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 | dutchmag
Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 4 Walland, TN 
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2008-01-27 150821
Has anyone come up with a sure fire way to protect their tractor (large) from being stolen?
Thanks
Steve
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 | earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan 
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2008-01-27 150822
There is a saying that goes "locks only keep honest people out"
Goes for tractors too.
About the only worry-free solution is a good insurance policy. On my commercial policy, I have riders that cover equipment. In my area it costs 10% of the value you tell them you want covered--doesn't mea you'll get that if it has depreicated, so check into it throughly before a claim! ....
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| dutchmag
Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 4 Walland, TN
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2008-01-27 150823
Thanks - I had an MF stolen last year and have several chains and locks on my replacement. This area would seem to be a golden opportunity for a company to develop a product as has been done for the auto market.
Steve ....
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| earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2008-01-27 150825
Even marketers like LoJack have a system for alerting theft--but LoJack requires EVERY police department that your machine will or could be in to participate in their program. No participation--no coverage.
The other option is a real-time GPS system that are costly and only lead to the recovery--maybe--of the machine--if the GPS sender is nto found on the machine. But then all it takes is to be in a building or truck that prevents the signal getting out/in.
Years ago I asked my insurer that if I installed a security alarm on my equipment would they give me a better rate. Nope. So screw 'em--if it gets stolen it gets stolen. If I DO install a unit in them all that does is reduce greatly the insurance company's risk AT MY expense.
What I do is just disconnect a hidden fuse or switch to slow the thieves down, that way I'm slowed down in making a claim and ahving higher rates with little or no investment to protect them. ....
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| dutchmag
Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 4 Walland, TN
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2008-01-27 150827
Thanks - I like the idea of a hidden switch. I will take that route.
Steve ....
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 | yooperpete
Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1413 Northern Michigan 
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2008-01-28 150842
We've had serious problems with break-ins in our area. Also many local dealers have had tractors, snowmobiles and RTVs stolen. I'm making a gadget for myself that doesn't require 120V. It is a 12V battery system with some switches and a truck horn. Once tripped, it has a timer to pre-set how long before it goes off. I plan on making a few of these with different tripping mechanisms for doors, tractors, etc. for my own stuff.
It uses a common battery for trailer brake releases and can be trickle charged with a solar cell.
I'm encasing it inside rectangular tubing, so it is hammer proof. The noise it emits is so loud you need really good earplugs inside earmuffs, so it is important to shut it off before the alarm goes off.
My stuff is all in the country with neighbors close enough that if the alarm goes off, 911 will be called by someone.
It will not be 100% foolproof but will give some of my neighbors a chance to get some target practice in!! ....
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 | kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2008-01-28 150843
For drive-away protection maybe a magnetic security switch discretely mounted and wired inline with the starter circuit would help. To start the tractor you'd have to stick the second half of the security switch to the first to make the circuit and allow it to start. You'd need some velcro tape or something similar to hold the two switch halves together. ....
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| earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2008-01-28 150848
KW: The electronic module is messed up om blue--I regularly use just a coin or a nail to jump the starter (yes, with the key inserted, but it doesn't take much to circumvent the elctricals if some one wants it)
Yooper: I spoke to a detective about installing something like you were talking about, and/or security lighting. There are two schools of thought on the matter: If you give the thieves a heads-up of an alarm they are tempted to run and hide--and then see how long it takes to have someone respond, they time it and do it several times until no one comes.
The other thought is no heads-up and have the siren/alarm go to the responders. That way you catch them unaware. ....
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| randywatson
Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 109 texas
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2008-01-28 150855
In my line of work, I can say with out a doubt, nothing is surefire when it comes to prevent theft, that being said, a easy cheap method would be a concealed Kill Switch, especially coupled with an alarm, slow em down and scare them off is the best bet...
short of a secured parking lot and a armed guard with a mean dog and 30-06 that is... ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-01-28 150858
Around here the thieves don't fiddle with starting stuff or even getting into it for that matter.
The preferred method of leaving with your stuff is a tilt-n-load wrecker or roll off truck.
Platform goes down, winch pulls, truck leaves......
Chains, locks, gates, switches, horns, useless.
