C-2 alarms

[00fxd]

Does anyone have any experience useing a car alarm on they're C-2? Any recomendations?

 

[IH2LOSE]

None with the vette I have an alarm system in my 67 deville but none in the vette,I purchased a custom alarm for my deville because I park in a garage in a neighbors home.the alarm has motion dectors in it glass breakage (works on sould only) a inside motion dector so if the top is down and some reaches in the alarm will sound,Also door and trunk and hood sensors and a proxsimatey sencor(this is like a fource feild that you set if some one or some thing gets too close the alarm states WARNING YOU ARE APROACHING A PROTECTED AREA PLEASE STEP BACK ).This car also has an ignition lock out and a fuel shut off,remote trunk and door locks.It has a celular phone connected to it to dial my cell phone if the alarm goes off(I no longer have cellular service on the phone but could turn it back on at any time I canceled the service because it was like 23.00 amonth)Needless to say this car is well protected But I never installed a alarm in my vette because I did not want to drill any extra holes in it.

My cars alarm canot be ignored,it has 2 horns and a loud speaker in it that says YOU HAVE VIOLATED A PROTECTED AREA THE POLICE AND OWNER HAVE BEEN SUMMONED.

The alarm horn sound like a police car and the other alarm horn sounds like a ambulance from england.Also most car alarms are ignored in my area if your getting a alarm for the car because you park it out side then you should get one with a dialer in it to call you.

The alarm for the caddy was over 1400.00 when it was installed in 97. Good luck and please share with us the need for the alarm

 

[JP1522]

http://www.powerlock.com/index.html
http://www.truckaddons.com/Catalog/subpages/powerlock_security.htm

 

[TomOB]

anyone ever wonder how effective those 'boots' the cops put on your car when your parked illegally etc are?
I know it wouldn't be the most pleasant looking solution but it woudlnt be easy to steal.
tom

 

[00fxd]

I'm just thinking with a recent post about the c-2 being the most popular vintage car to steal, it would be a good thing to have a fancy alarm. The "boot' probably works real good but probably is kinda of a pain to deal with and take up a lot of space.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Where are you parking it that its a concern?

I am taking mine to carlilse this year and plan on borrowing two of the boot from a freind who owns a towing firm and uses them for impound in his lot

this is the style boot I will be using

 

[00fxd]

ih2lose, we posted at the same time. I just like to drive my car and feel safe when I'm not right beside it. There's some real horror storys out there. How heavy are those boots anyway? Seems to me one would take up most of the storage space in your car.

 

[67HEAVEN]

No matter what Joe Citizen comes up with to protect his hard-earned property, some jerk finds a way to rip it off.

Time to return to the time-tested method for dealing with horse rustlers in the ol' west. ad

 

[TomOB]

Im surprised that the boot is being seriously considered. I once again imagine it to be ugly and cumbersome, but its got to be damn effective. Reminds me of those little locks motorcycles have that go in the slots on the brake rotor. You get about 1/2 rotation before you're not moving anymore and they dont look easy to cut, compared to say a steering wheel club. Perhaps someone can come up with a smaller but equally effective boot.
I doubt there will be a time where i'm not near the car for extended periods of time (and i don't lock it in the garage). This thread inspired me to check out those gps/cellular systems. if the fee were say $5-10 a month, i could justify it. some people seem to be in the range of 25-30 a month, which is basically decent cell phone service and I coudl jury-rig a better system for that much.
67heaven, i agree. I want a system that alerts me by phone or page when the car is being tampered with, and one that gives me say 2minutes of time so i can get to the car. oh and a baseball bat should be part of the system too.

 

[IH2LOSE]

ih2lose, we posted at the same time. I just like to drive my car and feel safe when I'm not right beside it. There's some real horror storys out there. How heavy are those boots anyway? Seems to me one would take up most of the storage space in your car.

The one my freind has a real heavy and about 2 long I would only use this for an over night out side stay.The caddy alarm is only because I park it away from my home,In my area most car alarms are ignored.If I was to park my C2 out of site for long periods of time and was not concerned about originality I would install a brake lock that is used in the towing industries
brake lock kits

 

[IH2LOSE]

if the fee were say $5-10 a month, i could justify it.


I just removed a gps system from all of my fleet vechicles it was costing me over 38.00 a month per vechicle it was great because I could log onto to the internet at any time day or night and see where my trucks were. I was going to install one in the vette but the cost was too much

 

[TomOB]

$38 a month is absolutely ridiculous.
I'm not a computer whiz, but i know my way around them pretty well. I was going to intall one on my vette (when i get one!). I have a freind who works for some secret speech recogniton company and he was goign to help me get a system that would understand my commands (like the honda system, except instead of understanding words meaning commands, it understands words' meaning)
Anyway with a cellphone, a cheap computer and some gps equipment, i could rig a system up pretty nicely. would probably cost $500 for the system and about $30 a month. I dont need to see where my car is unless its being stolen.
Of course onstar is only for onstar equiped vehicles. Makes no sense why on-star lite cant exist.
Im very frustrated. I'm going to get a boot.
tomas

 

[00fxd]

I guess people ignore alarms to a certain extent nowadays, I have never had one, but one of those "please step back from the vehicle" deals might be a good thing. I'm definately for 67's methods but ya gotta catch the ba$tard$ to do it. The brake lock has possibilities.

