Hi everyone,

Who would have thunk that our cars would become valuable enough to steal in the manner it is happening. If you scroll the FB and other sites, it is happening more and more.

My answer to helping you secure getting it back comes from my LE experience. A Tracker. I use the one I post at the bottom of this paragraph. They are under a hundred bucks, and the air cards 60 bucks a year. I have 3 of them. 2 are hard wired and I keep one as a "floater" to just slap on whatever car I want. I bought these years ago when my kids were new drivers because they would forget to text that they made it to school and it was easy to just live time, dial up the car's location.

You can set parameters to send you a text if the car goes outside of the geofence you select. Ie, travels more than 5 miles from home or wherever. You can set a speed alarm that will send you a text if it exceeds whatever speed you select. So say you think your mechanic is the same guy as the valet from Ferris Bueller's Day off, you will know the car is doing 100 mph...


They are easy to hide, and use cellular and unlike an Air Tag, they don't tell anyone they are there.

My insurance company provides a discount on my daily driver as it is considered a "tracking device" to assist in recovery. I think for the low cost, you get a high peace of mind with these.

I hated reading the story about Marv's car and pray for its recovery. It is like losing a family member after the time, effort and energy we spend nurturing them through life.

Robert




https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W7YJYSH?psc=1&...product_details

Excellent and thank you for the info.

I have an AirTag with a disabled speaker now, but like you said it can still alert the thief that the tag is following them.

Does the unit you have need a subscription plan from the manufacturer (not for the data plan on the SIM)?

Same here...I use a different tracker but this one seems better.

Thanks Rob!!!!

O

Thanks Rob, a hell of a lot better than than the old LoJacks

That is the beauty. It is air card only. So you buy through "Speedmoblie" a year plan for 65 bucks, charge it and go. There is a little setup involved but they are very responsive and walk you through the app. Once it is set up, anywhere you have a connection to the internet you can check your stuff.

Buy the longer battery one. On my Tacoma right now, it has been there two weeks on the charge and I am just hitting 20%. I will hardwire that one at a later date.

Bought one, thank you for the tip

Thanks for the info. Will be purchasing one of these.

Tracking this topic so I can come back to it later, helluva idea.

Same, great suggestion

Figured I would put the SIM card you need here...

https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Senior-Child...C140&sr=8-6

They are funny to set up, the App and instructions are what you expect from a Chinese product, a bit of broken English and some words that assume what they mean. Bypass all that crap and email the seller through Amazon and they will set it up for you.

I name each tracker either by car, or Tracker 1, 2 3 etc...

Amazing tip - thanks for this.

@Robarabian - Robert,
I've had this same setup for a couple of years now precisely because you previously suggested it somewhere along the way. It's brilliant and I've pointed a number of friends to it as well Much appreciated.

These are all great ideas, but there is a bit of concern using a centralized system that knows where everyone’s cars are. The centralized system better be safe! I expect that Apple have dedicated folks protecting the Air Tags infrastructure, and am not sure about the Chinese company.

I use GEGO trackers...

https://www.gego.io/

They work anywhere in the world.

Clay

Everything has risk for sure. Yes, they are based out of the country. Yes, they can probably monitor the trackers. Do I think they have time or care where they are? Not really.

I have not yet had the passing band of thieves show up to my GPS locations to take anything. I don't think Apple is as safe as we think it to be, they can watch your FaceTime without you knowing it too, and voluntarily, I already carry my iPhone tracking device everywhere I am. To me, it is not much different.

I don't go anywhere that is so secret and for the low cost investment, it works for me. Just an option for sure.

There are US based tracker companies that you can use as well, they are just more expensive (the tracker alone is over $1500.00 dollars) and then the yearly subscription. At the end of the day, each individual needs to feel comfortable with the security level they want.

Think of it this way, with the tracker we are talking about, the car would already be back in Marv's hands. Worth it to me.

Using an offshore tracking company could be a concern to some. I had an alarm company that shut its doors (iSmartAlarm) making their web based alarm for the home a pile of scrap electronics. Same could happen here with the chinese GPS trackers.

Apple AirTags or Chipolo trackers all report their presence to avoid being used by stalkers. Not a great solution to alert the car's thief the car has a tracker onboard.