A local lost his new skidsteer out of his driveway with the alarm wailing, the next door neighbour volunteered to help the wrecker driver load, and then guided him out of the narrow blind entrance to the driveway and onto the street.
Wrecker driver told him he was picking up the machine to take it to the dealer for repair under warranty because the alarm was broken.........
Best of luck. ....
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 | DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998 Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2008-01-28 150859
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That is exactly what I was thinking, if you are steeling a tractor you really can't drive it anywhere, it has to be hauled ;) ....
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 | kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2008-01-28 150870
Was thinking some time back someone said they removed a front tire and carried it with them. A pain no doubt and a roll back may still work. K Mart and Sears both here a few years ago had a problem with front door theft where in one if not both cases a manager held the door open for a person to roll out a rack of clothes using a line like the roll back theft did.
As to hidden switch, such as a neutral start switch that is slightly out of adjustment may be hard to find as it is not something to find. Reason I have not adjusted mine that is out.
It would seem a tractor with FEL or backhoe you could leave that lowered in such a manner it could not be easy to move with out operating the tractor. But for a normal tractor, you could drop an implement but they still cut off locks in the lift arms to remove it. Guess gas engines with disturbtor caps did have advantage. Also coil and point wires easy to remove or switch.
Have only seen them on tv, but some cities they use a tire lock to prevent a car being driven for such as parking ticket (totally based upon tv shows seen). They are suppose to be impossible to remove (well reasonably so). Wonder if they could be bought by a tractor owner? kt ....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-01-28 150873
People who steal things want to get away quickly & quietly.
Pretty unlikely they're going to make a 'fast getaway' on a tractor with a top speed of 25 mph and with it screaming away at that throttle setting.
Best of luck. ....
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| DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998 Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2008-01-28 150874
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Even if the thief got stopped by a policeman with a tractor on his flat bed, there is no license or registration for a tractor so it is no problem for them to just hoist it up on the tilt bed and not even conceal it. ....
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| randywatson
Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 109 texas
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2008-01-28 150875
Long and short of it is, if they want it bad enough there is probably a way to get it.
especially in the specialized markets today, theives will specialize to a specific trade
I guess if I was gonna steal a tractor, a large heavy trailer with heavy winching capibility would be the way to go,
seems to me that if the bucket was driven down or the backhoe was buried down a hole, that would minimize the likelyhood of dragging it up on a trailer, unless you could start it to get the bucket up.
guess the kill switch would come in handy to prevent that
I dont know about tractors but travel trailers with outside storeage compartments are all keyed alike at the factory, these little three pin locks are limited, are all Kubota, JD, Etc tractor switches keyed the same ?
....
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 | mobilus
Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 171 Clay County, TX
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2008-01-30 150938
I like the kill switch idea. Same as on a boat, right?
As far as security from the roll-off bed and winch, park your equipment in a corner of the shed or fenceline. Not a huge deterrent, but if they can't get a straight pull on it becauce of other equipment of less value blocks it in, they might look for easier prey. It is really only the stuuuuuuupid theives that work at it...the smart ones take the easy stuff. ....
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| earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2008-01-30 150939
Our local Tractor Supply (TSC) a few years back had $30,000 in mini bikes, go-carts, tractors, ATV's and rototillers all--literally--stolen at one time. They had nothing to prevent theft--not even a gate, well except they chained all the items TOGETHER in the parking lot.
And that ONE chain made it sooooooo easy for the rollback truck to back up to the whole load, pull it on, and take off. I can't imagine the noise that made! Had to sound like l-o-n-g car accident!
I found this out talking to a store manager since I asked him if there were a need for me to install bumper posts along the roadway at the property line to keep people from stealing stuff. He politely turned me down.
Turns out the store managers are reluctant (read: F$#@ that!) to spend ANY money on "security" in any way as it comes out of THEIR personal monthly and yearly bonuses.
That guy got transferred to another store as the company could not understand why he wouldn't spend his bonus protecting something HE doesn't own. Go figure.
There is a wimpy gate at the entrance though. Big deal---they just drive around it since there is no ditch.
When I was down by Mobilus las' yea' there were some rednec...err..."gentlemen of questionable motives" that stole a huge excavator. When they got caught--or rather found--- they were a matter of less than a few miles from their destination.
