Security & Theft Security for TN75DA during long absences

[PBinWA]

I'd buy a shipping container/crate and park it under the coverall and park the tractor in the shipping crate. You will need to put a really good lock system on the container too.

You may want to invest in a LoJack system to help with recovery and it may lower your insurance premiums.

 

[dqdave1]

Put a "for sale" sign on it, saying motor blown up, transmission slips, reasonable! Who would want to steal it!

 

[farmacist]

I would find a neighbor who would let me keep it in his barn when I am not there or at the very least I would find a neighbor that will keep an eye on it in exchange for his being able to park his combine under cover in your barn for a few years. Good Luck

 

[dbnair]

Hi,
I'm pretty much in the same situation as you. My farm is between Cobourg and Peterborough and I work in Toronto. I too have a TN75a.

Just get good farm insurance. Theft is only one of a small bunch of bad things that can happen to you. Before my TN75, my MF tractor spontaneously caught fire and burnt to the ground. It had not been running for 3 weeks, a short in the starter motor caused a spark a poof. You also have issues with vandalism, etc.

If you get insurance for the full replacement cost it will be worth it. The premium for the tractor only will be quite low. But I'd insure my Coverall as well as the rest of the farm.

Good Luck. Enjoy your tractor, it's great.
Grant

 

[horse7]

You will need a satellite link anyway being off grid, so you'd just be buying one somewhat sooner. You can then downlink from your blackberry to activate the T1000 Soylent Fertilizer Generator to ... take care of the problem. Don't forget to compact/melt down the transport method and sell the ingots for scrap (mixing the scrap with other scrap to confuse "traffic analysis"). Don't be greedy and save the gold teeth, diamond rings, or cash; everything metallic or traceable goes into the melt with organics used to push up the next crops. The purpose is not to make a profit but to repel boarders!

Be sure to use a VPN and maintain an open connection for plausible deniability.

Honestly, my first line would be insurance, followed by nosy neighbors, then some disablement method. I like the idea of a sign saying something like "Joe, still waiting for a replacement for the cracked head, call you when it is in" implying someone comes by occasionally, and that the tractor is sick. Maybe pour a bit of oil down the stack so if they start it anyway, it smokes enough that they go for the neighbor's tractor?

 

[LoneCowboy]

Property insurance (Inland Marine is the typical company) for tractors is CHEAP.

I pay less than $700/year for 3 tractors, an ATV, 2 Aerways, a tiller, some other stuff, I dunno
cheap.

just get insurance, move on with life. (or store it with a neighbor, but you'll still need insurance)

 

[AndyMA]

2 things to be wary on the TN that are almost worst than loosing it. Don't ask how I know but both the fuel tank filler cap and the oil dip stick and filler need to be secured against removal or you need a good vacum and several gallons of fuel to flush out the sand a vandal can add. I would add that a IR deer spotting cam is a good idea. PS The front small window on a TN is about $130. It may be easier to not lock the cab.

Andy

 

[highplanesdrifter]

Thanks

Some good ideas there, along with the gallows humor ...

So far it's looking like insurance, insurance, Lojack/Boomerang (canada equiv), and some very useful advice about locking the fluid caps and leaving the tractor doors unlocked ... I was forgetting to worry about vandalism ... silly me!

We do have good neighbors, including a dairy farmer who operates the 100 acres directly across the road, and to whom we give all of our hay really really cheap ... he's high on my list of people to lend a helping hand to at every opportunity ... mainly because I'm 100% behind real farmers who struggle to manage high input costs like fuel, feed and fertilizer and low prices (especially the beef guys in Canada who have been badly hurt by the mad cow stuff) ...

Aside (warning - sexist joke):
Q. Why do they call it PMS?
A. Because Mad Cow was already taken!

Dbnair, you must be really close ... are you up Cty. Road 45 towards Roseneath? We're over by Castleton ... I'll probably be e-mailing you for extra advice when we take possession on May 1 ...

