Gps trackers for our rides

[jeffahart]

There are lots of good GPS trackers available now. But the good services cost money. They are mostly used for tracking fleet activity. And they do this very well. If you run something like a plumbing business and have 10 trucks you can buy the trackers in bulk, then you can track them all. No more side jobs being performed with your vehicles or equipment! The poor bastards can't do anything anymore except be on your job or at lunch. If you suspect your vehicle is being used for other than work, you just review the tracking history data. Anyhow, you have to look at the features, because not all are good for theft. For example some only activate once engine starts(some use a detection in voltage surge to assume engine start), not all are good if your vehicle is loaded on a trailer. But for theft, you setup geo fences, like your house or work place, and once the vehicle is outside the laid out fence you get an email or text.. then you go chase the SOB down at real time. Get your truck back with all the change in the still in the ashtray... before they even get a chance to spend that on cigarettes! Hardwired units with Real time 60 second updates is probably the way to go. But you need a unit that updates position whether the vehicle is running or not.

[Avitech]

I would pull the dome light assembly and hide it in the space between the inner and outer roof panels.

[davepl]

From what I can tell the Lojack I bought, with the Early Warning system, works roughly like this.

1) You have a key fob on your key ring, unit installed in vehicle
2) There is NO connection from vehicle to unit, it's self contained and self-powered with 10 year battery
3) It has a motion detector so that when the vehicle moves, it looks for the fob
4) If no fob is found, it goes into "stolen" mode and starts notifying.

Otherwise, it doesn't notify/broadcast often, which saves on the battery. Now if you lost your keys and they stole your truck with your keys, I have no idea how often it broadcasts its location. Probably the same as the non-Early Warning systems.

[Aruba1]

What if you have a hidden iPhone and hard wire it to the vehicle. I think you get cell phone service as low as $10 a month and you can use the Find My iPhone option to track it down. Any thoughts?

[jeffahart]

Originally Posted by davepl

From what I can tell the Lojack I bought, with the Early Warning system, works roughly like this.

1) You have a key fob on your key ring, unit installed in vehicle
2) There is NO connection from vehicle to unit, it's self contained and self-powered with 10 year battery
3) It has a motion detector so that when the vehicle moves, it looks for the fob
4) If no fob is found, it goes into "stolen" mode and starts notifying.

Otherwise, it doesn't notify/broadcast often, which saves on the battery. Now if you lost your keys and they stole your truck with your keys, I have no idea how often it broadcasts its location. Probably the same as the non-Early Warning systems.

Lojack is pretty much the gold standard. But if someone tries to use a tracking device for anti theft, then some of the features may or may not be enough to satisfy what you would expect with theft detection. I kinda feel like early warning as soon as possible is a must. So you can get right after the thief. Plus if Lojack has a 10 year battery that's even better. All the other tracking devices hard wire with a backup battery. Once the battery is disconnected it's got only about a week or a few days, just like a phone(if it even has a backup battery). But the technology is becoming so relevant to equipment and autos that competition will soon start driving the prices down for service subscriptions... I hope anyway.

[davepl]

^^^ I agree but since I keep my cars indefinitely (48 years for one of them in the family) replacing a battery every 7-10 years isn't insignificant, though I suppose it'd be a small price to pay if one ever did get stolen.