Buying a transit van... can I secure it somehow?

[Paul FilmMaker]

My little filming business could use a van. At the moment, we use an SUV but it's at the stage where a van would be so much more useful.

However, when we tested this, we found the van we hired was broken into on the first evening we had it. There was nothing in it but even in leafy Surrey, in an affluent area, it lasted literally one evening which is a little discouraging. At the moment, we're parking it on the street, don't have a driveway and the offices are an inconvenient drive away. Meaning to load it up is painful.

But the SUV never gets broken into.

So for all you transit van owners, how are you securing it? What are you doing to stop people breaking into your empty transit? And wrecking it. What works?

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

You dont they will always be easy to open up .Goods In Transit Insurance no longer covers unattended vans
We have a secure yard for loaded vans
Van fortress probably supply the best security applications and they are worth looking at

 

[fisicx]

My mate had a secure yard with alarms and floodlights. Even with all this and van fortress they would try to wrench the doors with crowbars.

He now parks on a road with lots of traffic under a street lamp. Being very public seems to deter them.

 

[Mark T Jones]

You can do the obvious, in particular reinforce known entry points but ultimately, if they want to get in they will.

There is a theory that rear windows actually put thieves off on the basis that they can see there are no valuables in there (assuming that's the case) - I've know idea if stats back it up.

 

[WaveJumper]

Unfortunately if they want in they will but if not they will nick the whole van as one of our friends found out.

 

[Steony]

Have you considered a Torneo?
Have the back windows tinted and the average thief will think it's a MPV and not a van

 

[DontAsk]

Leave the back doors open and sleep in the cab

A hire van was probably branded as such and so it's still worth a punt to see what they can steal from it.

Could you apply branding that makes the contents less desirable? "Cat litter direct"

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

You dont they will always be easy to open up .Goods In Transit Insurance no longer covers unattended vans
We have a secure yard for loaded vans
Van fortress probably supply the best security applications and they are worth looking at

Thanks. Appreciate the Van Fortress tip as well. This is one of the annoying parts of being a business owner.

The issue for us is we empty everything at night. So it's just annoying having to fix a van that's been 'professionally' broken into.

So it looks like old SUVs is the answer for us. Appreciate your comments.

 

[fisicx]

Or a minibus with the rear seats taken out. Room for passengers and all your kit.

Shouldn't need much stuff. Apparently you can now do all your filming with a mobile phone

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Or, use an SUV!

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I've been looking at 7- seat Citroen Berlingo's. The rear 2 seats are foldable and/or removable, giving you some boot space. The 3 middle seats lay flat to give you a good load bed. The rear door space is large, similar in size to the van, the door when lifted gives cover from the rain, and on some the glass window can be opened separately for dropping random items in the back if your eg., parked hard up against a wall.

The biggest problem I'm finding is matching all of the above to an available vehicle as most are 5 seaters with different options, there's a mix of electric, petrol or diesel fuelled and there are more available up north than down south!

 

[MikeJ]

Thanks. Appreciate the Van Fortress tip as well. This is one of the annoying parts of being a business owner.

The issue for us is we empty everything at night. So it's just annoying having to fix a van that's been 'professionally' broken into.

So it looks like old SUVs is the answer for us. Appreciate your comments.

Have you considered not locking it? Guess there's a risk someone may start sleeping in it (or worse...).

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Leave the back doors open and sleep in the cab

A hire van was probably branded as such and so it's still worth a punt to see what they can steal from it.

Could you apply branding that makes the contents less desirable? "Cat litter direct"

It was grey. No branding at all...

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Have you considered not locking it? Guess there's a risk someone may start sleeping in it (or worse...).

We had a car many years ago where one of the doors didn't lock. It ended up with people sleeping in it and really annoyingly, nicking bits of it.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Or, use an SUV!

We use an SUV. But a van is so much better. Except for the constantly getting broken into thing, hence this post...

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Have you considered a Torneo?
Have the back windows tinted and the average thief will think it's a MPV and not a van

That's interesting. I like the look of the customs as well although it makes them look more like a van. Interesting. On Autotrader now, looking at these