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We have been considering purchasing Tire Boots for our enclosed trailers. Its the kind of thing that they put on you car if you park somewhere after hours or something....they're used commonly in our area by the police. I have a catalog from www.awdirect.com that has a few different styles. I had never thought of the GPS system however...thats interesting.
 
Sorry to hear about your loss. We had 2 16' trailers stolen from our yard last January.

I make sure my insurance agent gets a spread sheet listing all of our equipment quarterlie. If someone wiped us out like that, there is no way in the world I would be able to remember what was taken.

Hope the police catch the s.o.b.'s
 
Originally posted by geogunn
shade tree--the gps thing...is that LOJAC (sp?). I hear lojac works.

I wonder how many members would fight to keep their trailer from being taken and how many would rather see it go down the drive and run no risk of being hurt?

GEO
I am one of those that would put every bullet in my house after those guys. If they are dumb enough to try and take my trailer, they deserve every bullet that hits em. Besides, you probably wouldnt even have to actually shoot them, just put a few round over thier heads, that should scare em off. If it doesnt, they really do deserve to be shot.

:cool:
 
The holidays are coming again
BE CAREFUL!
 
The bad thing is the police dont do to much to help you recover your stuff if it is small equipment. I never got anything back this year and no phone calls or anything from the police who were handling my case. And insurance is kinda like it dont cost enough to insure. Anyway I hope you get something back or a settlement so you can replace your equipment. Its rough going into your pocket to buy new equipment.

David :)
 
Sorry to hear about your lost. The tire boot is a good idea ,as is the coupler. Remember as someone said make sure you know your state laws before you shoot someone and watch out for a civil law suite. Once again sorry about you lost. I keep an inventory of my equipment with serial numbers on file and with my agent. :cool2:
 
Shadetree,
I am feeling for you. I had the samre thing happen to the amintenace department I was managing this past summer.
I went out of town to the ocean with my family for a well deserved 4 day vacation.
I called my crews one morning to see how things were going.
They told me that some one had stolen one of our F-250's and the maintenace trailer full of every thing 48 Turf Tracer, 36 Scag
2 honda hrc 21's , a few weedeaters and a couple on new eb7001 that I purchased the week before. Plus all of the small tools.
I thought that they were pulling my chain. It was true. We did get the truck back and one weedeater.

Keep your head up. Maybe they will find it. If not just look at it being able to go get all new equipment before next season. It to bad it won't be a full value though.

Good Luck
Mike
 
Sorry to have to read a thread like this. It is such a terrible feeling knowing your space and livelihood has been violated. We had someone break into our trucks a few years ago.They obviously didn't know what they were doing.I had Rolotape measuring wheels in both trucks, about three to four pairs of Felcos, EZ Reachers, etc., and all they took was the change from the consoles:confused: We moved to a new house, and got hit again within a week , like they watched us move.Alarms went on everything after that. It sucks to get hit with the magitude of your loss, as a friend went through similar events about 5 years ago. His turned out to be 2 ex employees, pissed about being fired.Never recovered any hand helds , truckloader,or WB's, only the truck and open trailer they were in. Insurance co. couldn't verify the contents of truck and trailer, and only covered the damage done to his truck(3K).He lost over 30K in equipment, and was forced out of business. I hope you find the lousy SOB who did this to you, payback is a bit*h!Bad karma brings bad karma.If they never find the guy, maybe he'll get run over by another LCO driving down the road in a dump truck some night..:angry:
 
Gps is a great idea. Lojack is only as good as your local PD, if they dont have Lojack antennas on some of their cars then its not such a great idea to invest. In more urban areas, Lojack will be common. Put some bright flood lights with motion detectors near your yard. Try to park in the equipment with other vehicles. If your yard is COMPLETELY fenced, I recomend a dog with a good bark that will wake you up. Oh yeah, dont forget that people steal in broad daylight too. My dogs have discouraged at least 2 burglars. As for protection with guns, dont try to just scare em away, catch those F'ers, if they get away dial 911 and get the description from head to toe out on the air asap, officers will hopefully be competent enough to setup a sector and find someone. And finally, if you are forced to injure another person, my advice would be to call a lawyer before saying a WORD to the police. They will understand, they do the same thing after officer involved shootings before talking to their own people about it.
 
