missing gates

[Kodiak]

The invention of the battery powered SawZall has been equivalent to giving thieves a key to the palace.

 

[Ozarker]

If you can't get a welder out there to weld a nut, the next best thing is to cross drill the nut then pin it in place. Put the pin in coated with a liberal amount of JB Weld.

 

[poorboy]

Alco, I thought about identifying the gate some way. It's funny how all gates look the same when up.

Egon, I thought about going vert. but dow in the lot there are 7 more gates and I don't know about how practical it would be.

MikePa, Your right a picture being worth a 1000 words. I might try that approach. Thanks for the picture and all the trouble.

Wroughtn harv, The eye bolt crossed my mind as that I have some telephone pole hardware from the lot post I have been planting. They were locked and chained and they got the lock in a bind and beat it off. Should have sprung for the larger lock but couldn't fin same keyyed locks at the time.

Dmcarty, I may add those no matter what route I choose.

OZARKER, if I had a drill press that would be a good way to go.

violent replies, I thought of those all that morning. I an suprised that no one mentioned an electrical charge in some gross amount.

Thanks for all the ideas and pictures, I know its been said but this is a great place.

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

HMMMM, what a low deed. Well yes there are things that might make gate stealing harder but if it is an area where they won't get caught you probably won't get to take a shot at their tires or...

One thing that came to mind was long life batteries like mercury cells wired to a gravity switch that would set off pyrotechnics if the gate were taken more than, say, 20 degrees out of the vertical plane. You wold have to take it off the hinges to lean it more than 5-10 degrees even if the hinges are pretty sloppy. What pyrotechnics you chose is up to you.

There is a commercially available booby trap that fires a 12 ga blank. It isn't so expensive and you could probably make some yourself. You could load it with the bird chasing shells that scream then explode a hundred feet or so in the air when launched vertically. It could be hidden in a wooden box that looks like part of the gate post or in a hollowed out section or use your imagination. Emergency flares like for a flare pistol that shoot red meteor flares to quite a height come in 12 ga also.

Don't you think they probably work at night? I should think at night all quiet like sneaking around real stealthly like then bang the 12 ga shell goes off and shoots a red flare a couple hundred feet into the air. They just might be in the next county wishing for a change of underwear before they stop to consider what happened.

I could get meaner and I could get a lot more devious but I think this would give you, dare I say it, the most bang for your buck!

Patrick

 

[Kodiak]

How about 4 or 5 Dobermans.

 

[Phred]

Kodiak,

Your right. The good news is that most of the bad guys are not that smart.


I bought some steel pipe ~8 feet long and set it in concrete. I had the company that sold me the pipe cut some holes for the bolt on gate hangers. Then used the JB weld to make it difficult to get the gate off without the sawzall.

However, if I ever need to get it off that battery powered sawzall in the tool box would make quick work of it. I know because the previous owner had used a stick welder in a similar manner to the way I used the JB weld. It took about 5 mins to chop those old hangers off.

I a man could get his hands on a cheap motion activated camera it would sure solve the problem. Maybe you would be lucky enough to get a tag number to share with the deputies.

Fred

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>How about 4 or 5 Dobermans.</font color=blue>

My first thought was along the line of simpathetic hornets living in the nice home provided in the post. And battery powered sawsalls might irritate them just wrong.

If'n you had some pet hornets and a skunk tethered close by that had a real nasty personality it could be funny. Post the skunk along the most obvious path of rapid retreat. It would be a personal invite to swellsmellhell if'n you know what I mean.

 

[Egon]

Poorboy:

Been doing some more contemplateing on the missing gate.

1: any injury promoting devices, if ever activated, will probably give you the privledge of getting free room and board with a nice orange jumpsuit included.

2: Passive recording devices will probably cost more than the gate, may even go with the gate and most likely will not evoke much response from the local law enforcers.

3: Making a gate theft proof is expensive and will not deter a determined thief if the gate is worth stealing. [ read metal cutting saws, wood cutting saws, two large hammers for padlocks, hydraulic bottle jacks and numerous other common tools.]

4: Provide a gate that no will want. eg. a barbed wire gate. Cheap, easy to build, effective but a pain to drag back and forth when opening and closing. It may alleviate your problem.

Egon

 

[dmccarty]

poorboy,

You know what is REALLY interesting about the responses
to your problem? Look at how many different solutions
you received for the same problem.....

Just an observation on the TBN Mental Collective... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[rozett]

This thread has convinved me to buy two sections of jersey barrier and use that as a 'gate' at the remote end of my property. I will move them out of the way with the tractor for the snow mobile trail at first snow.