No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

If I ever hear of a race car or trailer stolen I will say it's your fault and nobody else. I've written about GPS trackers before and now there is no reason not to own one, the best and cheapest is call TrackR. This the cheapest $19 to $25 no fees from your cell phone. Company just an app on your cell. This device can be hidden anywhere in your race car and best of all it can't found with a cell tracker that most thieves are using. I've bought one for all my equipment and I've tested and it works.CR

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

I thought these worked off of bluetooth on your phone. When Trackr is far enough away from phone its disconnected. If the Trackr is near someone elses phone and and they have the app downloaded then they can track your Trackr until its out of their bluetooth distance. Am i wrong?

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Jeff they can't be tracked by anyone else, they need your code.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Yup!! I have had one for years. One would have to disassemble my trailer to find it. I DARE ANYONE to try to steal my junk!! Of course it is a Mopar so no one would be interested anyway.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

SO do you need to be within Bluetooth range for the app to locate the receiver?

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

From live chat on TrackR website:

The maximum bluetooth range for our TrackR devices is up to 100 ft. or 30 meters (clear sight). Within this 100 ft. range, the item is located on a map using Google Maps or iMaps data from your phone. Range will vary depending on line of sight. Indoors the range is 30-50+ feet.

****PLEASE NOTE: TrackR is NOT a live GPS tracking device.****You will not see live or real time movement****

If your device is lost or is outside of this bluetooth range (up to 100 ft.), you will need to rely on our Crowd Locate network to locate your items. When an item goes missing with a TrackR device attached, anyone with the TrackR app installed on their phone will begin to search for that item. When another TrackR app user passes within 100 ft. of the lost item, that user's phone will anonymously ping our server and then you will receive an update with the new time, date and location.

You can see a map of Crowd Locate coverage at http://www.thetrackr.com Just scroll down to the middle of the page and type in your address in the address field above the map to see your coverage.
Important note: Because Crowd Locate does depend on another TrackR app user coming within bluetooth range of your TrackR device, we have no control over when that may happen. So, please make sure you do check your Crowd Locate coverage if you want to use TrackR on a pet or a valuable item like a bike or car, etc.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

The TrackR has no GPS.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Thank You. I thought this was the way it worked but couldn't find info on google to support it.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Any good thief has a good cell phone signal jammer.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Aren't those illegal?;-)

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

I'd like to set up an appointment to steal your stuff, Sept 7-11.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Do thieves care if an item is illegal ?

Probably not, because they are thieves.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Thus, the winkie. ;-)

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Let me know what you get. I may need a few things.:p

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Buy a very mean dog then.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Okay what device can we use to protect our Racing Equipment

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Pick one lol... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REi8y34Y8Bc

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

LOL

I had to go back and re-read his post.

The winkie face wasn't showing that's why I didn't see it ;)

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Ok, I'm sitting in P.V. Mexico and I can check that my Coach is sitting next to my trailer and they haven't moved in a month and I can see that my truck moved to one of my children house(they needed a spare). Just a small modification and you can use those device free for anything. Just a little work and it's done. You don't have to be a tecky. Try to help some people and all they can do is complain.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

OK Cicero...

First, thank you for trying to help!

Your opening statement might not be the best delivery, but it got attention. I think the pushback here is that this cheap device is not perfect for everyone, but maybe it is better than we first understand... or maybe I am just getting old and not a techie anymore (if I ever was). BUT - it might be what I need?

Please explain a little more detail on how you know where your coach and trailer was, when you are in P.V. (nice place to be I hear). You say "just a small modification" and you can use it... please explain a little more.

PM me if you would prefer.

I race on a very small budget, but would like to protect what I have. I use good locks, and I have good guns (and Texas allows us to use them! )... but I am not always around and we know locks hardly slow a crook down.

Seems many of the stolen outfits we hear they find stripped or empty trailers and shells of cars out in fields, etc. Outside of the 100' range. Or someone takes it to a warehouse, somewhere covered, etc. If it is not location nailed while in the process of moving, then the crooks have it home free once they are in their "hiding place"?

Again, thanks, just wanting to better understand it.