Anybody out there actually use LoJack? They (Boomerang) show car, SUV and commercial versions ... what's the diff? What do you guys pay for the service?

Thanks

John

 

[Egon]

Insurance and storage on an occupied farm site would be my recommendations.

 

[highplanesdrifter]

Hi guys thanks

I appreciate that storage at a neighbor farm would be ideal from a security standpoint, but it's at least a mile away ... so I'd arrive by car, and would either have to trailer or abandon the car, bother busy farmer etc.

I'll be new to the area, not looking to be down a million favors off the get go ...

I noticed that DBnair joined in '05, and is still listed as 'new member' ... I guess it's just like real country life ... takes a few decades or generations to become other than 'new' ..

For now, I'll try a combination of insurance, Lojack/Boomerang and a security camera and flash with on-tractor signage to warn off thieves and vandals ... unless they're from far away, they gotta think twice about getting photographed ... don't they?

I'll keep you posted on the results ...

Safe tractoring!

John

 

[daTeacha]

Have you considered letting the neighbor farm your ground and use your tractor occasionally until you get set up? Land rent around here is about $100 per acre per year, so it's not like you're taking advantage of him by asking him to keep an eye on things, even if you rent it to him for half the going rate.

 

[AndyMA]

Have you considered letting the neighbor farm your ground and use your tractor occasionally until you get set up? Land rent around here is about $100 per acre per year, so it's not like you're taking advantage of him by asking him to keep an eye on things, even if you rent it to him for half the going rate.

Gee around here "land rent" in farm areas means beggging a farmer to cut your hay. You certainly don't see any money from it. Although if a farmer were cutting my land I would have no problem asking him to keep my tractor on his property.

Andy

 

[highplanesdrifter]

Thanks Soundguy

The part about the separate power supply is essential ... I hope you don't take my 'hidden' GPS, because if you mailed it back to me it would be just awful tracking it through all those dead warehouse stops for days on end ...

But you have given me an idea ... when I become a thief and steal your tractor, I'll pitch your hidden GPS in your pond ... then I'll come over and watch you mucking about in your pond with a rented tractor dredging for yours ...

I'm still avoiding leaving it with the neighbor until I know him better; and then there's the bit about the 2 mile walk ...

around my parts, it's more like AndyMA's New England than Ohio ... the neighbor cuts and bales the hay with his own equipment and all and pays $8-10/round for what he takes for his dairy op ... it pays the realty taxes, which suits me fine ... I'd hate to see good hayfields going to weed, and we'll only need winter hay for two horses ...

Got to think of the best in the short term for security ... we take possession in 16 days, and 11 of those I'm away in France ...

I think LoJack may get a call ... better yet, I'll steal Soundguy's LoJack; I'd hate for the LoJack guys to know I had one ...

Happy Tractoring

John

 

[mojoinco]

So what is the coverall for? Was it for storage for equipment?

Thoughts: the old shipping container should be cheap. And it's lockable. Get a larger one until you build a barn (or put sides on the coverall) so you can store the other stuff you will collect. Are you going to set up a camper until you build a house? Just a thought in terms of storage layout. Possibly an old semi trailer for storage? Would mostly only need to be lockable storage, not weather proof (dig a hole with your new tractor so it is easy access when set up). And make it none moveable by truck. May also be rentable (I see older ones used as job site storage). Most problems are minimized by 'out of site, out of mind'.

Go talk to your farmer neighbor and get his thoughts on making it theft resistant. He knows the area and will have thoughts.

So how much is insurance and how much will it actually cover?!

Enjoy!

 

[daTeacha]

It's kind of amazing to me to learn that you pay people to cut your hay and take it away, if I understand everything correctly.

