How Do You Protect Your Track Car ?

[Ricky_Bobby]

Hey guys,

I am a bit of a newbie to SAU forums, I used to be on hardtuned.net alot but the 17 year olds with bad attitudes got a bit much.

I have a track car thats not complied for australian roads, I keep reading just about every week about a skyline, stagea, etc getting stolen and its making me paranoid. I live in Adelaide and the car is usually stored at home, I have a cheap wheel clamp on one of the front wheels but its pretty basic.

Being a track car I really dont want to fit an alarm as such, I really dont need the headache if the thing plays up as it would be really a pain to get the car back to wherever it gets fitted for warranty work.

I cant imagine I am the only guy out there with the same situation, what are people using to protect their pride and joy ?

I know there are other topics about this, but it seems the flaming of people takes precedence over helpful information.

So please refrain from turning this into the same, I really dont need the bother.

Edited December 19, 2012 by Ricky_Bobby

[battery]

Is it in a garage?

[Ricky_Bobby]

No, its stuffed into a corner of my backyard behind a locked gate and big dog.

[battery]

Wouldn't worry about it then... If they can't see it then they don't know about it..

most of the cars that get stolen are parked on the street or in the driveway.

[Ricky_Bobby]

its visible when I get my other car in and out of the yard, but only for 2 minutes a day at most.

then the gate is shut and locked again.

[danielr34]

Just fit a vehicle tracker unit into it. You can do it yourself, a basic tracker only needs 3 wires to be connected so you can track and monitor it.

[Ricky_Bobby]

What sort of dollars will that run into ?

I notice your security in motion link Daniel ...

[danielr34]

A basic tracker can cost up to $800 depending on its features and the features you want wired up, the installation (whether you pay a pro or do it yourself) and of course the brand of product. A basic tracker will also need a simcard to send you location info whenever you ask it, and the costs associated with txt messaging which is very minimal if you use the same phone carrier as your personal phone. It would not cost more than $10 per month if you had it on a basic plan (Telstra). Some carriers offer a 365 day prepaid plan which needs topping up annually, with that kind of plan it would probably cost around $20 for the whole year. There are no other annual monitoring costs or subscription costs associated with these trackers because you are doing the monitoring personally. They are a one time purchase product so you can remove it and put it into your next pride and joy.

You can be lying on a beach on Hamilton Island and know exactly where your car is within seconds.

[TTR34]

Daniel can you link me to more information or where these can be purchased? cheers.

[conan7772]

You can get mini GPS trackers on Ebay for $50.

Just get a prepaid sim card with 365 days expiry for $30

That's it.

They are rechargeable or you can wire them to your battery.

Comes with PC software for tracking.

So you can pole (call) it anytime and the location is sent to your phone or PC.

I think each time is the same charge as an sms.

Gotta be the cheapest way for tracking.

If you're mainly worried about drive off theft, and only drive a couple times a year, disconnect your battery and pull some key fuses out.

[Carbon 34]

You can get mini GPS trackers on Ebay for $50.

Just get a prepaid sim card with 365 days expiry for $30

That's it.

They are rechargeable or you can wire them to your battery.

Comes with PC software for tracking.

So you can pole (call) it anytime and the location is sent to your phone or PC.

I think each time is the same charge as an sms.

Gotta be the cheapest way for tracking.

If you're mainly worried about drive off theft, and only drive a couple times a year, disconnect your battery and pull some key fuses out.

A mini tracker is fine for tracking a girlfriend lol or your skate board

But the specs don't hold up well to Australia's climate , the solder joints need to be able to survive track bashing suspensions and rpm vibrations , ripple strips

and be able to be hidden in a stripped car as well

yes it can be done

expect the mini tracker to last about 6 months if that !! even jaycars do not meet the heat here and that is in a closed air condition car not a hot race car

The catalog points out the flaws that failure to communicate starts around 30c

( iPhones do that too )

It has no external antennas so range is average if it can't see the sky clearly

Another point is use a cell service that has many towers in your band , 900mhz , 2100mhz etc

Telstra towers are the best option in most cases and services that use those

so as you can see going cheap might cost you a car !!

[Ricky_Bobby]

A mini tracker is fine for tracking a girlfriend lol or your skate board But the specs don't hold up well to Australia's climate , the solder joints need to be able to survive track bashing suspensions and rpm vibrations , ripple strips and be able to be hidden in a stripped car as well yes it can be done expect the mini tracker to last about 6 months if that !! even jaycars do not meet the heat here and that is in a closed air condition car not a hot race car The catalog points out the flaws that failure to communicate starts around 30c ( iPhones do that too ) It has no external antennas so range is average if it can't see the sky clearly Another point is use a cell service that has many towers in your band , 900mhz , 2100mhz etc Telstra towers are the best option in most cases and services that use those so as you can see going cheap might cost you a car !!

Thats a fair point, I wonder if there are ruggedized (yes its a word !) versions or maybe I can make my own.

