City kids do not leave keys in vehicles. . . It’s different out here...

[dourobob]

Worthy topic - when we lived on our farm, keys were always left in vehicles and equipment because you never knew when a neighbour would need to borrow something. Still live in a fairy remote area but evidence seems to indicate that crime is creeping out from urban centers. Wish locks were unnecessary but ...

 

[tjandrews]

City kids (Millennial's) have not a clue on how to drive tractor or stick shifts.... Pretty safe to leave keys in tractors or stick shift vehicles.... Just not cars with auto-trans...

Wasn't always that way.

A jail escapee stole my mother's '55 Chevy, with a manual transmission(stick on the steering column), from our driveway in the late '50s. It was later recovered several miles away, abandoned. She got it back, but 2nd gear never wanted to work quite right afterward, so she developed that habit of skipping 2nd gear when driving it. Her next two Chevys also had manual transmissions, and if she wasn't thinking about it she still skipped 2nd gear out of habit. And when she finally had to settle for an auto transmission on the next car, it was a good year or more until she stopped stepping on the clutch pedal when coming to a stop.

And from the time the car was stolen until her death over 50 years later, you were taking your life in your hands if you ever, ever left the keys in the car, even in our own driveway.

 

[ljjhouser]

Worthy topic - when we lived on our farm, keys were always left in vehicles and equipment because you never knew when a neighbour would need to borrow something. Still live in a fairy remote area but evidence seems to indicate that crime is creeping out from urban centers. Wish locks were unnecessary but ...

I was just thinking. If we left our keys in everything, maybe it would be better to now even have an ignition lock. I would what a kid would do today if the starter was the old button on the floor like the old headlight switch used to be. Might be so confused and couldn't find a way to start it anyway. Maybe safer that having a key.
We keep keys on our person, extras in the safe, camera system on the house with one camera on the gun safe, and alarm system. GPS on tractor and trailer. And insure everything we cannot afford to loose. I believe that, in the end, you cannot prevent theft. But you can protect yourself against the loss and extra measures may detour some attempts.

 

[kenmbz]

Back in the late 70's out in the middle of nowhere Western MA. We had to leave the house unlocked so the local kids would not break the door to get snacks and drinks.
No city kids involved..

Our VW 67 bug was stolen in mid-70's in the burbs-found a few miles away with ticket stubs.
Car theft was pretty unheard of in our area. too easy to steal with no real steering lock and easy to bypass the open backed starter.
Kids knew how to drive stick back then !

A year later, dad heard our garage door open in the middle of the night. Called the police, said already on the way with multiple calls. Guys were going door to door checking for open garages, would then open them and run to the next house.
Truck followed to collect whatever goodies weren't tied down, mostly bicycles.
Police showed up while the truck was a block away. Got the truck and the opener people in 2 shots.
Had a big truck piled high with bicycles, hundreds of them!

 

[mudking]

I think the OP photo is really cool. There's a traditional Country song in there for sure.

See, now y'all can fret and argue about the current state of mainstream Country music in addition to crime and security in the modern era.

 

[stuckmotor]

I have a ‘63 Willys with factory theft prevention devices.

Three-on-the-tree and a manual chok

In the seventies, I was home sick and my wife tried to drive my manual choke pickup to work. About twenty minutes after leaving, she came walking back home. The truck had quit on her. Naturally, this was my fault. I'd told her to pull the choke out to start the vehicle. I didn't think too tell her to push it back in.

 

[awbokkel]

In the seventies, I was home sick and my wife tried to drive my manual choke pickup to work. About twenty minutes after leaving, she came walking back home. The truck had quit on her. Naturally, this was my fault. I'd told her to pull the choke out to start the vehicle. I didn't think too tell her to push it back in.

my little guy when he first started riding his little 120 snowmobile decided that it should be pulled out all the way didnt take him long to realize to push it in

 

[Bird]

I see many of you grew up in places similar to where I did. I started in southern Oklahoma, moved to north Texas when I was 17 years old. And until I bought a little mobile home when I was 19, I had never spent a night in a house with a locked door, as far as I know. I don't remember my parents, or my grandparents, ever having a house key, and when we went to visit, we didn't knock, just opened the door and walked in. When we moved to Texas, I remember there being a key hanging on a nail behind the front door in the big old two story house that Dad bought. I don't know that anyone ever touched that key. And only one car key was needed because it was never removed from the ignition.

I think I was 25 when my parents moved to Anchorage, AK and bought a small house there. They finally started using a house key when a drunk Eskimo just walked into the house and sat down on the sofa in the living room while Dad was at work. Mother called the police, they came and got the Eskimo, but told mother that the Eskimos didn't understand private property and to keep the doors locked if she didn't want them to just walk in and make themselves at home.

 

[LyHale]

Not all communities are equally safe. At our home in the rolling hills of southern Washington State, we have an iron gate and fully fenced acreage. We're just a few minutes from once beautiful downtown Portlandia, Oregon. There's way too much cultural crossover on our side of the Columbia River, so we lock everything and never leave the tractor's key in the ignition. Same goes for locking everything when we visit family in California. It's just common sense.

People in our neighborhood have lost riding mowers and other valuable items during the day -- lost being a euphemism for "stolen." One evening recently, friends went to a theater in Vancouver, Washington (a nice, active town just across the Columbia from Portlandia, OR). They parked their old, well used minivan right on the main drag of town. When they came out they found that someone had broken into their vehicle, destroyed the dash and ignition while trying to start it, and then, probably in drug-induced frustration, tore the interior to pieces. Did I mention this was on the main street of town? We live 20 miles away in a hilly, country-ish area of five- and 10-acre properties. There are enough layabout drug users in our area that we know to remain vigilant. The local police and sheriff's departments tell us that they no longer have budget to investigate "minor crimes," such as stolen tractors and house burglaries. This is what happens when woke dummies run the asylum.

 

[acadie1]

I have no idea when the last time was the key was out of the ignition, but it has been more than a few days. . .

Actually I try to take the keys out of my equipment when it's not being used and especially if I am not around. Not so concerned about actual theft but joy riding. ..."Hey, wouldn't it be funny if we can run this backhoe through the barn or into the neighbours pool" ...you get my drift.
Actually what first caught my attention t was your picture of an exactly-like-mine 430. Maybe not exactly like mine; the sheet metal on yours is less dinged up and a lot less rusty. Good tractor though and easy to work on. The main issue around here is that it's getting hard to get parts for them.