Video Knowledge / Video
Media collaboration and public education

Thomas Nagy Visits Sussex Installations for Van Security

26 July 2019 · A collaboration that introduced Sussex Installations to a wider electrician audience

Video ID: CPYiTeUiptYMedia, collaborations and recognitionJul 26, 2019 · 57,535 recorded views

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Jeff Scott’s retrospective context — 2026

It was really interesting meeting Thomas Nagy, who was known as TomtheSpark at the time. I would go on to meet him several more times, with him returning to Sussex Installations and later inviting me onto his Fix Radio show in my role as a Van Security Expert.

Initially, this was one of those enquiries where I wasn't really sure whether I wanted other YouTubers filming our installations and publishing the content on their own channels. Looking back, I later realised the value of collaborations like this. They allowed me to showcase Sussex Installations, our knowledge and the way we work to a completely different audience.

In Thomas's case, that audience was mainly electricians. Over the years we've had many sparkies come to Sussex Installations who have mentioned that they first saw us on Thomas Nagy's YouTube channel. It showed me that collaborations with respected tradespeople can be one of the best ways of reaching people who genuinely depend on their vans and tools.

It showed me that collaborations with respected tradespeople can be one of the best ways of reaching people who genuinely depend on their vans and tools.

It also helped me understand that education can reach further than traditional advertising. Roger Bisby's Skill Builder audience introduced us to a broad cross-section of the construction industry, while Thomas introduced us to a large electrician audience.

Looking back, I probably should have opened Sussex Installations up to more YouTube collaborations with tradespeople earlier. Although I naturally enjoy producing and filming our own educational videos, appearing on other respected channels allowed our knowledge to reach audiences that may never have found us through our own subscriber base.

Not only was it a pleasure to work with Tom on this collaboration, and later again through Fix Radio, it has also been a pleasure to see a genuinely nice and hardworking person do well in business as a result of the effort he put into YouTube, his wider business and his media work.

Original description

After the van break in, I decided to fit a couple of additional dead locks to both of the vans. Many of you recommended to try Sussex Installations and I must say they've done a really neat job. Thought I'd share the installation process and a few thoughts on van security.

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My website:

https://www.thomasnagy.co.uk

If you would like to support my work and donate a small amount that goes directly to my video production, please have a look at my PATREON page:

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Thank you for watching!

Thomas Nagy

WARNING:
This video is for entertainment purposes only. If you use the information from this video for your own projects then you assume complete responsibility for the results.

#deadlocks

Historical context: This video records the advice, products and attack methods relevant when it was published. Current recommendations may have changed as vehicles, products and criminal methods evolved.

Common questions

Why did Tom bring his van to Sussex Installations instead of a local locksmith?

After Tom's van was broken into, his viewers recommended Sussex Installations. He says he phoned around eight locksmiths and none of them talked him through the options over the phone — Sussex Installations was the only one that explained the pros and cons of each option before he committed to having deadlocks fitted.

What extra locks and plates were fitted to Tom's van?

Hook-style deadlocks were fitted to the front cab doors, the side load door and the rear barn doors, also early versions of Sussex Installations Stealth Shields that go covertly inside the side load door and rear barn doors to protect the factory latch mechanisms creating a multi-layer defence strategy.

Why did Jeff decide to open Sussex Installations up to more YouTuber collaborations like this one?

Jeff initially hesitated about other YouTubers filming installations for their own channels, but seeing how many electricians mentioned discovering Sussex Installations through Thomas Nagy's channel — and later through Roger Bisby's Skill Builder channel — showed him that collaborations with respected tradespeople can reach audiences that advertising alone would never find.

