Vehicle Trackers - What Say You?

[Marine Industries West]

Looking to the brain trust for vehicle tracker advice/info. Lots of stuff out there, hardwired vs. battery, subscription vs. non-subscription. Looking online and there's alot of stuff out there. Anyone have a preference or experience in this field?

 

[dread Pirate]

We have drone mobile on a couple of our rides and zero complaints. My daughter and son have more in their cars than insurance would ever compensate for. Besides I want my shit back!

DroneMobile | Smartphone Remote Start, Security & GPS Tracking

DroneMobile connects your car to your smartphone for remote start, security, dash cam monitoring and GPS tracking.

www.dronemobile.com

 

[Orange Juice]

Two or three Apple tags will keep them looking for a while, if hidden.

 

[RitcheyRch]

I believe these are highly rated by the inmates

LandAirSea Systems | GPS Tracker For Cars, Assets & Fleets

LandAirSea is a manufacturer of GPS tracking devices and asset management solutions for fleets, vehicles, and personal safety. Discover how GPS can help you!

landairsea.com

 

[boatpi]

Cal amp sureguard gps is what I use. The better stuff they will use Google Maps and they pay dearly for that. Also find it as a small battery back up inside and if you really need to has the option of ignition shut off like Onstar.

If anybody has two or more vehicles in Southern California that want installed and tracked DM me and I’ll give you a direct contact for a wholesale price, but it has to be two or more at the same time. Around $230 apiece per car installed with two years of Tracking. after that it’s about $70 a year. That’s ballpark close I don’t get anything out of it in commission.

I just refer people, mainly rental car fleets. And every 24 hours it randomly pages your vehicle when you sign on it’ll show as a heartbeat so you know where it’s at.

 

[adam909]

Samsara, tracks and records the drivers, monitors engine.. Ideal for fleet use. No issues.

 

[Echo Lodge]

Two or three Apple tags will keep them looking for a while, if hidden.

And the speakers are removed.

 

[outboard_256]

I have air tags in all my cars as "better than nothing" I pulled an interior body panel and put them behind something or tucked under something. So you will have to take off the center console, or carpet, or something to get to them. So far the only thing I have used them for is knowing how far I parked the car. The app tells me how far away the objcet is and gives directions to it so makes it easy to see that I am .4 miles away and 6 min walk to my car.

 

[Marine Industries West]

On the Apple Air Tags, does it require a phone nearby to piggy back the signal? I thought I read that somewhere.

 

[outboard_256]

On the Apple Air Tags, does it require a phone nearby to piggy back the signal? I thought I read that somewhere.

They ping off of phones near by and that sends out the location signal. So if no iphones pass by it won't send out a ping. So it's not constantly updating. It designed to track items so it assumes the item hasn't moved since the last ping. So you can't use it to do live tracking. I have one in my son's backpack and it might ping a couple times an hour if that much.

 

[Bajastu]

I work at a large equipment rental company, and we use factory GPS on most tractors with only a 10% return rate on stolen items. Most items stolen are small skid steers and backhoes, all under $120k in value (kind of the chump change items). I have even experimented with lojack and we have found the lojacks taped to a tree and the machine is missing.

Also, if the thief scenes a tracking unit, it may sit on the side of the road or in an empty field to see if it’s being tracked. This too is a classic move by thieves. If you see a car or a boat in an empty field or a bare lot, it's being watched.

We have also had a few items where we installed an Apple air tag and guess what, we recovered these items. Even a thief likes to use bluetooth. The key to an apple air tag is tracking it asap once you know that the item is missing. The hiding spot needs to be difficult to get to it and remove the speaker as noted above. LEO’s love when you can track this and more times than not, we get that item back.

I have one in all my cars, trucks, boats, off road toys, etc……

I just wish the battery in the apple air tag didn’t go out on my stolen Schiada, it’s still missing as of Dec 2023. Note to all, keep the batteries fresh in your air tag. The app will notify you if there’s a low battery.

