said windows would still have an additional layer to go through.
 
dang, I am glad I don't stay around you guys. If it was me I would just move. highdesertranger
 
highdesertranger said:
dang,  I am glad I don't stay around you guys.  If it was me I would just move.  highdesertranger

Unfortunately, there are less safe places than their used to be.  I had someone attempt to break into my truck in a Walmart parking lot at 1 PM.
 
I just keep my stuff looking so old and beat up no one would want to take it. Yes that’s right I planned for it to look that way! Lol!!! People don’t even lean on my vehicles as they are afraid they will get something on them. And when they see me coming to an intersection they slow down because they are afraid I won’t be able to stop. Tailgaters go around because they are afraid something is gonna fall off. When I camp within sight of other campers they move. Life is good.
 
Bullfrog, I don't suppose that you could post a photo of your rig, could you??
 
There are some old pictures of my truck posted by “tadpole” in the thread “so I’m looking for an older eco car” post number 14 before the camper was built on it. My son (tadpole) posted them for me as I have difficulty posting pictures on my phone. Basically with the tailgate down I have a porch on the back with fold up steps and propane tanks on either side of a gas can resting in front of the steps which are in front of the door. The camper box looks like a bag ice despenser 80”x 80” square and about 3’ tall above the cab. I’ve had the bench seat redone a couple of times but the sun destroys them so I found a heavy duty carpet runner that works just fine. The holes in the floor boards and manual vents give you lots of ventilation. I found Rustoleum paint that is a close match that is slowly but surely covering large portions of the body. It has an empty glass pack muffler so you can hear it coming for a ways. It is slightly lifted and those are 33” tires on 10” rims. The mechanicals have all been gone through and it has a Ford granny gear and a lower geared transfer case. I can cruse at 60 mph.
 
The thread is “So I’m looking for an old eco car and ....” Just search for user name “tadpole” it is his only entry.
 
Did you turn on the alarm system? That is what I usually do but then it is useless especially when there are no people nearby. From what I know there are locking devices available so it would automatically lock in case someone is trying to open the key insert. But I guess another thing to do is to turn on your dash camera, not just the outside video but also have one inside (that is hidden).
 
With those balloon tires can you ford a stream?

Bullfrog truck.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Bullfrog truck.jpg
    Bullfrog truck.jpg
    265 KB
Old vehicles are heavy although it floats over wind blown sand pretty good it still makes a pretty good rut in clay mud. Biggest problem fording streams is wet tires cut easy. Best protection from it being stolen is figuring out which switches turn on the ignition and the fact it is a manual shift. I even have to think about how to start it after a while. When the mice ate some wiring last year and I replaced it I cranked the battery dead because bumped one switch off without realizing it. Lol!!!
 
if it happened in the Bay area I think that is a risky area...I have a dash cam that records constantly and one day a guy came to my site and complained about my fire which was in full compliance so he got angry but when I pointed out the camera he stopped getting loud immediately...it was not plugged in at the time but it helped defuse the situation...
 
Last year I was in the middle of a chain of cars that were rear ended.  Three in front of me and another four a couple cars behind me. There were 2 of us in the middle that got stopped without hitting anyone.
Since nobody could move we all just sat there until the cops sorted it out.
I laughed when the drivers in front of me were all pointing to my box truck as the one that caused the initial impact. If true, that would have made me the guilty party. When the cop asked me what happened I pointed to my dash camera and said I had the whole thing recorded and that he was welcome to view it but first I wanted him to notice that there isn't any impact dents on my front end or the car in front of me. He smiled, walked away and when he pointed to my truck while explaining that this guy in the truck has it all on video, well it took the wind out of their argument.
He did eventually ask to see the video and I showed it to him. I gave the cop and the guy behind me my name and email in case anyone needed a copy or a statement.

That's the second time a camera came in handy. Money well spent if I never used it.
 
I have dash cams in both my car and RV. There are simply to many stupid drivers out there.
 
Re: a dog.

You don't need an aggressive dog, you need an alert dog that barks.

A cop once said that the two main things that criminals don't like are lights and barking dogs.
 
Top