Itraq & Another Stolen Teardrop

[noseoil]

There's another alert on Facebook about this stolen trailer & hopefully it's found soon.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

Last year there was a lot of buzz about the new Itraq system which was "just around the corner" & shipping soon. I paid the $50 promotional price for funding the idea & got in line for one. I got alerts last year about it shipping in November, December, then this year in February, April, May & here it is June & still no tracker.

The good news is that it's finally on the way. I've tracked it from China to California, so it should arrive sometime this week. Here's where it was early this morning.



The link in my phone with a view from space, not sure when this image was taken, but it's an overlay based on the cellular triangulation.



In many areas, trailers are safe in your driveway, but where we live, I don't trust some of my neighbors, let alone the riff-raff walking down the street in front of our house. I live an hour from Mexico & many vehicles which are stolen here end up across the border, where they disappear & are never seen again. A lot of the trucks are stolen for drug runs & are pretty well trashed along the way if they are found. I've done everything I can to secure the trailer in terms of multiple layers of protection, but hopefully the Itraq will be worth the price & will never be used as it was designed.

They're going for $129 with a $10 a month user fee, rechargeable, & the size of a credit card. Expensive? I don't know, but at this point I'm in the same boat with the "What's another $100 on the build now" mentality. When I look at what I have in this thing in terms of time & money, $10 a month sounds pretty cheap to me. It can be set-up to broadcast up to 2,000 position checks a month, on a regularly scheduled time basis, or it can broadcast an alert if it leaves it's home area. It works with a free cell phone app & seems to be a pretty good idea.

I'll write back & let everyone know how it works after a road trip or two. Just grist for the mill......

[GPW]

So what happens if you track it to Mexico , still out of Luck eh ??? But at least you know where it went ...

[tony.latham]

Tim:

I don't have that problem here... but if I lived down there, I'd sure as heck have one.

Tony

[noseoil]

"So what happens if you track it to Mexico, still out of Luck eh ???" The idea is to not let it get stolen in the first place, homie. I also have friends at work whose families live in Mexico in some of the border towns & ranches south of Tucson.

The odds of not getting it out of the back yard are pretty steeply in my favor at this point. As I said, multiple layers of security, surveillance & a "few" other things to make life more interesting & exciting for anyone trying to steal it or tamper with it, when it's just sitting still. There will be a long chain of evidence for a case with all the needed documentation, video & other stuff necessary for a successful prosecution.

I'm setting the alert radius to about 1/4 mile. That gives me some time to deal with it, call it into TPD & then send them a description via an alert with a picture. Same goes for the Arizona highway patrol, alert with a picture & description. If this happens, it's time to get in the truck & start hunting with the GPS enabled & my own version of friendly interaction.

Am I being paranoid? I would hope so. Am I being paranoid enough? We'll have to see.

[lrrowe]

I for one do not think you are too paranoid. Security probably will becomes a bigger concern this fall when I go in the woods again and could leave the CT alone for two days. For me, this year at a minimum, will have a hunting game camera hidden but with the CT in sight. That and with a motion detector/alarm is where I probably will start.

I also have the Bluetooth equivalent, Rtrack or something like that. But I have not figured how to set it up yet. Bluetooth and the woods do not seem to me to be a great combo.

[S. Heisley]

So far, the stolen trailers seem to be taken from or near home base and not out in the woods. Let's hope it stays that way.

[lrrowe]

I haven't considered that. I will try and not be the first.

[jimger]

I received my Itraq last week and have been playing with it. I've run into a problem: in order to use GPS for tracking, it seems that the Itraq has to "see" the sky. I put it in the cabin to test, and can only get tracking from cell towers which is not all that accurate - the Itraq reports that my trailer is several blocks away instead of where I see it. I'm going to try different places in the trailer to see if I can find a spot where GPS will work, and would be interested to hear other Iraq users experiences.
Ginger

[Backroads4me]

I've contacted TCTeardrops to ask whether they thought the owner of the stolen teardrop might be willing to share any additional info. (as to how and where the theft took place). Not to be busybodies, but to help prevent it from happening to us. I'm sure we'll hear something soon.

I can see thieves targeting manufactured Camp-Inn, Tabs, etc. and homebuilts of silver, white or common colors, without distinctive artwork or designs. But PINK! I suppose that pink was spray-painted over with a "camo" pattern or other color as soon as the thieves felt comfortably out of sight.

Hopefully the owner will get her TCTeardrop back soon.

[Backroads4me]

Hooray! I'm happy to report the teardrop has been recovered (as per TCTeardrop's facebook account). State police followed leads from Michigan to Wisconsin and finally back to Michigan. No info as to the who, what, where and why---or what condition it's in now.

[tony.latham]

Hooray! I'm happy to report the teardrop has been recovered (as per TCTeardrop's facebook account). State police followed leads from Michigan to Wisconsin and finally back to Michigan. No info as to the who, what, where and why---or what condition it's in now.

[noseoil]

Took our first trip with the Itraq this weekend to see how it works. I had set it to about a 1/2 mile radius, to do an alert broadcast if it left the home area. Sure enough, it sent out an alert when were were rolling & showed our position on the interstate after we left the area. It did a good job of showing our position when asked, but once we got up in the mountains & camped in a canyon, the signal was lost & it dropped off the radar. As far as travel on the roads, it's fine.

I just "pinged" it again & it says the trailer is sitting in the back yard, about 20' from the actual location, so it seems to work well enough. Is it worth it? I don't know, but if the trailer moves & I'm not home, at least I'll know about it within a few minutes. The GPS system seems to work well enough when the device is inside the trailer. So far, so good.....

[Shadow Catcher]

There are any number of GPS trackers for a good bit less https://www.amazon.com/TOOGOO-Vehicle-Tracker-Control-Anti-theft/dp/B0095BJZ7O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465866089&sr=8-2&keywords=12V+GPS+tracker

[deleted]

So far, so good.....

Good info to know. Thanks for the detailed update.