 

[TomOB]

I'd like to know when most extensive cars are stolen. Is your car less safe at home or when you park it somewhere on a trip. For some cars, I can't imagine anything but a detailed scouting job. I mean once in a while some punk sees your nice ride and decides he wants it.
Knowing when and how the cars are stolen makes a big difference in how you approach its protection. I guess Clubs are a good example. If you are just looking for a car to take, say any toyota, and the first one you come to has a "Alarm equipped" sticker and a club etc, you might skp over it and go for the next one, even if it only takes 1 minute with a handsaw, thats a long time with an alarm drawing attention to the car. If you're a pro, you already know the car has a club, and thats not going to stop you because you need that specific car for parts or some weirdo gone in 60seconds order.
The solution is to sleep in our cars.
I haven't seen too many alarm threads on this site, maybe its an important but oft-looked over point that for some warrants as much thought as a suspension upgrade.
tom

 

[JP1522]

I think that the type of system selected would depend on what type of protection you want. Both my C1 & C2 (and my C5) are parked in the garage 99% of the time. I'm normally around the car if out for a cruise. About the only time I'm not with either car is when I do drive one to a resturant(very seldom). Normally I'm not away from the car that long so a ignition disable system ( like the one I posted the URL) is OK. I'm more concerned about the theif that tries to steal your car on the spot. He normally dosen't have a wrecker or rollback with him. If I were going to take a trip and the car would be unattended overnight then I would want the type system that prevents the car from being moved. One question I have- will the wheel clamps as shown keep the car from being dragged up on a rollback or prevent the car from being hoisted in the air with a A-frame wrecker and taken away. Maybe we need to go back to the hitching post days and have a post and log chain at each parking slot so we can chain the frame. The thief won't drive the car away (hot-wire) or tow it away without a lot of trouble.
A couple of years ago on a sunday afternoon, I pulled my 3 Vettes out on the driveway to cleanup the garage. About 30 minutes later I went to the auto patrs store and drove my Buick, leaving the Vettes in the drive with the garage door closed. I was gone about 20 minutes, and then put the Vettes back in the garage and closed the door after removing the mower. While mowing, a fairly new rollback drove by slowly with two long haired rednecks really looking around. THe truck had no markings showing they belonged to one of the towing companies.They slowly drove to the street's deadend and turned around. They set at the end of the street for about 5 minutes before slowing driving back by. I believe that they had spotted the cars earlier, or someone else called them, and went back to get the rollback to get the Vette they wanted. In less then a minute they could have dragged a car onto the rollback and be gone.

 

[00fxd]

JP, Thats a hell of a story about the shady looking goofs with the tow truck! Makes ya wanna take the law into your own hands. A lot of those guys are guilty till proven innocent.
I feel pretty safe with the car at home. I'm more looking for idea's when I'm out and about. I don't care about any judging concerns, but I'm not going to cut any holes either.

 

[TomOB]

I remember when I was in 8th grade i worked at a sort of educatonal summer camp. There was one kid who told me about his uncle who was in jail for stealing cars using their tow truck. He thought he was so cool, but i had to explain to him taht people own and paid for those cars. some people are just sick.
If the club doesnt work, you need an alarm, if that doesnt work, you need an ignition immobilizer, if that doesnt work, a complex gps/cellular system then we go back tot he crude boot but they try to tow it, and now we need to chain our frames to a pole. How would a chain make it any harder to steal? bikes get stlen every day.
The only option is to sleep in it at all times, this si where the multi-vette owners are at a disadvantage. (boo-hoo!)
tom

 

[00fxd]

I've been involved in the Harley Davidson industry for several years. Stolen bikes is a way of life with them. A big chain slows ya down but they can easily and quickly be cut with a bigger set of bolt cutters wich most looser thiefs can figure out how to operate.

 

[Grizzly]

Alarms

I have alarms on my modern cars/trucks, but I think that the classics are just a waste. What you really need is to secure your garage!

When your classics are out, you are usually with them or with a group that will keep an eye on it. When you are at work, church or monday night bowling your cars are at the greatest risk. Think about it! Any activity you do on a schedule puts your cars at risk. If I had been the gentleman that watched the creeps in the roll back drive up and down the street, I would have taken a day or two off and slept with the cars and a shotgun.

Seriously a good monitored home/garage alarm costs about the same as a dinner at Outback Steak House. I stress monitored, because the police appreciate that someone has checked that the alarm is real. Secondly get a real loud horn to sound when the alarm goes off. Who knows might see something if the police don't get there in time. Finally if you are going away for some time turn the garage door openers off. Too many things might cause them to go up.

One of the best alarms is a nosey neighbor, cultivate the relationship.....................

 

[TomOB]

im my area the police can take quite a while to get here. Nothing like in the movies when they arrive after a few minutes.
My car would be in the school garage during the school year ( i may even be able to see it from my room) and during the year it will be in the garage. My garage door opener broke about 3 years ago and we never fixed it. Its had nothign but junk in it anyway.