Security & Theft best way to electrically prevent theft?

[N80]

The dealer who sold me my Kubota is now a Lojack dealer and will install it on your tractor.

I personally leave mine with the PTO lever on and the gear shift engaged. This will deter a joy rider. I also used to turn the fuel sttopcock to off but too many times I forgot and would drive a few minutes, sputter to a stop and then have to bleed it.

Dogs are no better. I've known teens, simple crooks and pro's to dispatch dogs with no trouble at all. They may stop a joyrider or vandal, but not much else.

I've settled on good insurance and quit worrying about it.

 

[rpoage]

Insurance is a must and I learned that the hard way as my first break-in in CT was not insured. I paid the stupid tax and got insurance ASAP. After the second break-in I became more interested in revenge so I use an alarm but I also use camera's. These little wireless internet camera's are cheap and easy to install and if you ever want to see a happy police officer tell him you have security camera's when they come to investigate the break in. If crooks get away with it once they will keep doing it till they get caught so I want to do what I can to make sure that they pay for stealing my stuff.

 

[cheesehead]

As has been pointed out, most thieves are not well versed in tractors and want to get in and out without being noticed. Activating the safety devices on the tractor are excellent ideas, but if you want to further foil the unlikely event of having the tractor towed just park the tractor with as much bucket area on the ground as possible (backhooe and loader). The increase in friction will help, especially when it hits the tow truck lip. More importantly, on concrete it will make so much noise the they'll pass on your tractor.

 

[MikeD74T]

Always wondered if an 12 volt electric fence unit wired up under the hood would be effective??? MikeD74T

 

[JC-jetro]

Unfortunately, all they have to do is shim the axle pivot.. a large metal nut.. or wood wedge, piece of that gravel rock, or just about any 1" thick piece of hard material will make that lame end dangle and ballance on one tire...

We've all seen the pic of the tractor driving down the road missing a front tire.. all the person had to do was shim the axle pivot. On a small tractor a thief could probably use a prybar or 2x4 or fence post to lever the front end up enough to then shim the axle... if they really want it.. they'll get it.. unfortunately.

I imagine 'live' deterents will trumph any mechanical deterent..IE.. parking your tractor in a shed in a pasture that has a curious bull...

Soundguy

Hmmm... I need to think about this a bit. I can see that leveling the lame end to be something rather simple.. what I don't get is how they can winch it up to a flat bed, by moving it up an incline with with a wooden leg (same as one legged pirate with a wooden leg ...argh ). I reckon they may be able to mount a skid plate (same as ski) or mount a wheel on the bottom of vertical support. Rigging something like that should take a bit of time and engineering and then skidding it on gravel back to dirt/grass and top of trailer can be a bit difficult. I have not seen a tractor with one front wheel missing in highway yet but how do they turn like that, do they use some people as balast on the opposite side of missing wheel? Obviously it is almost next to impossible to deter a thief unless you hire Cujo or camp out next to your tractor 24/7 with a shotgun I think many of thieves are after a quick bite(steal) and they make just walk off and slash the tires to get even. I also daisy chain my tiller, brush hog and tractor front axle together. I have only done it this year as my neighbors renter is gone and there is for rent sign out there for all to see.

 

[N80]

I think any rollback truck could drag a 3 wheeled tractor up on it. Having the loader down would probably slow them down a bit. But where my tractor is, noise and time are not an issue. Its over a mile to the nearest house. If they come after midnight they'd have a good 6 hours before a car even went by on the highway.

However, that's also an advantage. My cabin, and tractor are accessed by a very typical and unimproved dirt driveway. The gate is an old, unmarked 16' tube gate. The cabin and tractor are not visible from the gate...or even halfway up the drive for that matter. The tractor sits in a clump of cedars near the cabin. The only give away that something is down that plain looking dirt road is the power lines.

Someone would have to know the tractor was there. But if they showed up with a rollback truck, none of the tricks I'm willing to apply would slow them down at all.

 

[Soundguy]

No.. I'm not talking about proping it up on a piece of timber.. or on a skid.


set down in front of your tractor and find your front axle.. now find the kingpin the front axle pivots on. now find the axle stops that prevent the axle from rotating up far enough to do sheet metal and or radiator damage. Usually they are squared off sections on the front axle /kingpin carrier that have coresponding flattened sections on the axle itself.

