Air compressor theft deterrent

[oceanobob]

The attached pics show my "first article" for antitheft. Besides the trailer coupler masterlock, this roughed out contrivance is intended to confound the ease to roll it away. The T pieces slide through the wheel and then the big cable sling is looped through and locked. These pieces in the pics are only 1/4 inch flat bar (fb) and are for demonstration purposes to see how much a pita this is.
I figured I would put it on here for additional suggestions such as maybe using some T1 fb about 1/2" thick.
L8R

 

[thepumpguysc]

I applaud your ingenuity.. but in this day of the cordless cut-off wheel, nothing is "safe" anymore..
But if it makes you sleep better at nite.. hook it up.. atleast u can tell the boss & the insurance company, "I even had a lock on it"..
The only real way to keep it in 1 place is, take a wheel off of it.. & TAKE THE WHEEL.. I made THAT mistake ONCE..
Took a wheel off my jet ski trailer.. locked the wheel in the shop but took the lugs..
They broke in the shop, put the wheel back on & stole the lugs off another ski trailer that was there.. but a diff. bolt pattern..

 

[Junkyard]

If they want it bad enough they’ll get it. Seems to be the way things are these days. Although the harder you make it the more they have to think about it and work at it they may give up!

Looks like a good way to slow them down!

Add a piece of pipe for the cable to pass through and cutting it gets a lot harder....

 

[thepumpguysc]

I like the pipe idea.!!!
My neighbor is a general contractor & gets his trailer stolen quite often..
He now has a BIG ORANGE metal "X" on 1 of his wheels on the trailer.. similar to "a boot" that the traffic people put on your car.. I don't know exactly how it hooks up tho..
It cant be that cumbersome because he puts it on & takes it off EVERY morning..
You might try google..??

 

[ianjoub]

Lojack? Or whatever the modern version of that is. GPS tracking devices have to be pretty cheap these days. That machine surely has an onboard battery.

 

[Bumpsteer]

My compressor usually doesn't go anywhere....so I put a removable tongue on it.

Hard to steal it when you can't pull it. Lol...

Ed

 

[thepumpguysc]

I was thinking about that too, Bump.. but didn't know the posters set-up..
Those GPS units have gotten VERY small over the years & a lot of people/companies are using them..

 

[Bumpsteer]

Problem with my set-up is no tongue weight. The compressor is balanced without the factory tongue.
It doesn't tow worth a damn.....99% of the time it's going 4 miles to my friends farm it used to run the parlor when his compressors failed, 20k and 2 new screw units cured that, now its just blowing out the combine when the beans are real dry.

Ed

 

[oceanobob]

I was thinking about removing the hitch coupler as it built with a bracket to allow different hitch types: 2" ball or say for example eye for a pintle....but there is a report where a trailer with a welder was stolen with a hitch lock installed and the far off poor quality camera showed them chaining it? near the ball hitch of the truck and the dragging it off, presuming somewhere else they took the time to refine the hitch. That is why the removable tongue is a good idea.

What if I built a coupler and put a ball on it? would they be confused....