Identification Tip

jules47 · The Happy Helper

Identification Tip

Baz421 · Guru

jules47 wrote:
Sheba has reported in one of the sub forums (I digress, I think) that her WHEELS and TYRES have been taken off and replaced by someone - with inferior ones to what she had on!!
A tip - get an engraver and engrave your licence number on EVERYTHING - portable fridge, generator, tool boxes, wheels (we had licence number engraved on the inside of the wheel arches of our 4WD) - you name it - this engraving of your licence number comes from Neighbourhood Watch - they tell you to engrave everything in your house - TV, fridge, anything at all - your licence is yours alone - never duplicated - so always traceable.
And photograph everything with serial numbers on a hard copy of the photo. Insurance company will love you.

Good advice Jules we do this BUT engrave it in a couple of places WHERE IT CANT BE GROUND OFF. One hidden inside somewhere is good.

hako · Guru

I often wonder about engraving items and cannot for the life of me figure out how it will stop something getting stolen. What thief is going to check if whatever he/she flogs has an identification mark.
Then once an item is stolen, how can the ID mark help recover it? Who checks all over 2nd hand items for ID marks when they buy them. My neighbour buys tools etc from the Police stolen and recovered goods auction and lots of them have ID marks on them - why did they not trace them?

native pepper · Senior Member

Much better to put one locking wheel nut on each wheel, even better is to have a big bus. Not much chance of them taking the wheels of one of those in a hurry. Identifying marks are useless, if you can use an engraver, you can also use a grinder to remove them, or metal filler which covers them and blends into the colour of the metal. Almost impossible to spot, unless you get a magnifying glass and go over the whole wheel.

jules47 · The Happy Helper

If the goods are recovered, the police will look for identification - and your licence is yours alone.

Nothing will stop a determined thief, but the wheel locks are a good start, I agree.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

A clear photograph is a good thing, especially of jewellery. Wont stop anybody stealing it but helps with the insurance company.

hako · Guru

Locking wheel nut are also a waste of time as they are so easily defeated and can be removed just as easily as a normal wheel nut. They are another illusion and a good earner for the makers.
If you enter "breaking a locking wheel nut" into GOOGLE, you will get 2,830,000 results. It's that easy.

native pepper · Senior Member

hako wrote:
Locking wheel nut are also a waste of time as they are so easily defeated and can be removed just as easily as a normal wheel nut. They are another illusion and a good earner for the makers.
If you enter "breaking a locking wheel nut" into GOOGLE, you will get 2,830,000 results. It's that easy.

Anything can be removed if you have the right tools, most of these types of thefts are opportunist and they don't have the time to try and remove locking nuts from 2-4 wheels. Morons like that, take advantage of peoples short term absence and would avoid wheels with locking nuts, because of the time factor involved and it's not that easy. Helped a bloke a few years ago who had a flat on his van and had locking nuts, he had lost his original wheels when parked in his drive overnight. They were stuck at a remote campsite for a day and couldn't remove the lock nut on the wheel, as they thought they'd misplaced the key, but it was with the people who put their new tyres and wheels on. He had tools to do a few things, but nothing capable of providing the force and energy to move the nut.

We carry a very powerful tool for easily removing the wheel nuts on the bus with one hand. Using the standard socket didn't work but started to strip the nut, so bashed a smaller socket onto it with a mash hammer and applied enough force to brake the seal. Then it took another few minutes to drive a screwdriver into the lock slot and twist the inside, so the broken bits didn't freeze up the thread and seal the nut on.

It took at least 15 minutes, with practice reckon you could get it down to a few minutes if everything goes well. Doubt most crims would want to spend that amount of time removing lock nuts, when they can walk up to a car or van, use a cordless nut remover and within 5 minutes, have all wheels of and away.

Wheel locking nuts, are a good deterrent and nothing is really safe. They can drive up along side with a hiab crane truck and lift your car or van on, then drive away. Or slide on tray and winch it on. You can't stop those determined enough, but can deter the majority of sleaze bags.

-- Edited by native pepper on Tuesday 4th of February 2014 05:15:03 PM

grahos · Guru

I weld my ID on where possible,even if you angle grind it off and repaint it will still be visible due to the heat welding causes.

Some times I also weld in inconspicuous places for a double ID.

With the wheel lock nuts I often use 2 on each wheel and the spare I also padlock.

oldbobsbus · Guru

Better still only own junk that nobody else would want.. biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

spray your wheels with 2 or 3 different colours from a spray pack then no one would want to be seen dead with them..

Today is all about keeping up with the Jones'..

03_troopy · Guru

And if you lose the key for your padlock and need to open it, try this: Padlock Shim biggrin Like someone else said, you'll never stop them if they really want it and know what they are doing.

Those instructions are very basic, but give you an idea of how easy it is. With the right materials about 5 seconds or less to open the lock.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

I saw a bloke photograph his caravan number plate then go round and photograph his tug number plate too. I couldn't help myself, had to ask him why he did that.
Answer: Cos he just got a new phone, and he wants to have a picture to show the police if it gets stolen.

I wonder, would it be helpful really? We always carry copies of rego and insurance documents, wouldn't that be more important?

Baz421 · Guru

grahos wrote:
I weld my ID on where possible,even if you angle grind it off and repaint it will still be visible due to the heat welding causes.
Some times I also weld in inconspicuous places for a double ID.
With the wheel lock nuts I often use 2 on each wheel and the spare I also padlock.

Spot on Graeme,,,,, I engrave in areas were you can't get a grinder in without mangling the item. Police know where to look generally for identifying marks,, but workload may preclude this.

Anyway we just try to deter the opportunists and make it as hard as possible.