To GPS or to not GPS

[losh1971]

I have looked at these. There are ones that run off a battery and don't need to be wired in. You just need a registered SIM card to use with it and you can track it on your mob phone or computer anytime as long as the battery is charged. It works like a missing phone and can be pinged and location tracked as long as there is mob range.

 

[Ginger Beer]

Permanent power to hidden auxiliary battery to GPS tracker hidden really really well

Basically you need to pull the dash out and hide it deep in there, or underneath the car, or in the boot to be "super sneaky" to do it OCD style, but in saying that, there are only so many places you can hid them, but the longer it takes to find the tracker the longer you have of finding the car

Sometimes with dumb thieves a simple install will work, so just up under the dash, or in the boot, or under the car is good enough to find the car after a joy ride or in their back yard, but then a simple "quality" aftermarket alarm will usually defeat the average thieves

But, good "professional" thieves know what to look for and how to defeat it, and if it is worth the time and effort to defeat the GPS/alarm before it goes to the final location to be stripped/rebirthed, you'll never see it again

Typically there are a few ways that they get your car

Scum factor: random thieves, joy rides

Opportunistic: thieves have been given a list of requested parts, rims, straight panels, spec interiors, or, know they can easy sell the bits you have bolted to your car

The targeted: known cars, if you post stuff about your car thieves will be taking notes, if it meets their "customers" requirements, or what is demanding big dollars on Gumtree or Ebay they will try and track the car down and grab it in any way possible, break in, home invasion, advertised meets, you name it

There's also the rebirthing/ repairable writeoff business that has aways made coin

I've even heard of them placing their own GPS, and/or follow and track the car back to the location of high end targeted cars

Most opportunistic and targeted stolen cars are stripped of parts within an hour or so of being stolen,with the shell either being dumped, burnt or "feed to the pigs" (scappers)

The best way to protect your car is to keep its location hidden and/or don't post up build threads about your location, $5k rims and tyres, twin turbo/supercharged/fully built bolt on builds, HSV this, and Walkinshaw that, stored in secured and alarmed garages and locked behind bollards, with a good a alarm and GPS

Always remember, "midnight spares" is a business that has been going on for years, supported by all types of criminals and businesses (read:wreckers)

Blocking the crooks knowledge and access is always step 1 to security

My old girl live behind gates, behind other gates, that are patrolled by the AFP, it also has multipe levels of anti-theft and tracking devices when it is out and about, in saying that it also has comprehensive insured

I've had 2 cars stolen before, it sucks balls ,and you do what you can to not have it happen again

 

[MuckUte]

In the past for short term coverage I have used an old mobile phone to keep track of where cars are. Just need to make sure GPS can get signal.

 

[losh1971]

Cheap insurance is to only have $15-$20 petrol in the tank. That way they are more to do a drive off. If your like me there are limited options for petrol at times when the car is more likely to be stolen. Other insurance is to never leave your keys at home if your car is parked. 80% of thefts on modern vehicles involve stealing the keys.

 

[1985VK]

I have looked at these. There are ones that run off a battery and don't need to be wired in. You just need a registered SIM card to use with it and you can track it on your mob phone or computer anytime as long as the battery is charged. It works like a missing phone and can be pinged and location tracked as long as there is mob range.

What i can't get my head around is if the tracker is "on" and being driven around wont you get messages from it all the time?? That would be annoying and sort of useless. It would be like tracking yourself 99.9% of the time?

Would it not be better if it could be remotely activated to switch it on when you need to rather it be on all the time? That way if someone had a jammer it would not detect the tracker unless it was "on"??

 

[losh1971]

What i can't get my head around is if the tracker is "on" and being driven around wont you get messages from it all the time?? That would be annoying and sort of useless. It would be like tracking yourself 99.9% of the time?

Would it not be better if it could be remotely activated to switch it on when you need to rather it be on all the time? That way if someone had a jammer it would not detect the tracker unless it was "on"??

AFAIK it will only beep when you ping it, using your laptop or phone. If you're not searching for the tracker it won't make any noise.

 

[the_boozer]

have alook at how google knows everywhere you go. A sneeky bitch I know leaves her phone on silent hides it in ole mates car to find out everywhere he goes. Google is allways asking me to review some place Ive been . Any old phone would track the car theres a heap of apps that will tell you where it is.

 

[VS 5.0]

Or use a phone and track it with an app like Life360.

 

[NORTI]

What i can't get my head around is if the tracker is "on" and being driven around wont you get messages from it all the time?? That would be annoying and sort of useless. It would be like tracking yourself 99.9% of the time?

Would it not be better if it could be remotely activated to switch it on when you need to rather it be on all the time? That way if someone had a jammer it would not detect the tracker unless it was "on"??

few different ways different trackers work

even those that are 'always on' they silent ping generally. Unless you want to know.

example - you have a vehicle that is 99% shed, you would have alerts set up that if that vehicle moves at all, you are alerted.
your daily - set to no notification, if it goes missing, you will realise eventually, then you will turn to the app/website and locate it.

more pricey units have more features - ie alert if/when type rules.
you can get alerts if it moves, but when no ignition on as example, so you can tell if towed.

I had GPS in my Maloo years ago, and set up for driver behaviour. I could see all instances of harsh acceleration/braking etc. But I hardly used proximity alerts as it was daily. But if anyone else drove it, I could see where they were by looking, and how they were driving it.

you can even use things like bluetooth/tile/apple tags etc to some extent. Give them geo-zones, and they alert when moved from that area. Relies on a device passing by to trigger, but its becoming more utilised.

 

[NORTI]

What i can't get my head around is if the tracker is "on" and being driven around wont you get messages from it all the time?? That would be annoying and sort of useless. It would be like tracking yourself 99.9% of the time?

Would it not be better if it could be remotely activated to switch it on when you need to rather it be on all the time? That way if someone had a jammer it would not detect the tracker unless it was "on"??

usually you would turn profiles on/off via software.
when you were driving, turn alerts off, then when securing it again, turn them back on. Probably could do that with some proximity/trigger automation actually.