Aftermarket Security Features For Vehicles

[oscarflytyer]

I have debated a receiver mounted railroad rail rear cross bumper, or same mounted railroad tie. And have even considered a "reverse" WWII style Sherman Hedge Hog!

 

[JustJim]

I had a piece of railroad track conventionally mounted as a rear bumper. Worked fine on my '66 Chevrolet pickup. That time the Lexus rear-ended my truck, I didn't even have a scratch on the paint.

My '64 International pickup had a toggle switch in the ignition circuit, mounted just under the dash. With the switch "off" you could crank it til the battery died--it wouldn't start. The one time someone tried to steal the truck, I was watching, and laughed so hard he almost got away.

 

[Rick H]

I redid a '79 Jeep CJ-7 rust bucket. Took it to the frame, replaced the body with fiberglass one, the whole shebang. I made bumpers front and rear from Steel C-channel. They were pretty solid, no one ever tested them though.

 

[Outpost75]

Old school (WW2-era) precaution for older beater cars is to simply remove the distributor rotor and tuck it in your pocket.

 

[CZ93X62]

That is an old Sierra hiker trick for cars and trucks parked at trailheads.

 

[Hawk]

The first thing the LEO asked after getting the truck info was if I had any stickers on it
I think I'll have a big, waving American Flag tint put on the whole back window on my next truck.
Hard to remove, can be seen and identified at a great distance.

 

[462]

Well, Hawk, that might make them think twice about taking it to Mexico.

Lot of trucks, round here, are adorned with Mexican flags.

 

[Hawk]

I finally was able to talk to the stolen vehicle detective working on my stolen truck case
He said most of the stolen vehicles are keys left in the car, parked cars left running at stores, gas stations, that sort of thing. Joy riding or stealing the tires and rims or just ransacked the vehicle.
He said the video showed them getting into my truck with a pump up bladder between the door and frame.
Then they opened the hood, replaced the ecm, not sure what that does, and basically reprogrammed the truck to steal it.
He said it was definitely a pro crew and odds of recovery were probably zero.
He said they would probably replace the Vin number, sell it and we will never find it. I guess replacing the Vin number would be pretty easy for a pro.
He also said Onstar tracking is disabled immediately and independent tracking devices were a better option, but the pros would defeat those quickly also by driving it into storage container or something similar.
They think it was a crew working the area and have probably moved to another city by now.
I asked what I could do to help prevent this in the future. He said he drives a 1966 Blazer with a kill switch.

 

[Missionary]

We have had two vehicles we wired with a simple ignition toggle switch.
We never leave our 87 Sammy to go into a store here. We take a taxi ($2) or walk to a nearby mall type place.

 

[Winelover]

Simple hidden kill switch, saved more than one vehicle for me, in Detroit. Three of our four vehicles have them. Only Cindy's 2016 Colorado, doesn't have one. She does have On Star basic, for tracking and dismantling the engine, plus locating. Figured we no longer reside in car theft prone area..............I didn't have the dealer install one. When switch is in the disabled position, turning the key gets you nothing.

 

[Ian]

The trick is knowing what to kill with the switch and how to do it so it will still defeat a thief with a computer capable of reprogramming any module on the vehicle. It's not that hard to figure out, shoot me a PM when you get another ride and we'll fix it so it will take a tow truck to steal it next time.