Anti-theft device?

[goosegog]

Hi guys and girls. Having recently bought a classic which isn't equipped with a steering lock on the ignition key and is highly desirable for being nicked for bangering, I'm in the market for something to deter thieves on the rare occasion it's parked in the street.

What steering wheel / gear lever thingy currently proves the most difficult to defeat?

Happy new year

Ferg

[arthurbrown]

Disk-lok is about impervious to all 'drive away' theft.

However, your banger-thief will be equipped with a Hi-ab and "official looking" hi-vis jacket. Unless you physically chain the car to something immovable there's not much you can do to prevent this kind of disgusting theft.

[rtlkyuubi]

a removeable steering wheel

[penski]

A rottweiler with deep heat on it's balls.

*n

[BenzBoy]

I'm with Pog on both counts - Disc-Lok is about the best thing out there to stop the piece of sh*t car thief who wants to drive your car away. But travellers and the criminal element of the Banger scene will just Hi-Ab it, and there's not a lot you can do about that.

[Pillock]

Seriously, you need some kind of visible deterrent (Diskloc), but then sink a anchor into the ground if you've got a driveway, and get some ruddy great chain between that and some hefty part of the car. Also let your neighbours know that it's not a scrap car and if they see it being lifted, to call the cops.

[goosegog]

Guys, thanks for the advice. I'll get me a Disklok ASAP. My car is always garaged but do occasionally park round a mate's house in the street. I do have a long, uncuttable chain for my motorbikes so I'll take that too.

Any thoughts on tracking systems?

Cheers

Ferg

[Hirst]

I'm interested in basic tracking systems too, I've heard of the mobile phone based one where you leave a phone in the car to track but I'm after something more permanent, very preferably without a monthly fee.

[BenzBoy]

The trouble with trackers is that they can be jammed. I've heard of well-organised criminals using jammers when lifting cars fitted with trackers. Of course, it still offers more of a chance of getting it back as I don't think those jammers are widely used.
Like Hirst said, there's the mobile phone tracker which is a good budget solution

[Pillock]

Some of the mobile-phone tracker services are pretty good, and they'll run on a pay-as-you-go phone like the Nokia that Asda are doing for a tenner. Just send it a text every now and again to keep it registered (180 days usually) but it doesn't need any credit.

No special hardware required - just get a car charger for the phone, wire that into a permenant 12v and plug into the phone. Then register the phone at a tracking service, who will let you track that phone on a map. Some only charge per tracking request, so if your car never goes walkies you never have to pay.

[Hirst]

Sounds like an interesting homebrew solution, certainly going to look into that!

I reckon you'd be alright with regards to jammers if you don't put tracker stickers (or anything indicating you have a tracker) on the car, it'd only encourage professionals to disable it and wouldn't make much difference to the more uneducated end of the car thief scale, who would be put off by more visible deterrents like Disc-loks anyway.

[Hirst]

[jettadeluxe]

There are some good GPS based alarms that work as trackers, and will also text you if the alarm is activated, I'm looking into these at the moment.

abacuscaralarms.co.uk/store//view_product.php?product=Autowatch%20KS-990

abacuscaralarms.co.uk/store/view_product.php?product=Toad%20Text%20Alert

[Lankytim]

Id go with a tracker complete with stickers. Your car wont be much use for the road if it gets pinched and then recovered but has hiab chain marks in the roof or has been stacked with a car on top of it somewhere. If someone with a Hiab sees its got a tracker fitted they wont bother taking it in the first place. Chaining it to the ground is a good idea but remember many banger racers have petrol disc cutters and other hardware, a chain wont stop them plus your bound to forget to thake the chain off sooner or later.....CRUNCH!

[popuptoaster]

a pager alarm is about the only thing that'll do you any good against a hiab, and even then you need to be scary enough to fight off a couple of big hairy travellers.

also get agreed value insurance.