Keith Gooden
In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
Matt Sims
We unpack what Thatcham approved means and how to pick the right tracker.
Keith Gooden
In the news, caravans on the Downs in Bristol have been towed away over the last few months.
Matt Sims
And we answer your questions on accessible motorhomes, the pros and cons of motorhome types, caring for a motorhome and stock levels in dealerships.
Keith Gooden
Welcome to the Motorhome Matt Podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans – brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com.
Matt Sims
Now, please do remember to follow on your favourite podcast app. And make sure you hit subscribe and the little bell on YouTube – brought to you by www.arobasecreative.co.uk.
Motorhomes moved on the downs in Bristol
Keith Gooden
In the news today, caravans on the Downs in Bristol have been towed away over the last few months. This is all about alternative living, isn’t it, Matt?
Matt Sims
It is. Yes, rent and prices of houses in Bristol are now astronomical, and affording to live in one can be very inaccessible for many. So people are resorting to, or even choosing to live in a van as an alternative accommodation. The city council’s count of residential vehicles has risen from 100 in 2020 to 650 in 2024, housing about 800 people. The people who live in them argue they have few options as they cannot afford the soaring rents.
Keith Gooden
Now, these aren’t the travelling community. These aren’t the past time motor homers, campervanners and caravanners. This is a whole new sector of people since the cost of living crisis who have, as you say, chosen to live and they’ve been parking in a large green space in the centre of Bristol called the Downs, and now they’re being moved on.
The Friends of the Downs acknowledge that vehicle dwellers have limited options. There are five council-run sites with space for 60 vehicles, but they are all currently full. We’ve got a quote here.
“We’ve got a great deal of sympathy for people whose circumstances force them into this itinerant lifestyle,” said Robert Westlake, the group’s chair for the Friends of the Downs. “That said,” he says, “We always felt this situation has gone on too long and has been badly managed.” Well, they’re the ones that have been managing it, aren’t they?
Matt Sims
Yeah, it seems so. And the council, of course, the city council. And it has been badly managed, in terms of resources for those that live there, so infrastructure for them to get rid of their waste, their rubbish, toilet waste. There’s no facility for them at all. So it needs sorting out for sure.
And of course, Bristol kind of pioneers van life in this sense. It has a long history of people engaging with van life in this way. And it’s not the only city being affected by this across the UK. So I’m sure this is a story we’ll see more and more of across Britain.
Keith Gooden
But as usual, the response of councils and authorities, instead of providing facilities for people and finding an answer to it, is to just ban it, make it criminal and start towing people away. We’ll keep you updated about how things going, because Bristol can’t be the only city where this will ever happen.
Matt Sims
Exactly. I’m sure it’s not. Well, I know it’s not. And where do they go? If they can’t camp or stop in this beautiful part of the city, where are they going to park? That’s the question.
Matt’s product of the week
Keith Gooden
It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
And it’s brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com. Our product of the week this week. It’s back. It has returned. It is…
Matt Sims
Who thought a tracker could be fun?
Keith Gooden
It’s called GPSBob.
Matt Sims
This is a GPSBob tracker. I love their packaging. These guys are Motorhome Matt approved. They’re fairly new to the motorhome and leisure sector. This is a tracker, and you pop this into your motorhome.
You can fit this one yourself, hide it away somewhere, connect to the leisure battery or the starter battery, or you can get it professionally fitted and hidden away somewhere in the dashboard. They’re a brilliant company, and as I say, they really have put the fun back into trackers.
Keith Gooden
It is Motorhome Matt approved. And by the way, you can get £10 off any purchase with the code MOTORHOMEMATT. But where do you have to visit to get that discount then, Matt?
Matt Sims
Just head to mhmp.info/approved. Search for trackers. It will take you straight to GPSBob.
Keith Gooden
Fantastic. Or you could go mhmp.info/gpsbob. Did you know that? It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
Brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com. What is Thatcham? A roof in the countryside?
Matt Sims
That’s a different type of thatching, that one?
What is a Thatcham Approved Tracker?
Keith Gooden
Is that a different one? So what is Thatcham?
Matt Sims
So lots of us owning a motorhome, campervan, or even a caravan have being asked to fit a tracker to our leisure vehicle, and often been asked to fit a Thatcham approved tracker.
Keith Gooden
First of all, question one, what is a tracker?