Another idea is to get a cheap used or old iPhone, flick the silent switch, get a $5 data only SIM card and use the FindMy network (not sure if Android has something similar - they would be cheaper than old iPhones).

I probably have an old 4G capable iPhone in the back of a desk somewhere. My idea was to see if there is 12v available under the passenger seat (in that mess called the seatbelt interlock) to charge the old iPhone and leave it there under the seat. This would not alert the thief like the AirTag would. Apple isn't going to disappear before any of those "no name" tracker companies.

Of course using a purely dedicated car tracker has many positives too (like tracking history and Geo-fencing).

@Robarabian Thanks for heads up on this separate topic.

I'll repost what I wrote in Marv's topic in case someone wants to see other options.

"I've been considering something similar for my cars. I'm looking at the GV50MA at Optimustracker.com . It reports every 30 seconds and on corners. Looks to be slightly more expensive monthly than the GeGo. But seems to be another good option."

How would you hard wire your option? Using a transformer to 5V to USB? I wonder what the draw would be in comparison to a true hard wire option. I personally would prefer a hard wired option. I'd be the idiot who has their car stolen only to realize I'd forgotten to charge the tracker.

Stay safe y'all!

THanks. The reason I like these is they are flexible. Geofence. Speed Alarm. Battery alarm. The hardwire option is cool. Once it is at 100 percent it stops draining and charging. So it just keeps it topped at 100 percent and if it ever gets disconnected it'll still last 2-3 weeks. You can set it for sleep mode, or every 30 seconds as well and other adjustments.

Anything to keep the cars safe, I hate when this stuff happens.

Best to you,

Robert

We have used the Gold Star trackers at our car lot with good success. This is a hard wired unit so you do not have to worry about battery life. This has real time positioning and is able to disable the vehicle. Thanks, Tom

Peace… eyes open are good things

That said, I am very cautious of any business that has a lot of information on expensive or sought after things, as they tend to be more attractive to malicious folk. The business needs to invest in the protection of customer data, and in this case a database of valuable cars and their exact location… a menu.

Btw. There are devices on Amazon that detect “signal” and not to hard buy for the average low-life stealing $200k cars. https://www.amazon.com/PocketHound-Enforcem...s/dp/B06XX2WYHF

… growing up car thieves used tow trucks.

@Robarabian I bought the TK905B and hardwired it. I'm still figuring stuff out, but I got it to reply back. Through the app I set the admin phone number and other things. But when I see GPS mode it says 30sec. Does this unit go to sleep on its own, or is it refreshing constantly every 30secs?

Thanks!

I’d like to see more about the set up procedure from those who recently completed the process

https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/a-few-...u-steal-my-914/

In the app, look for "work mode setting" you can set it to basically sleep and come on when you want; every 30 minutes, or live tracking...


For those asking more about setup, Like I said in the original post, it is easier to email the company and let them basically set it up for you with a few emails or live chat. You can do it yourself, but it is just easier to let them do it.

Basically, the instruction book lists some initiating commands. You put in the SIM card and take it outside and let it find a satellite and GPRS signal. Once the light blinks the right color, you sent it a text message (phone SIM card phone number). It will respond back. Then you send another message that is a little confusing, and it responds back. Basically it is set up from there, but the instructions are quirky.

I took my car to a shop for alignment this weekend and had that sucker slapped on the car. A bit of piece of mind for sure.

@jim_hoyland I purchased exactly what Robert laid out SIM card and tracker brand. I opted for the TK905B which has a larger battery than the regular TK905. Also, I had to do a little searching to find the hardwire kit. I didn't see it listed on the website, but found it on amazon. Here is the link to the kit I bought. Amazon Link

You first activate the SIM through the website, very straight forward. After activating through the website you get an email sent to you with your new phone number. Next you place the SIM in the device, which automatically turns on the device. They suggest placing the GPS tracker outside with open sky for better connection, I didn't do that at first and spent half an hour wondering what I did wrong because I wasn't connecting. These devices do not work well under structures. So I sat in our common area rear yard and got the device to connect fine. Once you get the the device to respond to your text command go ahead and install the app for your phone. It's a lot easier than sending commands via text. And that is basically where I'm at.