Now remove one wheel, the axle rotates down till the hub is laying in the dirt... lets say this is the right tire/wheel removed... look on the left side.. the axle stop will most likely be touching together.. now.. lift the right side up PAST normal, and then slip in a hammer.. or some other hard object betweent he axle stops on the LEFT side, and then slowly lower the right side... you will find that the hub now dangles freely in the air.. with all weight transfere tot he single left tire due to the rigidness o fthe axle, and the axle stop, and the fact that the axle cannot rotate ont he king pin because the axle stops on the left side are held open. The tractor will be a lopside trike at that point.. will steer like a bear.. but WILL drive off on it own.. or could be winched up on a trailer.. or driven on a trailer.

I can probably post a pics of the axle stops if you can't find them.

This is how they do a clutch job .. when they split the tractor, the engine would normall slop over on the king pin.. however mechanics hammer wood wedges into both side axle stops to keep the engine centered... works fine in reverse too...

Soundguy

Hmmm... I need to think about this a bit. I can see that leveling the lame end to be something rather simple.. what I don't get is how they can winch it up to a flat bed, by moving it up an incline with with a wooden leg (same as one legged pirate with a wooden leg ...argh ). I reckon they may be able to mount a skid plate (same as ski) or mount a wheel on the bottom of vertical support. Rigging something like that should take a bit of time and engineering and then skidding it on gravel back to dirt/grass and top of trailer can be a bit difficult. I have not seen a tractor with one front wheel missing in highway yet but how do they turn like that, do they use some people as balast on the opposite side of missing wheel? Obviously it is almost next to impossible to deter a thief unless you hire Cujo or camp out next to your tractor 24/7 with a shotgun I think many of thieves are after a quick bite(steal) and they make just walk off and slash the tires to get even. I also daisy chain my tiller, brush hog and tractor front axle together. I have only done it this year as my neighbors renter is gone and there is for rent sign out there for all to see.

 

[Soundguy]

Here's a pic i had handy.. this shows a 7610s 4wd axle ( mine is 2wd.. but it was the 1st pic I found that looked good )... see those square nubes on either side of the pivot.. those are the axle stops.. Probably look different on every model.. but they will be where the axle maximum upwards travel meets something else on the tractor.. that's where you shim the opposite side of the one with the missing wheel to keep it off the ground.

Soundguy

 

[JC-jetro]

No.. I'm not talking about proping it up on a piece of timber.. or on a skid.


set down in front of your tractor and find your front axle.. now find the kingpin the front axle pivots on. now find the axle stops that prevent the axle from rotating up far enough to do sheet metal and or radiator damage. Usually they are squared off sections on the front axle /kingpin carrier that have coresponding flattened sections on the axle itself.

Now remove one wheel, the axle rotates down till the hub is laying in the dirt... lets say this is the right tire/wheel removed... look on the left side.. the axle stop will most likely be touching together.. now.. lift the right side up PAST normal, and then slip in a hammer.. or some other hard object betweent he axle stops on the LEFT side, and then slowly lower the right side... you will find that the hub now dangles freely in the air.. with all weight transfere tot he single left tire due to the rigidness o fthe axle, and the axle stop, and the fact that the axle cannot rotate ont he king pin because the axle stops on the left side are held open. The tractor will be a lopside trike at that point.. will steer like a bear.. but WILL drive off on it own.. or could be winched up on a trailer.. or driven on a trailer.

I can probably post a pics of the axle stops if you can't find them.

This is how they do a clutch job .. when they split the tractor, the engine would normall slop over on the king pin.. however mechanics hammer wood wedges into both side axle stops to keep the engine centered... works fine in reverse too...

Soundguy

Well..well well.. How about them apples? Nice Soundguy! I knew you had a perfect and plausible answer... Just needed to wait and hear from you Good Point..

Now I know exactly what you mean. I still think the average Jo Shmo would be thief is not smart enough or have enough time to go thru all the trouble for a quick bite. Idea of blocked pivot point is good for a tractor split. If I ever have to split a tractor, I thought I'd do it on cement floor, keep the scoop loaded, lowered to the floor to keep rear housing/transmission level. Leave enough room to pull the engine section forward, remove the front weigh and balance the engine on wheeled transmission jack to move the front forward and probably keep a jack stand in front bumper in case front decided to go down.

Great response, thanks

 

[beersngars]

Some one mentioned a LoJac above. I looked into those when I bought my tractor and found the coverage area is very limited in the rural areas. In fact I called LoJack and their coverage in Ohio is pretty much limited to Cleveland, Columbus and the Cincinatti areas. The woman I talked to tried to continue the sale however by telling me most equipment would end up in the big cities. I didn't bite.