Matt Sims
It monitors your vehicle’s location. You can set up a perimeter around it, often called a geofence, and if it drives through that, you are alerted, assuming you’re not driving it – or even if you are driving it. If it’s started without the key, or the battery is disconnected, all these things are monitored, and you are alerted to those events.
Keith Gooden
So it stops your motorhome, your prize campervan or caravan being… can you fit them to caravans?
Matt Sims
You can fit them to caravans, yeah.
Keith Gooden
Being nicked?
Matt Sims
Not necessarily stops it, but it would make you aware that it potentially has been stolen when you’re not with it. So Thatcham approved is a kind of industry benchmark. Thatcham are a company based in Berkshire, and they have been monitoring and creating standards for the security industry, for alarm systems and for vehicle security, for many years.
And they kind of set the bar, and they’re insurance industry recognised. There are different levels of Thatcham approval. So you can get a basic tracker, which can monitor all those things on the vehicle, but you’re not necessarily going to be alerted to anything going wrong. Thatcham approved tracker requires a subscription, so you’re going to pay an amount of money to Thatcham or to your tracking company.
Keith Gooden
So the level of service for the subscription increases?
Matt Sims
And the quality of the hardware that has been installed as well. Yeah, absolutely.
Keith Gooden
So some insurers require Thatcham approved trackers. You’ve already explained they’re a higher standard. So how does Thatcham’s approval process impact your insurance premium? Does it make it cheaper?
Matt Sims
It could make it cheaper, and often does, and actually it could enable you to get insurance in the first place. So many insurance companies want a Thatcham approved tracker on a vehicle worth more than £50,000.
There will be a threshold where insurance companies want a tracker. Now, that threshold possibly has crept up over recent years as values have gone up, but thefts have gone up, so many insurance companies have lowered the threshold, meaning most motorhomes brand new need to have one of these little devices fitted to them.
And the different levels – you’ll hear phrases like S7, S5 and S5 plus. And we’ll unpack that a minute with a special guest. They are vital to have. Certainly your insurance company may insist you have it. I think they’re a really good investment, whether they insist or not.
Keith Gooden
All those letters and numbers – you can always tell it’s been invented by a man, can’t you? It should be a name, shouldn’t it, like Thunderbolt?
Matt Sims
That would be a proper man name, wouldn’t it?
Keith Gooden
Thunderbolt!
Matt Sims
Maybe you could reinvent Thatcham approval.
Keith Gooden
Lightning Sid. You’ve been talking to somebody, haven’t you?
Matt Sims
Yeah, we caught up with Guy, who’s the technical development manager at GPSBob. He’s a lovely chap. He’s a lovely guy. We asked him to unpack a little bit more about the different levels of Thatcham approval.
Do you need a motorhome tracker?
Matt Sims
Guy, welcome to the studio. It’s great to have you with us. We first met at the Manchester show in January ’24, this year. And you’ve been in the tracker game for about 15 years. But GPSBob is new to this market, isn’t it, the leisure market?
When I met you, I was really intrigued not just by the range of products you offer, but the subscription models. And actually, I’ve joked before that you’ve kind of put fun back into tracking.
Guy Carter
As much as we can!
Matt Sims
Who thought you could ever say that was possible? But just tell us – we want to unpack the Thatcham thing, because it’s so confusing. Can you just shed some clarity for us on the different categories of Thatcham and why they exist?
Guy Carter
Yeah, of course. So Thatcham exists for your insurance companies. They may specify that you need a Thatcham unit on your vehicle, whether it be a motorhome or any other vehicle. They start as an S7, which is sort of the standard category they use.
Matt Sims
So S6 is gone?
Guy Carter
Yes, so they now call it an S7.
Matt Sims
Okay, right. So that’s the basic one.
Guy Carter
Yes, that’s this one here. We’ve got a few trackers here.
Matt Sims
For those listening, we’ve got a range of plastic boxes on the desk here, little black boxes, which are the tracker units themselves.
Guy Carter
They are, yeah. So this is what we use for the S7. We also have the S5. The difference there is that you get a driver recognition tag.
Matt Sims
So the first thing we’ve got to understand is that an S5 is a higher grade tracker than an S7.
Guy Carter
It doesn’t make sense, but yes, it is.
Matt Sims
That is the wrong way around, surely! Okay, so an S5 is a higher spec, and that requires this little fob.
Guy Carter
Yes, this fob. So this is our fob that we’ve made. It’s a one time password, similar to your bank card reader.