Transcript

Show transcript
0:00 -everybody we're at Sussex
0:06 -[Music]
0:23 -so after my van stopped rotating shoe I got loads of comments everybody saying
0:33 -the same thing head down to Sussex installation and they'll thought your van about security wise which is what we did I'm trying to keep out their way a
0:41 -little bit but they've got quite a lot work to do it's on the front of the van here we ended up fitting these deadlocks trim looks the ones I've got down here
0:49 -just these hook style locks it's very neat the way they do it I suppose when you do it every single day you don't really you don't really think about it
0:57 -it's ain't doing a few sport changer where you think about it it's just one of those things you do and it just gets done and you don't think anything of it but I know for a fact I couldn't do this
1:06 -so you can see the profile there that's how they do they just put masking tape on it figure out where the locks gotta go nibble their way through there two
1:14 -pilot holes at the top two at the bottom and they've just got this little nibbling machine and then label it out like that and anyway on the side here on
1:21 -the sides loading doors here and I can shut this whole thing this is the original one I had
1:30 -so they take another one they take another one further down here so what one down here
1:37 -and then this one up here and they put in where is it it found okay I'll show you actually
1:45 -that's your thing I can they put a plate just in behind here that's it so this lock here just in behind here there's
1:54 -it's like a large steel plate I think that's still got a spell on the van I'll show you but they put it that on the inside of this door and then there's
2:02 -this low low down lock down here no you actually can't quite see it but is that plate just there and they bolt that on the inside of the door
2:11 -back in my van it was a little more complex could you remember I had that bat Malenko in fact I've got a hit a
2:20 -piece of [ __ ] garbage I had that and that was mounted somewhere there if you remember but of course when you removed
2:28 -it alleppey when you removed it it left the original holds air so what they've had to do is if that's fit wouldn't be stainless steel plates because I had
2:36 -four holes here as well very neatly done I'll show you how they do on the other side cut the holes through just put these little blanking bottom its in
2:43 -afterwards and that's the end result and then the one on this side here we'll have eventually when they get on to doing it we'll have this plate here so
2:52 -that deadbolt same as this one here will end up just going something like that and they'll just sit straight in the
2:59 -middle it's a neat way even if you had you know even if you had a lock or something you've got to get it changed or something they have got ways of you
3:07 -know neat little ways of coming up with dealing with stuff like this I fitted this external plate for what they've
3:14 -also done in fact you can just see the edge of it there so they ended up hitting an internal plate as well same as the ones on the side door if I you can see it you can just see it up there
3:23 -and I think the idea a bit is that if B if the external plate does end up being wrenched off you can see the bolts for
3:30 -it here so they wrenched that off even then you've still gotta gets it and you've got to try and push your way through that internal play as well I'm gonna get out of I want to get in leave
3:38 -them to it there's a little part of me which when this happened I was considering I was like maybe I could just do it itself through deadlocks how
3:46 -hard can it be as it transpires it's there's a real art to doing this quite I'm quite glad I didn't take this on
3:53 -because I have [ __ ] it right up but it is if it's interesting watching watching how they do it could you just
4:01 -teal the little tricks and the way that they line all the locks up and stuff it's interesting stuff sorting stuff you
4:08 -don't get to see every day all right so we're pretty much at the end of the day and they've literally just finished I've just slipped they've just swept up here and everything so I'll just I'll tell
4:16 -you quickly around what they've done cuz it was quite intensive what they had to surprise their Chi to be found surprised they got both done in a time they had we
4:23 -had the locks on the cab doors the only reason we fitted those was I just figured that it was more just for the theft of the van more than anything
4:30 -because if that's locked and the Vans deadbolt it you know what you're gonna get in there is by smashing that window and you're not really gonna want to
4:38 -smash that window and then climb through the broken glass to then get into the vehicle too then it just doesn't make sense so that was the only reason it wasn't so much to stop people from
4:47 -stealing anything inside it was just it was just more than matches stop and steal the van so that was reason we had those fitted but that's the end result
4:55 -it's a beautifully in heat finish and a sliding door same again they finished it now well which was up here and then same
5:03 -again another one just down there and they've ended up putting this steel there's like a steel protection plate which goes somewhere here because apparently they're starting to do the
5:11 -same thing with these now but on the side doors where they drill a hole on the side of the van so there's now a steel plate somewhere just behind there
5:18 -deliberately to try and just stop that risk and that was the end result at the back of this van this is what they ended up having to do because I had that
5:26 -horrible malenko lock here we ended up putting these steel plates on oh it came out quite nice actually look I know that's quite beefy actually it's not bad at all and then same thing again here as
5:35 -I said got the outer plate and then there's the there's an inner steel plate here as well because that was another thing in the comments that was coming up if people if you turn around and slate a
5:43 -product and say I don't like that that's garbage no one complains about that that's perfectly acceptable but if you turn around and say I quite like that
5:51 -product suddenly you're being sponsored by them and it's a complete sham why if you like something tell the world you
5:59 -know the difficulty I had honest to god after these bands got broken into and I had to go and find a locksmith to come and fit all of this
