Somebody "borrowed" my tractor

[jinman]

Jim,

Take a look at these cameras. Will take pics and send them to your phone, and your phone can control the camera if it is a smart phone.

X10.com - AirSight Wireless SD H.264 IP Camera

Thanks J_J. That's an impressive camera and the price is right. I'll look into one of those.:thumbsup:

 

[Pixguy]

Thanks J_J. That's an impressive camera and the price is right. I'll look into one of those.:thumbsup:

I'm sure those cameras are great, but realize the downside.

IR- InfraRed glows at night time and not only shows others that it's there, they also attract bugs like moths and spiders, which end up taking alot of wasted photos. I know, I have many cameras that I have to clean often.

Good luck with your issue.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Ive had this happen a couple times and I had alot of trouble with them . One time we had a large single gange Bush and bog disk. Dad glot it in a trade and our tractors couldnt pull it. Dad had a friend that messed with a few tractors and he had asked about the disk. A preacher in town wanted it for deer camp. Dad told him to sell it for him. Our friend did and we set up a date for him to come get it on Saturday. Well I had just bought my Old TLB from dad and was working on it. I had chainged the oild and filters and didnt refill the tank.


I come home from junior college on Wednesday and dad was in the shop and the old hoe was gone . I asked dad where it was and he thought i moveed it. I was in a panic. We followed the tracks behind the shop and found it almost tipped over. This old hoe is based on an industrial tractor and really tippy. The disk was on the ridge in my junkyard.


We called our friend and he came to help get it started. The preacher wanted to disk his plots the next day and came to get the disk. He brought a Ford key and strted the machine up and went to the back. He had the tlb over the disk and had the loader almost full up. When he picked it up and it in a a postion when the disk left the ground it swung down hill. THe cab caught on a tree and the tractor ran out of fuel. We had to chain the machine to a tree uphill and then get it started. Took 2.5 hours to get it primed. I got it back on the ground with the bachoe and we toted the disk up and set it in one of dads roll off beds. He acted like nothing was done wrong. I still get aggravated over it. I delivered it to him on the back of a dump truck.


The next time we had a neighbor that moved in and bought a new tractor. Was doing plot work and borrowed dads 5 foot disk without asking. Nothing on this hill gets used without its dose of grease. Well I talked to him about it and told him next time grease it and tell some one. HE came and borrowed it and used it all day then came home with it and left a broken blade, and a new tube of grease he never even greased it. Now he lost that priveledge. He asked to borrow my COvington planter to put out Chufa. I told him Id plant it for him as I didnt loan my planter. He said I thought we were friends. I said we are friends and gonna stay that way. He braggs about what they tear up. Ididnt see a good future for that.


One of my jobs on a construction site I worked one in addition to being an operator I had an old Gasburner 190 IHC cab over water truck. It had been an old AirForce Fuel tanker in the 60's. I had a laborer that wasnt too work brickle. He would take the water truck to run to the edge of the site to get to the store. ALot of times he either got it stuck or ran it out of gas or just didnt bring it back. It didnt have Air conditioning but one of the Mechanics put an AC unit off an RV on top and the tanker had an old Govt surplus Genset on the back. It had twin magnetos on it and they were bad to the bone.
I was the one responisble for the truck. My laborer used it on night shift and had left it out of fuel and stuck. I broke them from the habit by taking the spare Mag on the genset and running 2 of its 4 wires up through the seat cushion with some ROmex with about 2 inches of bare wire through the seat and under the cover.


I did a double shift to keep a pump running and tear down a crane. It was hot and I heard the old tanker start up and about that time my The truck ran off in a ditch near the crane. THe laborer had turned the genset on for the the AC unit. I stayed on a year and a half and he never got back around the water wagon.

 

[R_Walter]

Years ago when I was a school kid, my best friend and I used to walk home... most of the time. The school was a one room school house for grades 1 through 8 and was 5 miles away. We would come to a straight section of road for 2 miles and the neighbor often would have a horse pegged out near the road. We'd borrow the horse and ride him down the two miles and peg him again by the road. We borrowed the horse just about every day for two weeks. One night Mr. Nelson came by to talk to my father and was complaining about whoever had been messing with his horse. I laid pretty low after that.