Matt Sims
Now, these are clever, aren’t they? You’ve told me about these.
Guy Carter
Yeah, they are. So they’re connected to the tracker, so there’s no way to copy them. It’s time synced to the tracker, and it’ll change every 60 seconds.
Matt Sims
So we’re going to come on to cloning trackers in a minute and scanning them, because that’s a big question people have. So this fob, you could scan it, but in 60 seconds, its identity is going to change. That’s clever! And is that unique to you?
Guy Carter
It is something that we’ve put time and money into.
Matt Sims
Clever. Okay, so an S5 requires this fob. The vehicle won’t start without it.
Guy Carter
That’s an S5 plus. So there’s another one! An S5 plus is the same device here, but without this tag, it will not start the vehicle.
Matt Sims
Right. So we’ve got S7 as the basic Thatcham approved. We’ve got S5, which requires the fob. The vehicle will start without the fob, but you’re alerted to the fact it’s been started potentially erroneously. And S5 plus means it won’t start without the fob.
Guy Carter
Yes. So if you’ve got an S5, the vehicle starts without the tag. That is an alert on the platform as a potential theft.
Matt Sims
I’ve got it now. Talk to me, then, about Thatcham themselves. How do they assess a tracker and give it their stamp of approval?
Guy Carter
So Thatcham itself is a research company. They started out as that. We’ve moved on from vehicles’ alarm systems. You may have heard of category one alarm systems, things for your car. It’s usually a drop down in your insurance, sort of thing, for immobilisation.
They’re moved on to the trackers, so they will do a lot of testing on them. They will do the testing so they will imitate a tow away alert, so no ignition feed on the vehicle, a tow away to make sure that that is done in a timely manner.
It goes through to a call center and just starts the process of a full alert, because all of the Thatcham units are 24-hour monitored. So if any of these events happen, whether it’s a tow away alert or driving without driver recognition, you will get an alert sent to you with via phone or email.
Matt Sims
It’s usually a phone call, isn’t it? A pre-recorded phone call.
Guy Carter
It will be.
Matt Sims
So it’s the tracking company that are monitoring the tracker. They will ring you to say there’s been an alert on your vehicle, and they require you to phone in to them.
Guy Carter
Our system is obviously slightly different, but we have a 123 phone call. So, “Is your vehicle stolen? Press one if so. Press two if not, and press three if you don’t know.” And then that will then continue.
And then they will get another call back. If there is no communication there at all, say the phone isn’t answered, it will go on to the next person on the list. So you can add two or three people on there. So if you’re not around, it will ring the next person.
Again, if it doesn’t have any contact with anybody, it will then go into a parked and then that situation will be there, and it will just continue with the email and what have you, waiting for a response.
Matt Sims
So it’s really important, then, that you are able to be contacted in the event your vehicle is moved or the battery is disconnected or potentially stolen. So do you submit this hardware, then, to Thatcham for assessment?
Guy Carter
Yes. They come out and do the test with us. The other test – it has to resist attack for two minutes.
Matt Sims
Resist attack?
Guy Carter
Yeah, so resist attackas by tools or being jammed or anything like that. So we’ve got that. And obviously you spoke there about the disconnected battery. So if it loses power, it has to last eight hours.
Matt Sims
On its own battery?
Guy Carter
On its own battery. So every minute it has to track it.
Matt Sims
I’d say that’s a useful feature of any tracker, that you can monitor the battery voltage on the app. It’s often an app, isn’t it? And you can see, oh, the battery’s down to 11.9 volts. It’s not going to start tomorrow when we go on holiday. Then you know you need to get there earlier.
Guy Carter
Perfect for motorhomes and caravans, things like that. It does work well with that.
Matt Sims
Let’s just talk about caravans. And you mentioned the C word. We’re going to allow it on the Motorhome Matt podcast! You can fit a tracker to a caravan, but it doesn’t have an ignition to start an engine.
Guy Carter
Yes, true.
Matt Sims
So how do you manage that on a caravan?
Guy Carter
What we do is get our engineers to fit an inline switch somewhere in the in the caravan. The inline switch would imitate the ignition. So if you hooked up your caravan without doing that, you would get a tow away alert.
Matt Sims
So if you moved it without the switch on?
Guy Carter
It would be a tow away alert.