App seems pretty straight forward and intuitive. Per my question to Robert, I'm still trying to figure out the details of how the device sleeps.

I installed the GPS on my fox mustang as the 914 is still in pieces. Because of all the wiring repair I've done on the 914, the hardwire was easy. Found a ground bolt, then a spliced into the nearest wire that had constant power.

Currently the app says the device is offline. Like I mentioned before, if you are under any structure it will affect it's ability to connect. My car sits in tuck-under parking in a small condo building.

I haven't had a chance to test the geofence I setup around my building. But I hope to do so tomorrow, or this weekend. Overall I'm happy with it. And I do have a sense of relief that I finally have a layer of protection on the car.

Apologies if this sounds rambling. I wanted to reply but am rushing to get back to a deadline.

Oh, last thing, I did take a reading of my battery before installing the device. I'm curious to see how much the voltage changes after a night or two.

Here is a good video that shows how to setup the device.
https://youtu.be/22lvq6r3f2M

Also, tech help got back to me quickly. By default the device goes into sleep mode after 5 minutes of being idle.

...that is the "problem" with those trackers. Thiefes know about them and will transport your stolen car in an enclosed trailer completely lined with aluminum foil or something alike. "Faraday Cage". No signal, no matter what tracker is installed. Same goes for a well equipped "shop" where your car is beeing ripped for parts...until then they have discovered your tracker anyways and put it for a ride on the next school bus...

Any thoughts?

That for the detailed set-up.
Will the tracker detect a car, say, inside a parking structure Or only detect the car if it leaved the parking structure ?
@narino

@Arno914 You have to remember, no car is theft proof. If someone wants the car bad enough, they will get it.

Years ago, I worked near a BMW dealer in Arlington, Texas. They kept losing brand new high end BMWs off the fenced lot overnight. The fence was 10 feet tall topped with razor wire. They had dobermans running the lot at night as well.

The perps had a brick truck with a hoist on it. They would drive the truck down the alley at the back. One guy would throw ground beef balls mixed with peanut butter over the fence to distract the dobies, and then ride crane on a sling over the fence. They would put straps around the car, and lift it out of the lot and onto the brick truck. The truck had bricks around the outside edge of the truck to hide the car. They would hit that dealer 3 times a night.

The only reason they got caught was the cops stepped up patrols of the area and caught them with a car suspended in mid air over the fence.

Bottom line is you can't make your car impossible to steal. But what you can do is make it harder to steal than the other guy's car down the street. Thieves are lazy, and they will normally go with the easy score.

Clay

Which is what you want... it sleeps till it senses movement then awakens and you track.

And for the "Faraday cage" comment, it is true, you can block a signal, but you can track it to the last known location of the signal... leads are everything in car theft recovery.

@Jim_hoyland they will to some degree but without a good cell signal or GPS signal, no. You get to the location it was last seen. My son is in school in San Diego. I can track to his campus parking structure, and then back to his residential structure.

Dont be concerned about sleep mode, you want the battery to last as long as you can without a hard wire setup. Also, you dont want constant battery drain if it is hard wired. It awakens with the force of movement....

As to battery use/hardwire - mine is set up on a switched circuit so that it gets charged when the vehicle is running. you get a battery status as part of any text alert so it's easy to note. If it gets really low, you can always just bring it in and plug it in to top it up - a couple of hours, max.

Thanks for posting the Video link; it explains well:
https://youtu.be/22lvq6r3f2M

Thanks for the video i did not know these devices were that affordable.

Got to test the system yesterday. Got into the car normally and started it up, within a few seconds I recieved a shake alarm via text. The second alert ,geofence "out", also triggered within a few seconds of leaving the boundary. So far, I am really pleased with the system. Is it perfect? No. But for the low cost, it does more than enough for me.

I'm also planning on using this in conjunction with a kill switch. Yes, those aren't perfect either. I'm not looking for the perfect no fail security, just something that will make it harder for the average car theif. And hope they give up and walk away. Or give me enough time to go check on the car and scare said theif away.

Here is a page I book marked years ago. It's an old school way of making a kill switch that works with a magnet (reed switch). You wave the magnet near the switch to close the circuit. No visible switch for someone to find if they know what they are looking for.

https://www.fordforumsonline.com/threads/ho...t-switch.30204/

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