Ken

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

All
This has been a good read on these gadgets, and it made me wonder about the TrackR, so I did some reading on that. I thought about the 100 foot range, and if you consider you can see that far pretty easy, then its a poor security device. The website says the founders made it to find their car keys. Yes there is the crowd locator, but that's only good if 90 percent of the country is working with crowd, and then for how long?

I also like the idea of a small gadget you could put on a dog, or something light.
Even if you find another similar blue tooth gadget ,150-200 feet is the max range?

Ok then, what gets you the most bang for the buck?

1- It looks like the most powerful feature to look for is real time GPS tracking.
Yes, they require a monthly cell subscription fee to get real time tracking.
I looked over this site, and they sell spy trackers and counter tracker devices:
https://spyassociates.com
One of these sells in the 200-250 range plus monthly cell fees
Spy Hawk Turbo Portable Real-Time GPS Tracker
https://spyassociates.com/spy-hawk-t...e-gps-tracker/
Live GPS Tracking Monthly Fees apply

2-How about just using an obsolete or cracked screen smart phone, with a working location services turned on, so you could use "find my phone feature"? That way it could be left on a charger, and would not go dead right away. If you are on Verizon, I think its not much to add another number to your plan.

3- Anyone else know of a highly secure option? Besides dogs, guns and guards?

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Deleted.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

I'd be very interested to hear about any modifications. From what I can see, the TrackR basically only works within Bluetooth range, but has a "Crowd GPS" function where if somebody with the app walks within range of your TrackR device it will notify you of the location (I'm assuming that you would have to mark it as lost / stolen). The problem that I've read is that the battery life in many instances is only a month, and once the battery is dead, no more tracking. In addition, it seems that the number of people using these is currently too small for the "Crown GPS" functionality to be of any real use.

The other popular Bluetooth tracking device is the Tile, which I just found out also has the "Crown GPS" functionality. You can buy an 8-pack of Tiles on Amazon for $130 (or from the Tile website):

https://www.amazon.com/Tile-Mate-Fin...7HCB8NZEB&th=1

I can't say which is better as I've never used either, but the reviews on Amazon certainly favor the Tile (my guess is mostly due to the much better locating sound that it plays). But, we wouldn't be using the devices for that type of application, so I don't know that it would really make a difference either way. The locating sound that the Tile plays is DEFINITELY better than the TrackR, but the TrackR has a replaceable battery, whereas the Tile does not (they have a "reTile" program that sells you a new unit at a discount). The Tile battery supposedly lasts up to a year. To me, the replaceable battery SEEMS more valuable, but not if I have to replace the batteries every month.

It's certainly not foolproof, nor as good as a dedicated GPS tracker. But, in the end, it MAY better than nothing at all, and the more people that use them and have the app on their phone, the better the "Crowd GPS" tracking. You can buy the TrackR for as little as $12/ea. (they currently have a deal of buy 4 and get 6 free). They also have a waterproof case for the TrackR Bravo (the unit I think everybody on here would want).

Here's a link below to order, if you want. If you order using the link, we'll both get a free one after you order:

https://www.thetrackr.com/?ref_code=C8Op6

Honestly, I'm on the fence (I want to be able to locate my stuff if it's stolen, but I don't know that these would help.)

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

I keep my trailer wired to the burglar system plus loop video.

But I've often thought about a self contained unit that a person could build into their trailer. It would have a motion sensor, timer, battery and a siren(s) that could all be installed inside an upper panel(s) and impossible to quickly disable. If the trailer moves the motion sensor would activate the timer which would be set by the owner. The timer would be important if a racer has his equipment parked in a remote area. That way it could trigger the siren at a time when the hypothetical thief would be in a more populated area. It's kinda hard to go unnoticed if your towing with a blaring siren(s) sounding off. It would be cheap to build. I think the thief would probably want to part ways with the trailer ASAP.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

Locks only keep the honest people hones. A thief would have that off in a matter of seconds with a battery grinder and a cut off wheel. A removable hitch would be a better solution. That's what I would have if I stored mine outside.

Re: No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!
 

I just contacted the TrackR people and asked about using it for my trailer. They did not recommend using for a stolen vehicle. The trackR has to pass within 100' (bluetooth) of anyone also using their app for it to notify you where it is. Not sure this would be reliable.
Dan