Matt Sims
So the owner needs to go in the caravan, find this hidden switch, I presume, turn it on, and then it’s safe to move. Okay, got it. Right. I think that’s clear! Can we talk about stats just quickly? We know that we have to have a tracker if our insurance company tells us, which is normally about asset value, because they’re trying to protect the asset from theft. But you don’t have to have a Thatcham approved tracker. And in fact, you could choose to have a tracker whether your insurance company tell you to or not.
Guy Carter
That’s true, yeah.
Matt Sims
But one of the reasons for having a tracker is some of these scary statistics that we were talking about earlier, which is the number of cars particularly – it’s hard to get real statistics on motorhomes and caravans. The insurance companies will probably have them. But tell us how many cars are nicked in the UK.
Guy Carter
So in 2023, there were just under 65,000 cars stolen, which equates to roughly about one every eight minutes.
Matt Sims
Wow.
Guy Carter
So it is a huge amount. And if you have a tracker on there, the likelihood of you getting that back – there is about a 95% recovery rate. Moving forward with that, it’s 86% of that 95% within the first 24 hours of having that.
Matt Sims
It’s quick, provided you’ve got a tracker. Okay, we’re talking about motorhomes, but of course this is relevant to our cars. I’ve got one on my VW van and my motorbike, actually. I know my insurance company don’t need me to have one, but it’s just useful, I think, to protect my asset.
So let’s talk then about the range of trackers you’ve got. So we’ve talked about the Thatcham approved ones. But of course, you can fit those without having the Thatcham subscription. So we didn’t touch on that, did we?
If it’s a Thatcham tracker, you’ve got to pay a monthly fee. We’ll unpack costs in a minute. But that’s a key thing, isn’t it? You buy the hardware and then you’ve got to pay a subscription if it’s Thatcham. But if it’s not Thatcham, there’s no subscription. Is that right?
Guy Carter
So we’ve got, say, our two wire here, which we usually say is self fit.
Matt Sims
A two wire tracker? A plus and minus?
Guy Carter
Yeah. So all you need is the positive and negative, so it could be anywhere on the vehicle. It can be on the battery. It does come with sticky back on so you can put it on the battery if you want, if you want it a little bit more secure and hidden. As long as you’ve got a 12 or 24 volt supply on there!
Matt Sims
And you monitor this yourself in your app?
Guy Carter
So you’ve got your app, so you can monitor it yourself. There’s no subscription. So this one is a 4G device. So we basically have these online. We’ve got a 2G device as well. That’s £219.99 for five years’ tracking. So no subscription on that.
Matt Sims
So no subscription, and this is where you as a business are upsetting the market, as far as I can see. I mean, these are normally about £500.
Guy Carter
What we’ve found is that there arelot of other companies out there that are selling them for,£50, but then there’ll be a £100 a year subscription fee. So with ours, obviously, £219, you could save up to £300.
Matt Sims
And that lasts for five years. What happens at the end of the five years?
Guy Carter
After five years, it’s £60 to register for another five years. And all that is that we’ve got to update the SIM card, so we put more data on the SIM card.
Matt Sims
Right. Wow. And you can keep updating it every five years? I mean, eventually, I presume the hardware is going to expire!
Guy Carter
We haven’t got a timeline on that, but obviously warranties and such like… things don’t last forever, or as long as they used to! But yeah, we’ve had plenty out there. We’ve had some out there for 10 years now.
Matt Sims
So £219 buys you a tracker, and it’s live for five years in the app. £60 after five years, it goes for another five years, and no Thatcham approval, no monitoring, you can keep an eye on it yourself.
Guy Carter
The only advantage that you could do, and this is the only subscription rate that we’ve got on these, is that you could go for a professional plan as well. The professional plan is £30 a year, and that will give you geo fencing.
It would act, as I say, a little bit more like the Thatcham does, except it’ll be push notifications to your phone, so if it leaves a certain area, you get notification on ignition and on movement as well.
That’s not something that we do on the home plan, which is why we’ve been able to keep it so low, because not everyone will want to use the moving alerts or geofencing. They just want a tracker and know where it is.
Matt Sims
Got it. Okay. So that’s the 4G tracker. What we’ve got next?
Guy Carter
So we’ve got some easier ones, if you like. So there’s no wiring involved at all. We’ve got just an OBD tracker as well.
Matt Sims
An OBD – explain for the listeners.
Guy Carter
So OBD – you’ll have a part which is usually used for diagnostic parts. Generallyspeaking, most of them are somewhere in the footwell or the center console. Plug that in there. As soon as you’ve plugged in, that’s it.
