Keeping equipment secure in a remote location

[Paul from MN]

I have a remote hay field with a storage building on-site. Unfortunately I have accumulated enough equipment to fill the building and need to store a couple hay wagons outside.

I have them beside the building and a tree line so they can not been seen from the county road. I pulled the tongue off one and a wheel off another to make them a little harder to for someone to steal.

Do you have any other ideas on how to keep them from wandering way?

Thanks,
Paul

 

[HossinMe]

Couple big ugly dogs. Hoss

 

[Dan-IA]

I'd befriend a local in the area. They can check on it for you, and if you're gonna be farming it for a while, friends usually pay dividends anywhere you have one.

 

[thurlow]

If someone really wants them, there's probably nothing you can do. Back in the 60s and 70s, if we had a stretch of pretty weather in the Fall, it wasn't unusual for empty cotton trailers to wander off from the gin; they weren't being stolen, just used. Everyone carried a few short lengths of chain.........small enough to go through the hitch-pin hole........and a supply of locks. Folks who thought nothing of borrowing a trailer for a day or two would never have cut a lock off to get it.........

 

[balatonm]

I agree with that. If they want it, they will take it.

 

[Paul from MN]

I agree, I just want to do what I can to discourage them...

 

[mj]

(quoted from post at 07:10:57 04/14/08) I have a remote hay field with a storage building on-site. Unfortunately I have accumulated enough equipment to fill the building and need to store a couple hay wagons outside.

I have them beside the building and a tree line so they can not been seen from the county road. I pulled the tongue off one and a wheel off another to make them a little harder to for someone to steal.

Do you have any other ideas on how to keep them from wandering way?

Thanks,
Paul

Put some of these on the gate posts and the building :twisted:

 

[glennster]

you can try a few of these, they are simulated security cameras. have a battery in some, lil flashing led lights, some have a motor in em that sweeps the camera back and forth. they look like real cameras, and if you post a few signs around, it may keep the hoodlums away.
camera

 

[Nancy Howell]

"Beware of snakes. This area infested with snakes".

Saw a news bit on a pawnshop in Houston that was continually being burglarized. They put a large aquarium with 2 rattlesnakes in the front window. They posted a sign that the snakes were turned loose at night. The reporter asked "How do you open up in the morning?" The owner replied "Very Carefully!"

Most thieves don't want to do any work to steal. Taking the tongue and tires is a good deterrent. Chaining both together with a logging chain and big lock (put lock in a place that's hard to get to) will also help.

Unfortunately, the other posts are also true. If a thief really wants something, they'll get it. Best you can do is make your stuff too much trouble to take.

 

[Anonymous-0]

First mark the equipment with a unique ID number. Your local sheriff can give you one in a format used around the country. Mark each piece of equipment at least twice. One place easily found, one hidden. Keep a log book of where both marks are. Without such ID marks, your equipment can't be found and returned.

Go to your nearest FB office an buy a sign proclaiming equipment is marked and post that on your building.

Use really good chain to anchor stuff outside, trouble is that good chain may be worth more than the hay racks and its hard to put ID marks on.

Or keep the hay racks at home if you can't reshuffle the storage on the farm to get them inside. A loader can put some implements on top the racks to make for more compact storage.

Gerald J.

 

[Anonymous-0]

If you mark the wagons with numbers, one thing that does come to mind, if you weld your unique ID number or serial number onto the frame, even if the weld is ground off, it changes the molecular structure of the base metal, so even if they grind off the raised numbers that you weld on, I believe the numbers would still be legible, the steel will be discolored, if you apply acid or something that would make it legible. A welder told me this a long time ago, I see all the steel plates used for temp bridges and to cover up trenches in NYC has the company name welded on them with hardfacing, I assume this to be true.

You have to wonder with todays technology, is there an inexpensive tracking device you could install ?


Then include posting a visible sign that says all equipment and components are permanently marked, serial numbers are on record, tracking devices installed( obviously where they can't be found) - kind of like the others said, it's a deterrent, besides what you did already which should really make those wagons undesirable to steal.


You never can tell how far a thief will go, making it difficult by being creative certainly helps.

 

[Nancy Howell]

Remembered this. A rental company in this area painted all their equipment purple. This made it instantly identifiable, less diserable and much harder to "fence".

 

[Patsdeere]

Could always leave a few targets on a post strategically placed with the middles cleaned out. Then leave a bunch of shells around. They just might think you will go a huntin if they mess with your stuff.

Saw a sign once on the side of a barn:

Motto: Shoot first, screw the questions.
Confirmed Kills
Deer - 3
Rabbits - 8
Squirels - tons
Trespassers/Criminals - 4

 

[Bill(Wis)]

1. Let the air out of the tires.
2. Chain and lock them together.
3. Put sticker IDs on them-the ones that won't come off-with your Farm Name & address. I bought mine from some place in Brooklyn. Put one where it can be seen and at least one where it can't.
4. Install a game camera nearby that detects movement.
5. Let neighbors know that you're the only one that should be seen around property.
6. Or, take the wheels off, lock them in the barn and put wagons on blocks.
7. Good Luck.

 

[kyplowboy]

Anything you do, thats legal, is only going to keep away a honest crook. Not try'n to be smart here but if the two are made the same, I'd take both tongues out or take a wheel off both as it would not take long to swap the tongue off the one with out a wheel and put it on the one that has all the wheels, just a thought. All on here are good ideas. Best idea I can come up with that I know works good, like some one else said befriend some one close by. Let some good ol' boy hunt or fish as long as he keeps an eye on things. Cheap and works good. I have two farms I hunt on that belong to people I worked in tobacco for when I was in school, they always tell me I can hunt all I want, just run off anyone else I see there.
Good luck.
Dave

 

[Don L C]

Paul ---
If they are stored for a long time---remove all the wheels---store them inside,better for them any way....park the wagon hubs on a board......Don

 

[Anonymous-0]

Why not buy insurance and get some sleep. You can't beat someone at his own game! You will spend more time watching him than you will working.

 

[Jim H SW-PA]

DO THE THING WITH THE TARGETS.Then put a large sign on the building that reads------AINT BEEN SHOT AT YET ?---STAND STILL SO I CAN GET A BETTER BEAD ON YOU!!!

 

[David Maddux]

The sign reads: Tracking chips installed to all equipment!