Jeep Security & Theft Prevention As soon as i bought my Jeep, everyone warned me about how "theftable" the car is. I did a lot of searching on the net and came across a lot of ideas.
Just sharing a few here. Please feel free to add.
Acknowledgements:
Usenet
Offroad forum
Elkman
(most is cut paste)
DISCLAIMER: If someone is dedicated to stealing a Jeep or stealing something from it, there is nothing that we can do about it. But in-between the honest and the dishonest are the "dishonest when it is convenient," that is to say, the ones who will steal from your jeep when it is easy to do, but not if there is a chance of an alarm going off or if they will have to spend time breaking into the jeep. These are the people that we can deter -
1. The Disabler Switch
- Hide a 2 way fuel valve (extra tank) and put it between ports. You can only drive about a block before it runs out of gas
If you don't have a second tank a straight thru valve would work fine to shut off flow. Use swage-loc valves (real quality with stem mounting nuts) and for the on/off option a toggle valve is recommended. A simple "flip" on or off! It could even be installed inside a lockable box or the consol, or with a lock on the toggle handle itself.
Be careful of you have a fuel injected engine. The tank's fuel pump keeps the lines under high pressure at all times, even when parked - The only problem with this is that you could do damage to the fuel injectors.
- Battery Disconnect switch under the Hood with Keyed hood lock.
- Distributor kill switch
- Consider an alarm, because it would provide a starter disconnect.
2. The Steering Wheel.
- Use a 4' length of very heavy chain that goes thru the steering wheel, around the seat leg and is secured by a very large padlock
- Use a removeable steering wheel: Grant's No Wheel, No Steal kit. 4WD Hardware sells it.
- You can get a steering column sleeve (like a big metal fist) that is lockable over the entire steering column. Quadratec advertises these in its catalog.
- Removable steering wheel in the Summitt catalog for around $100. It is removed with a key, and has a cap that locks onto the steering column so that another steering wheel can't be put on.
- One of the most popular solutions in Central/South America is to weld tabs on the brake and clutch pedal, drill holes through the tabs and then place a lock through them. If you are creative and place the tabs correctly, a "trailer tongue" type lock can be utilized and is darned near impossible to cut off.
- Use the clutch - steering lock available locally. But, these are very common and a master key may be available. Also thieves are know to cut the steering wheel using a saw to remove this.
- Use a steering lock "club". But again a thief can cut the steering wheel.
3. Others
- Use silent pager-alarms you carry in your pocket. They aren't much good past a certain distance, but at home, or work, they are just fine, and you can deal with the thief yourself.
- Keep the coil to distributor wire inside the house
- Hood / bonnet lock
- In Canada, seat belt use is mandatory. There is a switch built into most driver side belts that show a fasten seat belt light when you turn the ignition. Wire it so that if the belt is not clipped in, the engine wont start. I don't think thieves are safety consciuos during a heist. I guess we can get this type from any local auto accessory store. Newer cars do have these systems built into the dash in India now.
- Take a piece of steel cable / chain about four feet long and loop it around brake and clutch pedals the other end wrap any slack around steering wheel and put a master lock thru the other loop and lock it to one of the holes in the spokes of the steering wheel. When not in use, just lock it to the roll bar.
- Keep a Dobermann in your Jeep. lol
- Install a series of rocker switches that have be put into a certain ON/OFF pattern for the Jeep to start. To any thief they just look like extra accesory switches. (can anyone explain this?)
- Keep your jeep in a very bad rusted condition. lol
- Run a wire from the parking light switch to a relay that powers the ignition switch, that way you have to have the light switch on in order to start up and afterwards you can turn the lights off.
- Sticker on a new Ford Truck....it read:
Nothing in MY truck is worth YOUR life!
i like it....
EDIT: OOPS Sorry. I made this as a new thread and it got shifted by the mod team to this thread (i couldn't find it in search). So there may be repeats in suggestions.
Last edited by Tejas@perioimpl : 10th December 2009 at 15:47.
Reason: see edit
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