No more crying over stolen race car or trailers!

[Dave Gantz]

Originally Posted by ALMACK

Do thieves care if an item is illegal ?

Probably not, because they are thieves.

Thus, the winkie. ;-)

[ALMACK]

Originally Posted by Dave Gantz

Thus, the winkie. ;-)

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

[cicero819]

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.

[Kegracing]

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

[Don Sofranko]

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?

[Jason Oldfield]

Deleted.

[Jason Oldfield]

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.)