Matt Sims
But easily removed.
Guy Carter
Easily removed.
Matt Sims
A thief would know where to look.
Guy Carter
So I wouldn’t say I would use it for that, because obviously it’s not going to be particularly well hidden. But if you have multiple vehicles, you can have that in there. Or rentals do it quite a lot if they’re renting the vehicles out on a nightly basis. They can pop that in there and see where the vehicles are.
Matt Sims
If you just want to track somebody using your car! Okay, next up, what have we got?
Guy Carter
After that, we’ve got an asset tracker. This is again a five year tracker. Three AAA batteries, and it’ll last five years. So you can pop it in a vehicle and forget about it. Quite good for caravans, if you haven’t got a battery in there. Some caravans don’t have a battery or solar panels. You can have that in there, so you can still have a tracker.
Matt Sims
So you could fit that, then, in a vehicle that has got the all singing, all dancing Thatcham tracker. In the event that was stolen, it was taken out of the vehicle by a thief, you’d still have that.
Guy Carter
We have that as well. We call it a sleeper tracker unit. So we do have that and this together. As you say, once somebody has found one tracker, they’re not usually going to look for a second one. And with this one, it talks in four times a day. So if you had a device that was looking for a tracker, you’d be very lucky to see this one.
Matt Sims
So we mentioned cloning earlier and scanning trackers, right? So that’s the issue, isn’t it? So the Thatcham, the fancy, big one here, the S5 tracker – it’s constantly reporting, so it’s easily scanned.
Guy Carter
If the vehicle is stationary, it’ll check in every four hours. If the vehicle has been moved, it’ll then track every 30 seconds.
Matt Sims
Is it easy to scan a tracker?
Guy Carter
As you upgrade things with thieves, they are going to find a way to get around it. Similar to a house alarm, it is a deterrent. But unfortunately, if they want to get in or want to steal it…
Matt Sims
I guess it’s like a wheel clamp. I mean, it’s a visual deterrent. These aren’t visual necessarily, but a wheel clamp can be cut off. At least with this, if it’s disconnected because it’s been found… I mean, you’ve got to scan it, know there’s a tracker on it, and then go and find it in the dashboard or wherever it’s been hidden. Thieves aren’t generally going to want to do that. Their normal practice is to go and hide thehe vehicle away for a day or a week and see if anybody comes.
Guy Carter
That seems to be the common practice, yeah.
Matt Sims
And then if nobody comes, they assume there’s no tracker on it or nobody cares. And if it is disconnected, you get an alert it’s been disconnected. But this hidden one, this asset tracker, that means that you can still see where it is if the tracker has been taken off. I love that. And we’ve got one more.
Guy Carter
Yeah, we have. So this is a personal tracker.
Matt Sims
Now, my teenage boy has got one of these.
Guy Carter
These are really good for walkers, things like that. I think we’ve got a couple of Scout groups that have had these as well, so they have them in the backpack. So in the event of something happening, obviously they can still track that. And it’s got an SOS button as well, so that would then be alerted on whoever’s got the platform on the phone.
Matt Sims
Well, we use one of these ourselves. Yes, we’ve put it in Reuben’s school bag only to see where he is, which is really useful. Again, we can track it in the app, can’t we? And if he had a problem, then he can press the button, and all of us get alerted that something’s gone wrong for him, and we know where he is. So why do you have so many options, then? Is it just about choice? I mean, this is only some of your range, isn’t it?
Guy Carter
Yeah, we do still have a larger range because we do fleet vehicles and commercial vehicles as well. So we have larger ranges of the asset trackers. We have the 2G and 4G versions of the OBD port and the two wires as well. At the moment the UK is fine for 2G. We haven’t got a closing date.
Matt Sims
It will get switched off.
Guy Carter
At some point it is going to get switched off.
Matt Sims
So all your trackers are moving to 4G, then?
It is something that we’re looking to do. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. SoWhich would you say is the the number one choice for a motorhomer or caravanner?
Guy Carter
If your insurance hasn’t specified you need a Thatcham unit, I would say save a little bit of money if you wanted to do that. And you’d go for a two wire device.
Matt Sims
The one you can fit yourself. And it’s just about finding power and a hidden location for it. I’ve got one on mine that’s hidden in the engine bay. And it could be easily found, I’ll be honest, and removed, but at least I would know it’s been taken off. And if your insurance say you have to have one?