 

[ChrisV]

Air tag with speaker disabled. I have 4 air tags in everything.

 

[boatpi]

I had the one in my Hellcat placed DEEP, it took him 2 hours.

 

[outboard_256]

I work at a large equipment rental company, and we use factory GPS on most tractors with only a 10% return rate on stolen items. Most items stolen are small skid steers and backhoes, all under $120k in value (kind of the chump change items). I have even experimented with lojack and we have found the lojacks taped to a tree and the machine is missing.

Also, if the thief scenes a tracking unit, it may sit on the side of the road or in an empty field to see if it’s being tracked. This too is a classic move by thieves. If you see a car or a boat in an empty field or a bare lot, it's being watched.

We have also had a few items where we installed an Apple air tag and guess what, we recovered these items. Even a thief likes to use bluetooth. The key to an apple air tag is tracking it asap once you know that the item is missing. The hiding spot needs to be difficult to get to it and remove the speaker as noted above. LEO’s love when you can track this and more times than not, we get that item back.

I have one in all my cars, trucks, boats, off road toys, etc……

I just wish the battery in the apple air tag didn’t go out on my stolen Schiada, it’s still missing as of Dec 2023. Note to all, keep the batteries fresh in your air tag. The app will notify you if there’s a low battery.

My hope is that if they steal something with my air tag they do leave it in a field to see if it's being tracked. That's my best case sanario to getting it back in one piece. If it's constantly on the move I can't track it but if they let it sit for several hours I can come and get it.

 

[dread Pirate]

Some things Dronemobile is capable of. Remote start and stop, live tracking, shows speed and battery levels in both transponder and vehicle, will let you know if a gnat lands on the windshield if you want. Had to find a balance so every time someone shuts the door next to the car you don't get a notification as opposed to getting a door ding or someone leaning on the car. It gives you 4 or 5 levels of impact I believe?

Essentially you can watch the vehicle travel on a map and know how fast its going and shut the thing off from your phone.

 

[eand28]

I’ve got an AirTag with the speaker removed stashed in my truck. Better than nothing

 

[77charger]

If I ever do a tracking device it will be a hardwired with battery back up that can be hidden good give no signs of being tracked and will work.

Sure an AirTag can work but can be found easy too. But when it comes to vehicles or high dollar items you going to rely on a 20 dollar tag or something proven.

 

[BoatCop]

I can track both my vehicles, '20 Acadia Denali & '19 Silverado LT, through the GM Mobile App. I believe it goes through ONSTAR.

 

[BUDMAN]

I have both types. Couple questions. What are you trying to accomplish. Keep track of the kids, personal vehicles or company. I use Verizon connect on my company trucks with real time tracking which work amazing. You can set alerts for speeds, geofences & if the vehicle starts at certain times when it’s not supposed to be running. These are hard wired in so they can’t be disconnected. Down side is a two year contract and if you want out of it it’s like the phone plans. Written notice 90 in advance or buy it out. I also have just a plug in play one that we use on rentals or if one of the techs use there own vehicle for work. Still had real time tracking and a month to month for $8.00 a month and we bought it from Amazon for like $80 bucks. I would recommend this if it’s for your personal vehicles. If your looking for something to keep track of the kiddos I would recon hard wires one. They unplug the other one and say it must not work. Ask me how I know lol.

 

[STV_Keith]

I use Prime Tracking and their tracker. $30 + subscription. The cheapest way (the way I do it) is to bill yearly. $17/month per device. You can set geofences, track speeds, etc. Updates are adjustable down to 10 seconds. I have mine set where they notify me if/when it leaves my geofenced areas (house, work, etc), then the update rate turns up while it is away for better resolution of where it is located. The unit is battery operated. At 5min updates (my in-geofence update rate), the battery lasts about 3 weeks on a charge. Much less at higher refresh rates. Like 2 days at 10 second refresh. There is a hardware option. I don't use it because I use their waterproof box as it's on one of my motorcycles.

https://primetracking.com/products/safetrack