Being in South Australia, you could almost say 80% of the year the inside of the car will be 30degrees or hotter. So that probably rules the cheaper option out , surely somebody (a manufacturer) has identified a spot in the market to make something that can withstand these sorts of issues but without the $800 price tag. Seems excessive for a pretty common technology these days ?

[Carbon 34]

Thats a fair point, I wonder if there are ruggedized (yes its a word !) versions or maybe I can make my own.

Being in South Australia, you could almost say 80% of the year the inside of the car will be 30degrees or hotter. So that probably rules the cheaper option out , surely somebody (a manufacturer) has identified a spot in the market to make something that can withstand these sorts of issues but without the $800 price tag. Seems excessive for a pretty common technology these days ?

Plenty in the 200-250 range without install

external antennas ( tiny ones)

And alloy case with heat sink ( tiny too)

at least 10 companies make them not including eblow ones

They offer full features and can trigger a remote item like alarm or kill switch

They send out GPS coordinates in SMS and clicked onto it google earth or maps opens

Highly accurate tested to within 1 meter of real location in a poor coverage area with lots of metal and houses around it

a rubber mat and soft rubber mounting used on screws fixes up a fair bit of vibration

It also stops heat transfer from the actual car body a bit without breaking the ground plane

Most of the heat is from car, motor or sun , the unit is only room temp otherwise even charging up

[danielr34]

I never referred to a mini tracker in my earlier post and if they cost $50 then why shouldn't they play up and fail in 6 months. You cannot expect quality for that price even for a kids toy these days. If you cannot afford a $300 to $400 vehicle tracker and you have a track car that you have spent thousands of dollars on then just strap your car down with $50 worth of chains and padlocks people!

People spend thousands of bucks on car audio, engine and interior, but do not want to spend a few hundred dollars for its security???

The better products that I am referring to will not fail, due to heat and vibration and I have never seen one fail as a result of this. Been fitting them for years to everything including track cars and excavators. They also have separate antennas for both GSM (to communicate to the owner) and GPS to collect data from the satellites.

I do not have any links where you can purchase these trackers but Google will give you plenty of results. I am here to advise on security options, not to do the shopping around for people.

The $800 price tag I mentioned was a general price (as I cannot give accurate prices for everyone that sells them) and would be the highest price you would probably pay which would include installation. This is still quite cheap compared to a monitored tracking system and service which can cost up to $2000 for the tracker and installation plus $200 - $300 per year for monitoring costs. If you want accurate prices then do some searching, make some phone calls, compare their prices and their features.

If your budget is only $50 then your cheapest option is to sleep in your car or sell it to pay the bills.

[Carbon 34]

I never referred to a mini tracker in my earlier post and if they cost $50 then why shouldn't they play up and fail in 6 months. You cannot expect quality for that price even for a kids toy these days. If you cannot afford a $300 to $400 vehicle tracker and you have a track car that you have spent thousands of dollars on then just strap your car down with $50 worth of chains and padlocks people!

People spend thousands of bucks on car audio, engine and interior, but do not want to spend a few hundred dollars for its security???

The better products that I am referring to will not fail, due to heat and vibration and I have never seen one fail as a result of this. Been fitting them for years to everything including track cars and excavators. They also have separate antennas for both GSM (to communicate to the owner) and GPS to collect data from the satellites.

I do not have any links where you can purchase these trackers but Google will give you plenty of results. I am here to advise on security options, not to do the shopping around for people.

The $800 price tag I mentioned was a general price (as I cannot give accurate prices for everyone that sells them) and would be the highest price you would probably pay which would include installation. This is still quite cheap compared to a monitored tracking system and service which can cost up to $2000 for the tracker and installation plus $200 - $300 per year for monitoring costs. If you want accurate prices then do some searching, make some phone calls, compare their prices and their features.

If your budget is only $50 then your cheapest option is to sleep in your car or sell it to pay the bills.

Yeah what Daniel said lol

+1

[Ricky_Bobby]

Thanks for all the information guys, much appreciated.

[brock25t]

contact quiktrack i had one of their systems in my s15... much better then any of the ebay ones but theres montly fees ect, but other advantages as where car can be turned off via satellite systems.

http://www.quiktrak.com.au/

[danielr34]

My advice, don't contact Quiktrak, as they are way too expensive! Arn't we talking about keeping the costs down?

Most basic trackers that I refer to can still shut the car down by you, by a simple sms text message whenever you want to. Also can unlock doors by sms if you lock you keys in the car by accident.

[Carbon 34]

My advice, don't contact Quiktrak, as they are way too expensive! Arn't we talking about keeping the costs down?

Most basic trackers that I refer to can still shut the car down by you, by a simple sms text message whenever you want to. Also can unlock doors by sms if you lock you keys in the car by accident.

Exactly what I was going to say mate lol

Any decent tracker can do remote shut downs and much more and cheaper then quicktrak or DEI viper setups

But these "how to's" won't be advised to the DYI ever , if you don't follow that warning you could kill someone !!