How can I better secure my 2007 Chevy Silverado 1500 4X4 from thieving bastards?
Twice the local thugs attempted to steal my truck. They broke the door lock by punching it in. They tear off the column cover and screw the hell out of the key ignition.
Thank God that they didn’t get it hot wired , otherwise I would be truckless.
I bought steering wheel club, but it doesn’t fit as secure as it should. Recently we moved into a gated condo community and the thefts stopped.
Should I spend several hundred dollars on a security system? Install a kill switch? Or what else can you suggest.
No garage available.
Thanks from Albuquerque New Mexico #1 in the Nation for car thefts and robberies
Well, the club is useless. There are many videos showing how easily they are defeated. After market alarms often cause more electrical problems then they are worth. The only thing is to carry full coverage insurance and hope for the best. A hidden kill switch might not stop damage but it might not let them drive it away.
No way to absolutely stop a determined thief, but a combination of a hidden switch to prevent ignition/cranking and an alarm system that will create an audible racket if a door is opened without the key would be pretty effective. Years ago I had a problem with teenagers breaking into the my truck to steal the stereo. I installed an alarm system that – unless I first disabled it – it would honk the horn if the door was opened. I had to go outside in the middle of the night in my pajamas to turn the horn off and re-shut the door a few times, but the stereo remained.
You may have solved the problem already by moving into the condo community. If all the attempted thefts occurred at night, you should be set. The other possible problems are at work, when running errands, or at a friend’s house. Since you said we moved, I will assume that you are married. If you go where the truck might be stolen, you could take your wife’s car instead. Or you could ride a bicycle, like your neighbor @RandomTroll does. He hangs out here and also lives in Albuquerque.
Drive something like this, three on the tree transmission, duct tape upholstery, vice grip window cranks. You can probably leave the key in the ignition switch, if fact, the guy who owns this does exactly that.
You can faintly hear the Sanford and Son theme song as you walk by this truck.
Kids target older vehicles because they lack ignition immobilizer systems, your truck very likely has the passkey system which is the reason that the thieves have been unsuccessful at taking the truck.
If your truck has the passkey system adding a “kill switch” would be redundant and would not prevent a thief from destroying your steering column. An add-on alarm system is inexpensive and not as poor of a device as some people would tell you.
There’s only one sure-fire way to prevent your car from being stolen: drive something that no one wants to steal. Most vehicles are stolen for their parts, which means that thieves are going to target popular models, or models which share a lot of parts with popular models.
If you drive something old, which does not contain any parts that are valuable to thieves, then it won’t be stolen. For example, I drive a 1995 Dodge Caravan. I am currently restoring a 1994 Plymouth Sundance. These are both highly theft-resistant models, because there simply isn’t any demand for their parts, they’re not worth much in this country, and they’re not worth the cost to illegally export to resell outside the U.S.
One of our neighbors has two very old cars: an early 1990’s Geo Prizm, and an early 1990’s Ford Tempo. They frequently leave the windows down, and almost certainly don’t lock the doors, and yet no one has stolen them. Another house on this street has an old Ford Aerostar van parked out front. I doubt they’re worried about having it stolen either.
Having visited New Mexico numerous times, that picture of that beat up old truck I posted would fit right in with the traffic over there. I used to think all the worn out old beaters were taken to Mexico, it seems a lot of them also go to New Mexico.
If your goal is to stop a professional thief or repo man, it’s useless, but if your goal is to deter an amateur, it can help, especially if you put it on the back of the steering wheel.
I also own an '87 Toyota pickup, which thieves stole a few years back. I thought owning a vehicle that old and worn-looking (it runs as well as new, just doesn’t look it) would keep it from being stolen. They left behind another, newer, Toyota pickup (cops wouldn’t let me keep it, in trade.) A week later the cops found it. I couldn’t get out to pick it up quickly enough for them on my bike, so it was towed. I had to pay $300 to get it back from the tower. It had the registration forms from 3 other cars and 6 bags of trash.
I took a necessary part out, keep it in a jar inside. I don’t leave anything valuable in the cab.
On an inline four, you can swap the 1&4 spark plug wires and also the 2&3 spark plug wires. Now all the cylinders will get their spark at the top of the exhaust stroke instead of the top of the compression stroke. It’ll crank but it won’t run.
That won’t hurt? Possibly a thief is smart enough to figure this out, especially if they have to hot-wire. A missing necessary part requires a parts box or a trip to AutoZone if they figure it out.
Wow! Albuquerque has population of 545,000+. I visited relatives there in 1974 and it seemed like a nice normal city. As far as clubs. Thieves saw through the steering wheel and remove the club. A vintage Car and Driver article concerning chop shops had a photo from one. A pile of clubs in a corner about 6 feet high by 10 feet across the bottom.
I understand things are a little different in sunnier parts of the world, but one thing that works for me is a garage. When I was on the Habitat for Humanity board, we were getting ready to build our first house, and we had to battle the XXXXX national organization in Georgia about spending money on a garage for low income folks. We said maybe in Georgia you don’t need a garage but in Minnesota you need a garage so your car starts and you can get to work. We won and every house built here in the last 20 years has a single car garage. They don’t cost much but return a lot, and it’s hard to sell a house again without one.
I saw one of those videos. It was disabled by a 13yo in less then 10 seconds.
Security system that disables the vehicle is the best bet. Not cheap, but they work. The professional thieve will only be slowed down. And a tow-truck driver will be gone in minutes.
I can’t imagine someone stealing that sub compact but even funnier would be a picture of the two wheels on the ground still chained together and the car gone…
Check this out, forget the club but this could work-
