In this RV Ring Alarm System install video we do a complete walkthrough of the RV Ring Alarm System installation into our Grand Design Momentum. We document where the components are installed and why we picked those locations. We also review the Ring Camera installs and how they were set up to work on both normal 120 VAC power in addition to adding internal Ring Batteries for times when AC is unavailable. Jim shows how he hacked the Ring Base Station to get it to run on 12 VDC (normally an 120 VAC only device) standard RV power. As long as the Coach has normal DC battery power the Alarm system will stay fully operational. When the DC power goes off the ring system fails over to the backup cellular and internal batteries.
Self-Install Alarm Systems
We have extensively researched wireless self-install alarm systems for years. We started looking at them for our sticks and bricks house. We have researched every alarm system that we have been able to get our hands on for over a decade. When we bought our Grand Design Momentum 397TH we knew one of the first projects on the to-do list was to make sure it is protected from fire, vandalism and burglary. The challenge with Campers and RV's in general is that they are mobile and move locations! Professional monitoring is not feasible in a Coach that isn't stationary.
Products we used in this video
Why did we choose Ring over others for our RV Alarm System?
Most services that sell alarm systems want to also sell a subscription to their monitoring service that is sole with the promise to dispatch police or fire when the alarm sounds. Without a subscription many of the systems are unusable. They sell these systems at a low cost because they want the monthly cash-flow from the subscriptions. Simplisafe, for example, advertises that a customer does not need a subscription to use their service. Although this is technically accurate, what they don't say is that you will not receive any alerts without monitoring! Seriously, an alarm system that will not tell you if the alarm is sounding unless you pay for monitoring. That was a show-stopper for us.
The Ring Alarm Subscription Service is optional. One can monitor their system as long as it is connected to wifi for free. All of the features like alerts, watching video feeds, setting up alternate access codes for guests, etc. work with our without a subscription. They also offer a reasonably priced subscription service that adds additional features like cloud-storage of video captures and cellular backup of the base station. Monitoring that dispatch police and fire is included in the Ring subscription, but the service does not need to be activated. For us it was worth $100/year to get the subscription for the cellular backup alone. If wifi and power is down in our coach for any reason the Ring System continues to function and will alert us if there is a problem.