I will soon be a proud owner of a Deere 60G and other land clearing equipment and I've been made aware that there's been a string of thefts of equipment around these parts. Other than having good insurance, what do you guys do to keep your equipment safe? I was thinking of leaving the excavator at customer sites over nights etc.
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Anti-theft for compact machines
- Thread starter BigEv
- Start date
Keith Merrell
Well-Known Member
Not a lot that can be done about that. Just try to park it in less obvious places that aren't visible from the main road, etc. Fuel and battery cut offs can be good but all experienced equipment thieves know about them. I like the idea of GPS tracking but it was just too expensive for me. No matter what kind of tracking / recovery devices you have it won't matter unless you have your serial no. or a bill of sale probably. Once I had a job in a remote area in Prescott. Long private road with lots of houses on each side. Because you couldn't get a trailer up there you had to track the mini ex in about a mile. I was working on another job really late and went to pick it up at 11:00 at night. Tracked it all the way out with the work light on. No one noticed or at least came out of their house. That's when I learned it would probably be really easy to steal equipment. Everyone wants to talk about being armed and things like that and that's great and I totally believe in it but its not going to do anything if your not there when they are...
https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/lessons-from-an-equipment-thief
An article I found fwiw
https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/lessons-from-an-equipment-thief
An article I found fwiw
ianjoub
Senior Member
republic wireless has phone plans for $30/mo here. Buy a phone, allow the 'find me' option. Put it somewhere hidden on the machine with a charging wire hooked up. If stolen, it could be found! Also, a thin wire to a charger/phone may be missed by thieves looking for a GPS tracker.
heymccall
Senior Member
First, all my weird stuff has the key switch changed out to a common one (since I've got to make up the company keyrings).
So, your OEM key won't operate my Bomags, IRs, Godwins, Polaris, etc... All my smaller stuff is brass tagged with ID, and there are a minimum of 3 stamped in IDs on them (engine block, pump volute, generator housing, etc..) All my locks are ABLOY locks.
And, yet, I've had trailers, compressors, generators, sewer inspection cameras, cut off saws, etc.. walk away.
I've contemplated transponder fobs for the 12 & 24v machines, but, never find the impetus to go there.
So, your OEM key won't operate my Bomags, IRs, Godwins, Polaris, etc... All my smaller stuff is brass tagged with ID, and there are a minimum of 3 stamped in IDs on them (engine block, pump volute, generator housing, etc..) All my locks are ABLOY locks.
And, yet, I've had trailers, compressors, generators, sewer inspection cameras, cut off saws, etc.. walk away.
I've contemplated transponder fobs for the 12 & 24v machines, but, never find the impetus to go there.
I a thief wants it, he is going to get it, so putting some type of locator on it is your best bet. I had a big land clearing job where I was using a 4x4 ATV to spray root killer . Kept it locked in a 20' shipping container. Thieves cut the lock off the shipping container, but then got the ATV hung up on a tree stump and left it. Moved container to a visible area across from the Peterbilt factory guard shack, and welded a cover set up on the lock so you could not cut it. Two nights later, they came back, cut the locking bars on the container, and stole the ATV. This time, they got away and we never did recover it. If they want it, they WILL get it.
heymccall
Senior Member
I had a job in Fayette County Pa where they would come in on the weekends and steal batteries. It was a ten mile long site with 4 or 5 staging locations and crews. The thieves were "nice" and unbolted everything and left with just batteries (no cut wires or missing hardware). After 10 or so, against my better judgement, I was instructed to make the battery compartments tamper resistant. I picked the most remote location and "modified" 3 machines. Came in Monday morning to find that they used the track loader to flip over the crawler carrier and then proceeded to leave track loader run in the local stream. Of course, monday morning I had to fuel and reprime the track loader before it could be trammed out of the stream. And upright the crawler carrier.
So, no more tamper resistant battery compartments after that.
So, no more tamper resistant battery compartments after that.
Last edited:
zeroo
Charter Member
I refuse to leave my equipment on jobs. I know thats not feasible for a lot though.
CM1995
Administrator
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Other than the normal battery switches that only keep most kids away with a Cat key from taking a job ride, our equipment that doesn't have a keypad code on it we'll pull a fuel pump solenoid fuse or similar rendering the machine able to turn on but not crank.
Do this on our 325FL. It's one of the small mini-fuses. Sure there are savvy enough thieves to figure it out but costs more time time to figure out which increases their chance of being caught.
Like as been said if they want it bad enough they'll get it. It's just not feasible to haul a 325, D5 and 533 home every day.
Do this on our 325FL. It's one of the small mini-fuses. Sure there are savvy enough thieves to figure it out but costs more time time to figure out which increases their chance of being caught.
Like as been said if they want it bad enough they'll get it. It's just not feasible to haul a 325, D5 and 533 home every day.
Camshawn
Senior Member
Utube has some videos on the Apple trackers. They appear to be cheap, track via the nearest smart phone to the mothership and back to you. The down side is they alert the near phone that they are there. I would hide the tracker and hope you fine your equipment before the thief finds the tracker.
John Canfield
Senior Member
My Bobcat E42 has a telemetry box that will upload codes, hours, location to a Bobcat monitor center (whatever they call it.)
skyking1
Senior Member
I disable the 35G by pulling main fuses if I don't like the situation and can't haul it out of there. I have to reset the clock and a few things, but I figure most crooks don't pack those big fuses.
I also turn off the fuel at the filter. I figure a burned up starter is still better than no machine.
I also turn off the fuel at the filter. I figure a burned up starter is still better than no machine.
Seems like not much to do but minimize the risk then. I'll see how accessible the fuses are on the 60G and make it a routine to remove/put them back in...and look into GPS/Iphone thingy availability around here.
A local contractor had his excavator stolen, rented one to finish the job and had that stolen too. Of course he could be in on it but doubtful as he's been around forever and has a solid rep. I live in a pretty remote place so kinda annoying. I've been insurance shopping for the past 2 weeks hence the original question lol.
My brother works for a large engineering firm doing major roadworks and he told me they keep getting highway lamp posts stolen from the sites... I mean those things are huge and usually in the middle of heavy traffic so guess I'll agree that if a thief wants it, he'll get it.
A local contractor had his excavator stolen, rented one to finish the job and had that stolen too. Of course he could be in on it but doubtful as he's been around forever and has a solid rep. I live in a pretty remote place so kinda annoying. I've been insurance shopping for the past 2 weeks hence the original question lol.
My brother works for a large engineering firm doing major roadworks and he told me they keep getting highway lamp posts stolen from the sites... I mean those things are huge and usually in the middle of heavy traffic so guess I'll agree that if a thief wants it, he'll get it.
skyking1
Senior Member
On the old 35D I could take some relays easily. That would slow most down. The first 35D the company got was stolen from behind the shop right on the trailer. It was a trailer my sister had and I had gotten for them, really compact but enough tire and axle. That was a bummer.
cuttin edge
Senior Member
I've seen guys pull fuses and replace them with duds. Everything in the panel looks normal, and it would be time consuming to find. Even unplugging neutral safety switches.
BigWrench55
Senior Member
I had always put a switch to open the circuit on the starter solenoid. I hide the switch somewhere that I only know about. And only use it when I will be away from it.