Their transport ran out of fuel. DOH! Try putting that on your resume.
As far as hidden security switches, disconnecting switches...I know that I can start and drive my blue simply by applying power to the fuel solenoid and jump the starter.
I think if you leave a tractor unattended, at the very least, remove the battery. They will at the very least have to go get a battery and make a second trip. Then the hidden switches coem into play.
Down sout' I heard of guys who found a machine in the woods that was there for whatever reason and overnite if they could not steal it in whole, stole parts--or in some bad cases just set it afire---I guess their thinking was if they can't have NO ONE will have it.
When I was in Katrina-land a month after the storm, the local Sheriff stopped at our camp where there were 30 of us. She asked for machine ID's. I asked her why and she showed me three pages of typewritten entries of stolen machines from the nite before---something like 30 bobcats in one night with as many or more dump trucks! IN ONE FREAKIN' NITE in a town of 20,000.
....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-01-30 150949
If the thieves have a tilt-n-load truck, especially the bigger ones more properly called a roll-off that has two large main beams that tip, and the box or deck is a separate unit, and know what they are doing, the machine will be gone, period.
Planting the bucket or hoe will only be about a 3 second delay to anyone who knows what to do. The only thing stopping the buckets from coming back up is gravity and their own eight once you move the control lever the right way and apply lift with the trucks hoist or winch. Likewise, putting it in awkward spot will mean nothing once it's hooked to a big winch on an ever bigger truck.
I saw this first hand out my office window when one of our TLB's broke down, in the time it took my mechanic to walk back into the shop, go to the key cabinet and walk back outside with the keys the driver had the machine up on the truck AND CHAINED DOWN ready to drive away!!
Disabling the ignition, removing the battery, chains, whatever, it MIGHT stop the drunk teenagers from taking it for a joy-ride, but a professional thief, it won't even slow them down.
In my area the police are still looking for a Caterpillar D9 (54 tons 'curb' weight, and a 15' blade) bulldozer that disappeared off a job site last year.
The astonishing part is that at 15' in width it couldn't go down the road, and it takes 2 men with a truck-mounted crane most of a day to remove it normally. It disappear in a single 4 hour period between the security guards patrols, and nobody saw it on the highway leaving either.
If they can make a 15' wide, 15' high, 35' long, 54 ton dozer go bu-bye, your tractor doesn't stand a chance.
Best of luck. ....
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| randywatson
Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 109 texas
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2008-01-30 150952
All true, if there's a will there's a way.
Guess it goes to the law of supply and demand, where there is a demand for low priced no question asked equipment to purchase or use there will be some #$%@! out there to find it and steal it to sell it or use it.
Then again, how many of us have purchased a second hand piece of equipment without checking the numbers for stolen with the local PD?
The stuff aint evaporating
Once again, I recommend registering equipment with NER and keeping a list of id numbers. ....
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 | auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-01-30 150956
Motion- or noise-detector-activated security cameras. You can install them conspicuously, but the thieves could demolish them or wear masks. Or conceal them in locations where they'll record some faces, maybe using infrared. If located adjacent to the one main entrance they can capture the moving equipment and licence plates. One guy has a ditch around the yard, and a chained gate. When the chain's defeated and the gate swung, that triggers the camera plus a silent alarm.
You could ask if your local police or crime-tips organizations will cooperate with the installation. ....
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| mobilus
Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 171 Clay County, TX
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2008-01-30 150957
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That reminds me of a break-in that occurred in a secure facility in Germany when I was there back in the early 90s. The burglars wore ski masks, but didn't think about their uniforms, which had each of their names emblazoned in large lettering over the right chest pocket! To think that those guys were actually smart enough to get INTO the military scared me. ....
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| kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2008-03-24 152369
I have noticed the local city police has this on their cable channel in their public service part recently. Then over the weekend two 17 years olds were arrested for attempting to steal some heavy equipment.
At same time a lady who lives about 3 miles from me was cutting her grass this past Friday or Saturday with a riding lawn mower. Went in the house leaving lawn mower in yard and saw two people trying to steal it. Not sure what stopped them. Her yard is in plain view of major highway and is totally incircled by roads with fencing around all but the driveway. Only one way in and out. kt ....
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