The farmer pays us so he can grow corn, beans, alfalfa, or whatever on our land, much like some other guys pay for the right to hunt there. We then buy hay from whomever has any to sell, favoring the guy who grows it on our ground. We give him a break on the land rent because he uses what he grows for livestock and not making fuel, and he gives us a break on the hay we buy from him, but it's pretty much cash all around so no one feels mistreated or taken advantage of. Besides, with the prices and the weather in Ohio acting like a yo-yo it would be a little hard to work it all out ahead of time.

The highest rental price paid around here happened when two neighboring farmers got in a bidding war to use the ground between their places. One of them is renting it this year for $190 per acre. The average price to put in an acre of corn here, no-till, figuring fuel, fertilizer, seed, labor, etc. is about $550. That's for planting it, mind you, not counting the investment to harvest it. When you figure in the size of some operations, it gets to be real money in a hurry.

 

[highplanesdrifter]

MoJoinco

The Coverall (50x100) was used by the previous owner, until a few years ago, for hay storage and for a winter barn and feeding area for sheep (Toronto area can get pretty cold) ... I'm likely to use it in the short term for dry storage for equipment (tractor and accessories) and put some hay in the big barn (40x100), as there is a huge mow and horse stalls underneath; we're going to have 2 Belgians, our only animals apart from barn cats ...

I do like the idea of a big shipping container, perhaps even covered with old barnboard and a sloped roof with some solar/wind/battery powered venting to keep humidity levels ideal for tractor storage ... later on, like maybe next year, I could move the whole thing over to the other farm where I'm going to try to build the 100% off-grid house ...

... the present place is 100 acres, closing April 30 ... there's a lovely house along with the Coverall and Barn, but it's heating system is a disaster ... Living Room has a Propane Fireplace, Family Room/Den has a Wood-burning Fireplace ... Kitchen has Radiant in-floor Propane/Hot Water Heating ... rest of the house is electric baseboard ... no central air in the summer ... we bought it because the lady friend loves it, and I can play off-grid house builder and turf disturber on the 300 acre place about 3 miles away, without the "is it done yet?" and "what's that thing in the driveway?" stuff ... don't get me wrong; Anne-Marie's a lovely outdoor kinda lady who loves to get grimy and sweaty, but is totally unmoved by things like PTO HP and attachments, especially when they're lying around (because I'm 'about to use them real soon') ... the Belgians will be really great at skidding logs out of the 60 acre hardwood bush with 200 ft elevation change ...

DaTeacha

My wording wasn't clear enough on the land use situation ... the neighboring farmer (2 miles) cuts the hay from about 30 acres, ideally 2-3 crops/year, and pays us $10/round for whatever he takes for his dairy op ... last year was only 1 1/2 crops in droughty conditions, and about 250 rounds ... (the other farm has a similar situation, with about 60 acres in cash crops, 20 more in hay, but that one closes on May 31 and I have no idea what that farmer's putting in this year)

Closing in two weeks, and then all **** breaks loose ... but I'll get to post a few pics ...

Cheers All

John

 

[AndyMA]

So what is the coverall for? Was it for storage for equipment?

Thoughts: the old shipping container should be cheap. And it's lockable. Get a larger one until you build a barn (or put sides on the coverall) so you can store the other stuff you will collect. Are you going to set up a camper until you build a house? Just a thought in terms of storage layout. Possibly an old semi trailer for storage? Would mostly only need to be lockable storage, not weather proof (dig a hole with your new tractor so it is easy access when set up). And make it none moveable by truck. May also be rentable (I see older ones used as job site storage). Most problems are minimized by 'out of site, out of mind'.

Go talk to your farmer neighbor and get his thoughts on making it theft resistant. He knows the area and will have thoughts.

So how much is insurance and how much will it actually cover?!

Enjoy!

I have 2 40' containers and I don't think there is any way I could get my TN75D in. Even if I did, there is definately no way I could open the doors to get out of the cab. I suppose you could remove the rear window and crawl out that way. I still don't think it will fit.

Andy