I strongly suggest that those of you, particulary with enclosed trailers that are parked at nite away from your residence or business, take pictures of the following and give a set of them to your insurance agent or company. This will help enormously should should a theft occur. My agent actually called me and thanked me for the pictures:

Take pics of:
1. the trailer wherever its parked at night. Take another picture that includes the door/ramp locks and whatever you use to lock the ball/hitch from being attached to a vehicle. One of my pics of the trlr also shows the barbed wire fence that surrounds the storage yard.

2. the inside with the equipment . If you store some of your stuff elsewhere, include a pic of that storage facility and the locking mechanism.

I;m not suggesting that your company would drag its feet in reimbursing you without these pics...rather...the pics show that you have done everthing reasonable to deter theft.
This may help to prevent the underwriter from increasing your rates...or worse, from non-renewing your policy.

As you probably know, we are also urged to do this in our homes. I;ve yet to do it there but I need to
 
Even though this thread was started nearly a year ago, it has some helpful suggestions. It's important to insure items at the depreciated value and to do this every year. I have a friend that has his skid steer insured for 18K, even though he only paid 12K and now it's worth even less. He school of thoght is if it's stolen, he will receive 18K. This is not the case. We pay double on your premium if you are only to get half of what you are paying for?
 
Thats just horrible,I hope they are found for you.

"Not much is lower than a thief that would steal another persons means to make a living."

Agreed,you have to be a real scum***!

Two years ago my friend had his trailer and truck stolen from the jobsite.Truck ans trailer was found ,but,the equipment was gone.
 
I have been thinking about this for some time if I had to park my enclosed trailer outside and it was a permanent place that I keep the trailer.

I would sink 2 pieces of steel in the ground concreted in about 4 feet that I could run a huge hardened steel chain through the kind that you could never cut with a bolt cutter one that you would need a cutting torch :) . Place these right under the axles. then you could run the chains around the axles with huge hardened steel padlocks. Make them pretty snug so if they were able to get it hooked to a truck they would only move it a few inch's. This would not stop them from breaking into the trailer but would stop them from taking it.

I would also put a battery in it with a motion activated car alarm and circuit breakers on the doors so when opened they would set off the alarm. also put some stobe lights like the cops have on there cars that would also activate when alarm was set off

One of these big hitch company's like bulldog should design a adjustable hitch that has hardened steel pins like your receiver hitch on your truck so you could pull the coupler from the trailer. this would not stop the thieves from buying there own coupler but would make it much tougher to take your trailer if they didn't have one :)
 
I'm in the process of altering my trailer tonge. I'm installing a square tube trailer receiver on the end of the trailer tonge (just the square tube section). I'm going to weld the trailer coupling to a 2" square trailer hitch extension (the piece that nomally would slide into the receiver on the tow vehicle). The whole thing will come off the trailer when the hitch pin is removed. I don't have a camera to show pics, but it is pretty simple to install. The trailer can't be towed without the the 2" trailer hitch extension installed on the trailer. Would be thieves have no way to hook up.
 
Those coupler locks don't work too well. When I bought my trailer I asked abou them and the guy told me he wanted to show me something. He put one on a trailer in the lot and gave me a sledge hammer. I had it off in three licks. He recommended one of those short shanked master locks. The ones that you can't get anything in between the casing to cut the shank with. You drill a hole big enough to put the shank through in the side of the of your coupler and lock it down. I have tried and tried myself to gwet a bolt cutter or even a hacksaw through there but I can't. It works fairly well, but anyone with time , patience, and a quiet manuver can steal what they want in the middle of the night.
 
++++I am forced to park my enclosed in a storage/rental type place....while I dont like spending the $45 per month and having to park it and go and get it everyday, the peace of mind is worth it to me.++++

Wow! Wish I was paying that little. My 10 X 25 storage unit is running me $159/mo. It's a beeyotch to back the trailer into a unit that small. The storage unit just opened last June and they're getting ready to add a second phase. In the new phase, they'll have a 12 X 25 for $189/mo. I think I'll pay the extra $30/mo just so I can back in and out in less time.

Later,
DFW Area Landscaper
 
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