brewdexta
The biggest tool in the box
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After driving a shed for a few years, I now have a decent motor so theft anxiety is kicking in a bit. Its well insured but I could do without the hassle of having it nicked. One of my distant neighbours had a similar model nicked from outside his house not too long ago, so thought I would ask what others do to stop the more insistent variety of thief not the joy riders.
Its a Ford Ranger pickup, auto. I park in front of the house, you can only drive in one way, the house, dry stone walls/garden and 25% gradient field stop access to three sides. So far I have been parking nose into this dead end, but thinking about it, that is probably wrong.
A lot of LR defenders have gone missing around me, and I'm pretty sure that they wait for a windy night, rock up with a tow hook recovery vehicle, put it in neutral, hand brake off and tow it away. Or maybe a flat bed and drag it on, or maybe a hiab. Neighbours have tried all the gear, handbrake, steering wheel locking devices, none have stopped theft.
The ranger is normally in 2WD, with handbrake and transmission brake. So if they picked up the back end, they could tow it away as the front end would be free wheeling. So I was thinking of parking back first so if they picked up the front end, they could still drag it away but the rear wheels would be locked. Its under our bedroom window so I would have thought we would hear something. The ranger should be harder to break into than a defender to take off the handbrake, it should at least set the alarm off.
I was thinking of putting some beam sensors on the driveway, if more than one is set off then it raises an alarm. We get deer and sheep wandering up and down but you can set the sensitivity so that these are less likely to set them off, but if a vehicle drives up it sets them off. I also toyed with the idea of anti-theft posts, and electric gates.
My ex-boss used to design anti-tank mines that could identify enemy vehicle noise signatures and only arm when these were detected. Short of giving him a call to see if he has any spare, any other tips on theft prevention beyond the usual array of crap they sell in Halfords?
Cheers
Andy
Its a Ford Ranger pickup, auto. I park in front of the house, you can only drive in one way, the house, dry stone walls/garden and 25% gradient field stop access to three sides. So far I have been parking nose into this dead end, but thinking about it, that is probably wrong.
A lot of LR defenders have gone missing around me, and I'm pretty sure that they wait for a windy night, rock up with a tow hook recovery vehicle, put it in neutral, hand brake off and tow it away. Or maybe a flat bed and drag it on, or maybe a hiab. Neighbours have tried all the gear, handbrake, steering wheel locking devices, none have stopped theft.
The ranger is normally in 2WD, with handbrake and transmission brake. So if they picked up the back end, they could tow it away as the front end would be free wheeling. So I was thinking of parking back first so if they picked up the front end, they could still drag it away but the rear wheels would be locked. Its under our bedroom window so I would have thought we would hear something. The ranger should be harder to break into than a defender to take off the handbrake, it should at least set the alarm off.
I was thinking of putting some beam sensors on the driveway, if more than one is set off then it raises an alarm. We get deer and sheep wandering up and down but you can set the sensitivity so that these are less likely to set them off, but if a vehicle drives up it sets them off. I also toyed with the idea of anti-theft posts, and electric gates.
My ex-boss used to design anti-tank mines that could identify enemy vehicle noise signatures and only arm when these were detected. Short of giving him a call to see if he has any spare, any other tips on theft prevention beyond the usual array of crap they sell in Halfords?
Cheers
Andy