6:07 -[ __ ] yeah how hard that was I must have run honestly eight locksmiths do you think any of them gave a [ __ ] no one cared absolutely no one gave a [ __ ]
6:15 -these people were the only ones who actually went through over the phone you know all the options you had and not
6:23 -just the options but what what the good and bad were of those options the only ones that did it nobody else did so you know if you do come across somebody
6:31 -who's half tidy let the world know about it you know you don't have to be being you know paid or being sponsored
6:38 -it's just promoting a good a good solid company that's that's all it is you know people just seem to assume that if you say something's good
6:47 -automatically you're being sponsored and it's a complete load of bollocks no it's not it's just you're promoting a good
6:54 -service it's out there that's all right our tools are more or less packed up now so we're gonna hit the road we will give
7:03 -us five mates will get out of here and we'll see you in a bit
7:10 -[Applause]
7:21 -I'm trying to work out whether a fights about to break out or whether it's just ah I've bumped into him before yeah
7:32 -[Laughter]
7:34 -that's the amazing thing about London you're never sure there could just be some random fight
7:41 -breaking out you never actually sure and you just kind of let them get on with it okay now fast forward a few weeks we've
7:50 -had these locks fitted for a couple of weeks now and now going alright the only thing I have noticed is it's a bit of a procedure when it comes to locking and
7:58 -unlocking the van at night and in the morning and stuff that's a bit of a faff I'll be honest because you've got to go through all of those one by one every
8:05 -time you want to get in and out of it which is it's a little bit of a pain but it's you know for the security gives you I guess it you know it is worth it but
8:14 -it's just a faff you know I've got a feeling this guy that shouting in the street isn't actually angry I think he's just drunk I do I remember the night
8:21 -that break-in happened I was like eleven o'clock at night and I'd literally I'd just come home because I've been working
8:29 -late that night and it was like ten o'clock I know about half 9:00 when I got back and I basically just had a shower and I got straight into bed and I
8:37 -think me and Tom might at that on that particular day I don't think we were really talking to each other already I think we'd already had a bit of an argument with each other and I put my
8:46 -phone on silent and I put it by the side of my bed which is what I always do and the phone rang and I was like I could hear it but I couldn't hear it ringing but you could hear it vibrating but I
8:54 -sounded bad not like I'm not answering I don't care who that is he can have to wait till morning and I left it and it rang back about two or three minutes
9:02 -later and I was like okay this is obviously saying serious they someone's double rung and I answered and it was a number I didn't recognize and they're
9:09 -like just seen even get broken into and I was like [ __ ] okay and I thought it was my one and he said I it's over in
9:16 -over in Islington as far as Tom's one okay so I rung Tom and I just told him go and have a lot of asthma broken into
9:23 -and yeah those are the pictures that you those are the pictures on the screen I have what happened so yeah annoying it
9:31 -is annoying because you work hard and you work hard to our money and you work hard to stock your van with all this stuff to try to make to try to earn more
9:39 -money and it is it does dis aren't you a bit when that sort of stuff happens but it's not just my van this is ruthless I mean Tom sent me a picture yesterday at
9:47 -the van that got broken into prime e know they are ruthless I just don't care about they just don't care about who they
9:54 -break into you know you try so [ __ ] hard and then all it takes is just one person to ruin it you know that's all it
10:01 -takes doesn't take much but you at the same time you can't think like that because otherwise you'd never get anywhere you know so you just have to so
10:09 -keep you just have to keep trundling on there's nothing you there's no there's nothing you can do you to keep just keep pressing forwards and hope for the best
10:17 -you know okay everybody very quickly before we go a lot of you are asking about Laura you want to see more of the content and stuff I'm gonna leave a link here for my
10:26 -Instagram account follow me on that because this weekend we're going to be doing sort of a Q&A and some bits and pieces Laura and then she's going to be
10:34 -in the video on Monday I believe if I get the recording done fast enough she should be in Monday's video so follow me on Instagram and you can watch
10:42 -it over the weekend though as it happens see you later take care

Transcript source: the YouTube transcript supplied for this project with minor corrections. Automated transcripts can contain recognition errors and should be checked against the original video.

Page details

Author
Jeff Scott
Publisher
Sussex Installation Team Ltd
Original video date
26 July 2019
Retrospective update
2026-07-31
Primary focus
Media collaboration, public education and professional van-security installation
Jeff Scott, founder of Sussex Installation Team Ltd
About the author

Jeff Scott — Van Security Specialist and Industry Educator

Jeff Scott is the founder of Sussex Installation Team Ltd (Sussex Installations). He has fitted vehicle-security systems since 1997, started Sussex Installations in 2003 and has specialised in van security since 2008. His work combines installation, vulnerability research, product design, UK manufacturing and long-term public education.

In 2009, Jeff published the first known YouTube video explaining mechanical key-operated van deadlocks. He has continued documenting van-security products, installation standards, vehicle vulnerabilities and changing attack methods ever since – earning his description as "The OG Van Security YouTuber."

Jeff has supported thousands of professional vehicle aftermarket technicians across the UK and beyond with access to technical information, while actively promoting higher quality installation standards through his trade community ifitstuff.com since 2006.

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