Guy Carter
They will specify as to what level it needs to be as well, whether it needs to be an S5 or an S7. They won’t usually specify on the ignition. So that is down to you if you want to put the immobilisation on there. So if you want to put the immobilisation onto the S5 with the driver recognition tag, that is something extra as well.
Matt Sims
So this is the S5 plus. Okay,With no fob, you can start it if it’s an S5. If it’s an S5 plus, which would be quite an expensive motorhome driving, that requirement, you’ve got to have the fob present. Okay, so that’s like the ultimate tracker.
Guy Carter
It is, yeah. I mean, if you’ve got two drivers and only one fob you can also get into the app, and it will that will act as this. It will communicate.
Matt Sims
Got it. Okay. Now, the other question we get asked a lot is about transferring this hardware. So you’ve made the investment into the hardware, you’ve maybe been paying your Thatcham subscription, you sell the vehicle. What are your options?
Guy Carter
We can get an engineer out to either take the tracker out and put it into a new vehicle, if you like to do that. Or if you’ve sold it to someone, and they’re happy to take it and you’re happy for them, we can leave the tracker in there, and we can transfer details as well to the new customer, because you may find that you’re buying another vehicle that, again, already has a tracker in there.
Matt Sims
So you can transfer the tracker and the subscription, and there’s no restriction on taking it off. And it doesn’t doesn’t matter what subscription plan you’ve bought, you can transfer it itha GPSBobBob tracker?
Guy Carter
Yes.
Keith Gooden
That’s Guy Carter, the technical engineering manager at GPSBob. He’s not Bob. He’s Guy. Do you get it? He’s a guy called Guy who’s not Bob.
Matt Sims
No one knows who Bob is.
Keith Gooden
Do they not?
Matt Sims
Who’s Bob?
Keith Gooden
Who is GPS Bob? Who is he?
Matt Sims
I think it was a drunk night out by the team, and they came up with this name. Why not? I mean, it’s a brilliant name. I think they’re a brilliant company, and it’s a great product.
Keith Gooden
Do you need, then, to buy a Thatcham approved tracker? Or can you do without?
Matt Sims
It’s going to be led by your insurance company. So the first thing to do is check with your insurer. Do I need to have a tracker? And if so, what type? They often ask you, what type of immobiliser does the vehicle have?
Most Fiat and Ford vehicles and others, Citroen, Peugeot and so on, all come from the factory with what’s called a category two immobiliser, which means you can’t start it without the key. Actually, that’s not quite true.
You can start them without a key, but you can upgrade the immobiliser with an alarm or an immobilisation system, or even with a tracker, which makes it a category one. So that’s the highest level of immobilisation, which means you must have the key, or you need some kind of fob in the vehicle with you in order to start it.
Keith Gooden
A fob for the Bob?
Matt Sims
A fob for your Bob. So yeah, it’s going to be led by your insurance company, but you could choose to fit one and then tell them you’ve got one, and they may reduce your premium by, you a few pence…
Keith Gooden
A few pence or a few pounds. Ask! Remember, we’ve been talking about insurance a lot over the last few weeks. Have an open conversation with the insurance company. Ask them those questions, and if you’re unsure about anything, ask them to clarify.
So I’ve gone to pick up my brand new or second hand motorhome, which I’m going to be driving around in the summertime, and I phone the insurance company, and I say, “I’m driving away now. The cover can start.” And they say, “Is the tracker fitted?” And I say, ” having it done tomorrow.” What happens?
Matt Sims
Well, technically, you won’t be driving it away with insurance, so they could stop you from getting insured. It’s really important, this, and I’ve heard lots of people falling foul of this, where they arrive at the dealership to pick up their motorhome, be it new or used, but the insurance company covering it want it to have a tracker. It’s not been fitted, and they have to go back home in the car. Now, an insurance company may say, right, we’re going to give you seven days’ grace, or 10 days’ grace to get a tracker fitted.
Keith Gooden
But pay us another £150.
Matt Sims
They might say that, or they might insist that it has a wheel clamp, or you may be able to justify blocking it in with a car, or doing something to give them some sort of peace of peace of mind, and that’s what this is about. It’s about protecting the asset that they’re insuring. They want to see that when it’s nicked… if it’s nicked, sorry! That they have got a chance of seeing where it is and getting the police to recover it.
So make sure you check with your insurance company long in advance before you go to the dealership for that big handover day. You can work with a dealer to get a tracker fitted, or you can just work with a tracking company, who will send an engineer to that dealership, and they will fit it there for you.
