I saw some vicious looking rat traps in B&Q the other day and reflected that if they had been under the seats of my daily the other day they might have broken the thief who broke my doorlock's fingers.
I can't resolve the dilemma that traps are against the law but the law, at least as far as property vandalism and theft is concerned, already seems to have broken down.
Failing that, the petrol tap idea is a good one as even if the car is towed away there's a chance they'll drive it at some point and it could leave them exposed in a public place.
I fitted a alarm system to my morris which is ok and works well but it has gone off a few times with no one near the car also went off a few times as i was driving along the road , red neck lol , but it is at least something to help stop them from having a go at stealing it , that and a few other things help big old crook lock , if i take my car to a place im not to shure about -like a not so good area and there is a lot of dodgy looking people about i make it a point to set off my alarm with the remote i also do this if i see neds looking in the car when its parked up , it makes people very aware of the alarm fitted , longer they spend at it the more chance you have of some one spotting them tampering with it ...
Thats my theory , god forbid it ever happens .... i would die if it ever did ....
Alarms are basically a waste of time. No one bothers. Only one I would suggest is a very loud horn - mounted somewhere INSIDE the car (but out of obvious sight) connected to the Ignition through a secret switch. Anyone energising the Ignition will have the horn blaring inside the car - they won't be able to stand it! Best place may be up behind the passenger glovebox - out of sight - hard to get to pull wires off etc. Like anything else (except perhaps a huge chain round a lamp post) - it won't stop a tow-away theft.
Not one for the purists perhaps and it needs negative earth, but I have bought an alarm system off fleabay. It is a"Spy" LF-QO25A Car alarm.
Although it is meant for a much more sophisticated vehicle it has loads of relays to control different functions. It could cut the ignition and/or pump, it could flash the headlights, direction indicators, sound the horn. Indeed almost anything which is electrically driven could be switched on or of. It has a microwave space sensor for the interior, vibration monitoring, a siren.
But it is still easy to fit and conceal beneath the dashboard.
It could also work remote locking, but this would be fiddly as there is little room for door solenoids (they could possibly drive the lock through the remote interior door linkage though.
There is an Arm/disarm on the a keyfob which also give a remote stop, if you are (un)fortunate enough to see your car being removed or driven. There is even a remote start, although I cannot see the use of this.
I was planning to fit this week but am now embroiled in clutch changes. However I cannot see why it will not be fairly simple to fit as all that needs to be done is to connect the appropriate relays into the circuits feeding the items to be stopped and to connect the other relays across the items you wish to use to show an alarm (horn and lights).All this could be done without major modification.
Having read all these comments and being a bit of an old hand at this kind of thing, I can confirm that cutting off the pump is effective and works (about 200 yards if I remember correctly,after a few forgetfull incidents!), a master battery cut off switch as used by the racing fraternity not only allows you to walk off with the key on your person , but gives added safety (thats its primary function) by enabling the battery to be very quickly disconnected if there is a major electrical failure, and yes I do use it, its a lot less fiddly than removing the rotor arm and leaves you with clean hands ! I also use the fuel trick daily as its so easy to operate and anything that frustrates the would be thief is good news in my book - I like the idea of them being stranded just round the corner panic stricken!
Handbrake lock? How many of us have driven off with the handbrake on only to be reminded of this miles up the road by a strange burning smell coming from the back???? I don't think so, might work on a modern car with highly efficent handbrake mechanism.
Immobilising alarms in my experience can be very reassuring for the owner but in practice are prone to any number of gremlins and faults and quite easily ignored by the thief, after all, the Morris is a very small car and has therefore not many unobvious hiding places in it and an alarm sounding device reveals its location by ........... sound! easily dealt with by a hammer blow! Ignition isolating methods are a waste of time, so easy to bridge a wire from the battery (no more details given about this for our own security!).
These days there are far more recovery vehicles about so ultimately if a thief wants your motor its simplicity itself to remove it silently in a few minutes so even clamping wont help - I've seen wheeless large vehicles (ie vans) being dragged up the ramps of low loaders without drama using a powerful winch, so a relatively light vehicle will not present any problems at all, and unless you use TWO clamps, one on the front, one on the back then its just a matter of lifting up and towing forwards or backwards!
I like the idea of the hidden mobile, but signal levels around here are already diabolical for most networks without burying the phone in a cacoon of metalwork, so for us country bumpkins (East Monmouthshire) its no go on that one.
Look at their feedback if you are worried.
Ebay just allows us, and them, to cut out the middle man who would put a 100% mark up on this type of stuff.
I've never had a problem buying stuff from far eastern sellers.
"Once you break something you will see how it was put together"
I too have bought various small items from China/HongKong - and all have been excellent value for money. Sometimes take a couple of weeks to arrive - and one item was 'lost in the post' - but was replaced without any fuss. If you use Paypal you are protected anyway.
A quick read suggests this could be more of a pain than a boon.
The tracking is very basic and if you restrict it to a post code it'll send a text whenever you use the car.
The battery life isn't great, does it charge from the car when in use?
"Once you break something you will see how it was put together"
- someone i know of had their landrover pinched three times and, in the end, connected a cattle prod to the ignition which turned the entire car live when left.
great.
until a concierge with a pace,maker went to check it was locked...
reading the instructions for the tracker it looks like it could be a useful device...
I would wire it to come on with the ignition system, and add a new wire to it's SOS button. So that if someone started the car and did not disable the tracker it would start sending help messages to you. you could then reply and try to track it or just be very annoyed as you drive along that you did not disable it!!
but:
you would need some sort of low cost contract sim (texts only) as it would be sending a lot of messages when you start talking to it, and you would not want to risk having no credit left!
it has a built in GPS antenna which is going to be pretty much useless in the car unless the whole unit is visable to the sky (and thus the thief) they seem to do another one in a rugged box that might be easier to hide in the boot with antenna somewhere else?
using the software for real time position will require GPRS access which will be expensive (again may want a contract phone to stay in touch with it)
interesting gadget
Rob
Lizzy 1970 Morris Minor Traveller and Noah 1969 Morris Mini Traveller
