Security & Theft Securing tractor from theft

[gemini5362]

OK, I am going to be serious for a minute. I will try to give a serious reply to the question this thread asks.

I live in the boonies. It has been my experience although my neighbors and I go a long time without actually visiting each other and talking we do watch out for each others stuff. If I see someone at my neighbors house that I dont know I have been known to ask who they were and why they were there. I assume my neighbors do the same. If you have neighbors that live close enough rig some kind of alarm system with a siren that locks on when the alarm system goes off. Hopefully it will make enough noise to alert the neighbors and wake them up before the thieves disable it. Talk to your neighbors and ask them to watch over your stuff while you are not there and tell them it is rigged to a siren. That is about your best approach to keeping it there. Of course have the stuff insured. If your neighbors wont watch out for your stuff for you then maybe you need to move to arkansas my neighbors all watch out for me and my stuff.

 

[patrick_g]

If you have neighbors that live close enough rig some kind of alarm system with a siren that locks on when the alarm system goes off.

I posted a schematic and pix of a simple circuit I built for a friend. It is in "Projects" and the name of the thread is
"Simple cheap alarm design."

If this circuit was housed in a strong box (concrete or steel) and connected to the tractor by a wire or RF link the siren would be relatively well protected from the bad guys and should alert your neighbors.

The driveway alarms that use RF to ring a bell at the house when someone drives by can be used as an alarm. (Details on request.)

Pat

 

[ragkar]

Well I do something a bit different. I live in a house well back in the woods so the house and tractor aren't visible from the road. When I'm not using it, the tractor is parked behind the garage where it is not visible to delivery men unless they prowl the grounds.
At the beginning of my driveway I have a annunciator that rings a loud outside bell and also an alarm inside my house. As I'm mostly home days and always nights, that is some measure of security.

 

[gemini5362]

Ragkar I agree with what you said. The problem for the original poster is that he does not live where his tractor is stored.


Pat that is something like what I was thinking about. I might want to put a siren with a latching relay in the top of a tree or something like that. So that they have to either climb the tree or chop it down to shut the alarm off. The problem with the tree becomes one if it goes off and your neighbors cant get to it to shut it off. The concrete or steel box idea is not bad.

 

[Soundguy]

Well, while not impossible, I seriously doubt that a thief is carrying a plasma cutter and generator with him. I suppose that a few ounces of C4 would accomplish the same thing and a lot sooner.

For a guy that makes his living stealing stuff.. it doesn't seem out of line. Look at 'scrapepr' trucks.. the guys that drive around and buy / steal / haul scrap.. many of them have dump bed trailers.. big winches, oxy-propane, and cutting equipment on their truck. I've seen scrappers drive up, and cut up burned heavy equipment and start loading it while we watched.. like litterally in minutes between a winch and small boom, and a couple guys with 40' of hose and a set torches and abrasive saws and bolt cutters walking around
the machine poping off pins and what not. I say a jd 444 articulating loader cut in half at the articulation in about 5 minutes, and then each piece was loaded .. the entire operation took less than 30 minutes.. 3 guys, and an f250 with bed full of salvage gear and a dump trailer...

People that do this.. know how to do this.

Yeah.. the average guy riding buy on his bike is gonna be kept honest with 90% of the deterrent items listed here. It's the guys that drive around during the day and case a place, and then come back with truck/trailer and pit crew, and make off with a 'secured' machine before you can finish a soda pop and a cigarette.

soundguy

 

[orezok]

For a guy that makes his living stealing stuff.. it doesn't seem out of line. Look at 'scrapepr' trucks.. the guys that drive around and buy / steal / haul scrap.. many of them have dump bed trailers.. big winches, oxy-propane, and cutting equipment on their truck. I've seen scrappers drive up, and cut up burned heavy equipment and start loading it while we watched.. like litterally in minutes between a winch and small boom, and a couple guys with 40' of hose and a set torches and abrasive saws and bolt cutters walking around
the machine poping off pins and what not. I say a jd 444 articulating loader cut in half at the articulation in about 5 minutes, and then each piece was loaded .. the entire operation took less than 30 minutes.. 3 guys, and an f250 with bed full of salvage gear and a dump trailer...

People that do this.. know how to do this.

Yeah.. the average guy riding buy on his bike is gonna be kept honest with 90% of the deterrent items listed here. It's the guys that drive around during the day and case a place, and then come back with truck/trailer and pit crew, and make off with a 'secured' machine before you can finish a soda pop and a cigarette.

soundguy

It's obvious that the answer to the question is that there is no way to secure a tractor from theft.

 

[CurlyDave]

I will say it again. My insurance policy was ridiculously inexpensive. Maybe $200/year for a $40k machine.

It didn't matter that I was storing the tractor where I didn't live. They added it onto my homeowner's policy and that was that.

Now that I live on the land, the $200 has been further reduced and is just part of my homeowner's policy.

A lot of these Ideas I have seen thrown around are going to cost a lot more than that, and some are just dangerous.

 

[gemini5362]

Well, while not impossible, I seriously doubt that a thief is carrying a plasma cutter and generator with him. I suppose that a few ounces of C4 would accomplish the same thing and a lot sooner.

Well a few ounces of c4 makes a bit of a noise that is really hard to hide. I would be the first to agree that your suggestion would hold off the casual thief but so would a lot of the suggestions made on here. A plasma cutter and generator is literally no money for someone that is going to be stealing farm equipment and selling for pretty much pure profit even if they are selling it for a lot less than it is worth. Generators are very cheap and very portable. A plasma cutter is not that much more. The speed in which it would make cuts to remove locking equipment would more than pay for the investment to buy one. Of course we are talking about thieves who can just go steal one if they find where there is one at. Curly dave is right insurance is cheap and a lot cheaper than most of the suggestions on here.

 

[JoeinTX]

For me, and I park my tractor 10 yards from my house, I: remove the distributor wire......chain it to a an oak tree with a hardened 30' link......and keep it constantly attached to a 3-point shredder. So far, so good.


Other points are clear. Remove a tire/rim.....make it even more immobile. Park it up against other obstacles that make an easy grab more difficult.


No fire, no fuel, hitched-up to an implement, parked in the right way......it becomes more trouble than it's worth to the common criminal. Since they work fast and hopefully without notice I put as many obstacles in their way.....it won't start....it won't winch easy........it is incomplete and won't run right....and it is subject to some basic mechanics.


Someone posting a tractor for sale without any history or background, with no explanation, and with no keys for the padlocked chain wrapped around its
various parts is an issue.

 

[Noland]

My inland marine policy is ~$70 per year for zero deductible coverage on tractor and all serial numbered implements .
As an added measure, I normally pull the key from the ignition and put it under the seat.