Keith Gooden
Fantastic. Now, what’s the top thing a buyer should keep in mind when shopping for a tracker? You’ve said earlier there are differences. There are different subscription levels. So what should you be looking at?
Matt Sims
What is it going to cost? So what kind of subscription am I going to pay? There are brands like Global Telemetrics who offer a monthly payment plan. They offer an annual payment plan. You can do a two year or a three year plan, or you can do a lifetime plan.
But beware, if you do their lifetime plan, you cannot transfer the tracker from that vehicle to another down the line, it stays on the motorhome for its life. So if you want the ability to, if you think in a couple of years time, I’m going to change this motorhome or caravan so I want the flexibility to take tracker off and put it on the next one, don’t buy a lifetime plan. Check with the tracking company. You know, what restrictions might they put on your ability to do that?
Keith Gooden
So if you have the lifetime one and you sell it to a third party, can that buyer then subscribe to that tracker?
Matt Sims
They can. Yes, they would just need to know the serial number of the tracking unit, the registration number, and the tracking company can set them up as a new customer. Of course, you only pay a subscription if it’s Thatcham approved.
If it’s not monitored, you just have access to what that tracker is doing via an app – and a tracker lifetime, I mean, we’ve got ones about eight years old, maybe 10 years old, and that’s when the ones we have anyway start becoming a little bit unreliable, and we have to replace them.
They normally carry a warranty of two or three years. You can extend that warranty if you want to. Ring the tracking company, liaise with them and understand what the future looks like for your tracker.
Keith Gooden
Fantastic. Well, we hope we’ve answered some of those questions for you. Just a quick one, just a last one – you mentioned you’ve got them on some of your vehicles. Now, there’s no moving parts to these.
This is a discreet device. It’s electronic and it has GPS coverage with the satellites which are whizzing above us every day. But if you were buying a brand new motorhome yourself, Matt, as the expert, would you fit one?
Matt Sims
100 percent, yes. And the other bit I would add is the ability to isolate the starter motor. So I went out onto the drive last week to start our van, and it wouldn’t start because I had immobilised it via the tracker, and I do that via my mobile phone.
So I then had to re-trigger it via my mobile phone, get the code that was emailed to me, type it in, wait about half a minute, and then it would start. So it’s a really effective security device, but it did catch me out because I’d forgotten I’d done it.
Keith Gooden
Motorhome Matt approved as well.
Matt Sims
Absolutely! Do check out GPSBob. They are brand new to the motorhome industry. I have been really impressed by the team behind GPSBob, and as I say, I think they’re putting some fun back into trackers.
Audience Q&A
Keith Gooden
It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
Time for our questions and answers. Greg Sumner has been in touch.
Greg Sumner
I’m looking for a totally wheelchair accessible motorhome or campervan. I’ll come across a Coatbuilt and they do near enough exactly what I’m after. I’m wondering, is there any other company like them that might do the same sort of conversions?
Keith Gooden
So Matt, Greg is asking – he wants a full wheelchair conversion. He’s got a company in mind, but he wants to know, is there any competition in the marketplace?
Matt Sims
So Coachbuilt GB, Kate and the team, are amazing, and they absolutely will look after you. They are experts at this, recognised by many insurers, but we know of a company called Brook Miller as well.
Now, I’ve never dealt with them personally. I have a customer that stores their motorhome with us, and they have had a wheelchair adaptation done to it with a rail all through the roof. And I’ve seen it, and it looks phenomenal. And they love it.
They love the conversion, and they love the company that did it for them. So Brook Miller is their name, but I’ve not had a personal experience of them, other than seeing some of their workload. Whereas with Kate and the team at Coachbuilt GB, we’ve worked together for years, and I know them all quite well. They are super helpful. I would say if you’ve found a company that can fulfill your needs, then just go for it. Go with them.
Keith Gooden
Don’t forget, the company that you deal with should be able to guide you through the VAT exemptions and also some of the benefits that you will be due for that conversion.
Matt Sims
It’s very true. Yeah, they are experts in their field, so trust their judgment. Certainly.
Keith Gooden
Mark Bassant is in Canterbury. “What are the pros and cons,” he asks, “Of different types of motorhomes, the meaning of Class A, B and C, for instance, and how do you maintain and care for a motorhome to ensure its longevity?”