 

[pacerron]

I think I have this pretty well planned out. I have one additional neighbor who I might ask because he was arriving as I was leaving and going out when I was coming home. He's a nice fellow, retired form FedEx, and lost his wife a couple of years ago. If he saw anything, he would surely tell me.

I won't call names, but I think it was my next-door neighbor who helped himself. His house is about 400 feet from mine with a gully and trees separating. I once pulled a 20' container for him about 40 ft with my tractor when it was new. I've also pulled him on his father's tractor out of the sandy creek behind our places. He is just the kind of guy who thinks his need constitutes a good reason to help himself. I've observed scraps of poached game on his property with buzzards circling. He's also the one who bottle fished all the big catfish out of our lake because, "I gotta feed my family." There is no fence between our places and he could easily walk here and take my tractor after seeing us leaving at noon. If some neighbor had caught him and asked, he would have told them that he has my permission. That's just the kind of guy he is.

I'll do the light and I plan to install a four station video monitor. The next time this happens (if it happens) I'll have the perp on candid camera. In the meantime, I'm locking up keys, setting the disconnect on my TLB and pulling the 40 amp main fuse. The rubber cover for the breaker looks completely normal with the fuse pulled. The long-term solution is as Ron Hall suggested. I have to get off my duff and get my pole barn built. Unfortunately, if they break into a building while I'm gone, they would be hidden from view of the road. It's always something and a good insurance policy is the best plan.

Jim,
We certainly appreciate your frustration over this incident.

You have described to the world what measures you plan to take to keep
this from being repeated as well as the description of your neighbor that you suspect. Google
As a result you may want to take some additional deterrent steps that are not described herein and have a face to face talk with your neighbor before
somebody else points it out to him.

 

[DefEddie]

On our modified cars around here that we worry about I like to wire in a hidden fuel pump shutoff switch(we like old cars rather than new-even the newer cars have had the built in security programmed out of computer).
A quick single throw switch on the relay ground is generally all it takes.
I've even got some electrical switch locks with barrel keys (like on coke machines) that were given to me by an electrical engineer.
So even if they do find the switch they can't use a key on it,would have to hotwire real quick.

I've seen similar locks on commercial computers that lock out the hard drive,so maybe you can find one.

Admittingly I'm assuming tractors have electric fuel pump.
I'm just a wannabe currently,joined to learn more.

 

[shortthrow50]

I borrow nothing from nobody. Kill the people that borrowed your tractor

 

[k0ua]

On our modified cars around here that we worry about I like to wire in a hidden fuel pump shutoff switch(we like old cars rather than new-even the newer cars have had the built in security programmed out of computer).
A quick single throw switch on the relay ground is generally all it takes.
I've even got some electrical switch locks with barrel keys (like on coke machines) that were given to me by an electrical engineer.
So even if they do find the switch they can't use a key on it,would have to hotwire real quick.

I've seen similar locks on commercial computers that lock out the hard drive,so maybe you can find one.

Admittingly I'm assuming tractors have electric fuel pump.
I'm just a wannabe currently,joined to learn more.

Some good ideas, but unfortunately I believe most of the "lift" fuel pumps on diesel tractors are driven from the cam. However there are other electrical things that could be interrupted with your switch idea. like the fuel shut off solenoid relay.

James K0UA

 

[SPIKER]

one thing is they put the equipment all back where it came from for most part. I hate borrowing stuff but like someone posted I did borrow a 3pt cement mixer once the bottom bearing went out on the 2nd load in it. the unit belonged to a co worker who got it at auction. it appeared to be well kept up but a grease fitting on bottom had never been greased. had to remove about 3/4 tear down to get to it and replace it and replaced a bunch of other parts too but was probably cheaper than renting one lol.


Mark

 

[NativeSon]

Wow, Jim I hate to hear this story. It's bad when you have neighbors that you can't get along with( I have one too). Dad used to say "Good fences make Good neighbors". I hope you figure out a way to give you a little peace of mind with this situation.

We've just recently put an alarm system in the house to give us a little more security when we're away from the house. Hey I never had an alarm system when I lived in the Big City, and as a kid in Oak Cliff, Tx we never even locked the doors. But the Times they are a changin'. When we go to visit the Grandkids we set the alarm and tell the neighbors we trust that we'll be gone for the day. That's about all we can do.

Good luck

Charlie