Matt Sims
Great question. An A class motorhome, very quickly, has got a huge windscreen and looks like a bus. A C class motorhome… the A, B and C thing’s quite American, and it’s terminology used in the States.
A coachbuilt, as we call them here, is a van with a body built on it. And in the States, that would be called a C class motorhome, but we have a whole episode on this for you. It’s called Different Types of Motorhomes. You’ll find it in our back catalogue.
And caring for a motorhome – we have an episode called Cleaning your Motorhome, where I interviewed George from a local valeting company, and he explains the do’s and don’ts of looking after your motorhome. So go and check them out.
Keith Gooden
Fantastic. Remember that whole library of Motorhome Matt, podcasts – we’ve been going now for nearly three years, haven’t we? It’s one hell of a library.
Matt Sims
I wondered what you were going to say!
Keith Gooden
Tony Roberts is of no fixed abode. We think he’s living in his van. Formerly, he’s from Cumbria. He asks, “Hi, Matt. I’m sure there will be a growing interest to many of your audience. I discovered today that the Lancashire county council is banning the purchase of two parking tickets for motorhomes in all its car parks.”
I presume he means he buys two parking tickets and parks across two separate spaces. He says, “It’s basically banning all motorhomes from the area. Also, Southport council have banned motorhomes from using any park and ride facility. So between the two, this is a clear sign that motorhomes are not welcome in Lancashire.”
He goes on to say, “I hope this will not become a trend for other councils. What could we do to inform and convince councils across the UK of the value of motorhome tourism?” He says, “Another worrying trend is the massive stock levels at dealers.
I was recently at Brownhills in Newark, one of the biggest in the area. Their stock was overflowing in all directions. Are potential buyers waiting for a discount deal? Are motorhome values on the decline?” Quite a lot to unpack there from Tony Roberts of no fixed abode.
Matt Sims
He’s getting his money’s worth and worrying a lot.
Keith Gooden
He is worrying a lot. The thing that strikes me is that in Lancashire, they don’t have the height restriction into the car parks, which is usually the thing that stops most motorhomes.
Matt Sims
It’s very true. Well, they’re not banning motorhomes in Lancashire. They’re just stopping motorhomes from parking in certain car parks.
Keith Gooden
It does seem a bit petty, doesn’t it, if you’re buying two tickets and parking across two spaces, that they would want to stop you doing that if there’s no height restriction.
Matt Sims
I mean, it is a bit petty, isn’t? It’s a real shame. It’s a real shame. The question Tony poses is, how do we convince a council to be more open armed and welcoming to motorhomes? That’s a great question. And there are people that spend many, many years of their lives trying to do this.
Keith Gooden
We must say there are some councils that are on the ball and are offering more for motorhomers.
Matt Sims
So I think the only way, really, is to engage with your council and make them aware. I mean, I imagine they’re stopping this because they see it, for some reason, as a problem. You know, they’re stopping locals from parking a car in a car park because you’re in there taking up two spaces, which halves a number of vehicles that can be parked.
So they see the motorhomes as a problem. But we ought to be really pitching into our councils the benefits that we bring, our ability to spend money in the local economy, and why motorhomes should be welcomed. So I would encourage you to engage with your local council. We are trying to do the same here, engaging with our local councillor, who we’ve invited onto the podcast. He’s agreed.
So I’m hoping at some point in the near future, we can get our local councillor talking motorhomes with us, which I think will be fascinating and give an insight into a council’s view of motorhomes and why things like this are an issue for them. And we also want to talk aires. So the ability to, you know, park up in a permitted place with the council’s blessing. I think it’d be a big topic.
Keith Gooden
Yep. So Tony, refer back to the episode two weeks ago – Is the Industry in Trouble? That will give you some answers to the final part of your question as well.
Ask Matt
Keith Gooden
Well, we are done and dusted there, Matt – how do people get in touch?
Matt Sims
Really easily. Head to mhmp.info.info/askmatt. Please click the orange button, tell us where in the world you are and record your question. Or if you’d rather not do that, you can fill in the form and we’ll read it out for you.
Keith Gooden
And if you’re looking for trusted brands and services, then make sure you visit the Motorhome Matt Approved directory at mhmp.info/approved.approved. Tried and tested products by Motorhome Matt, which he then has given his seal of approval to.
Matt Sims
Absolutely. And if you’re watching on YouTube, please make sure you hit subscribe and click the little bell. Brought to you by www.arobasecreative.co.uk.
