so as you can all see, i have a set of very lovely kc daylighters that im attached to, along with a surco rack i love more than my family.

how do i prevent people from stealing these items, while still keeping the ability to remove the rack and loosen the bolts on the lights to aim them? this also goes for the whip mount im installing soon (it will have a quick release, but i dont want people stealing my mount!)

here at school, per week theres at least one stolen car, and one vandalism. mind you there are 35000 people enrolled here, and probably 20000 here every day. i still dont want my kc lights being ripped off.

so what have you guys done to protect your stuff?

 

you can't.

 

dont leave it in a bad area.

dont they make a lock for the rack ? i know that my Yakima has locks on eack leg.
maybe This would work if Surco doesnt have any locks.
as far as the lights, doesnt someone make some kind of locking nuts for them ?

 

get a closed loop sensor for your alarm system (you DO have an alarm, right)?

you can make one with a relay, if your alarm has an input that triggers when the input is grounded. make it so there's a long wire looping from ground to the relay, energizing the relay when it's connected. run the wire through a hole in the lights and rack, and make it so when someone cuts/disconnects it, it'll close the relay and ground the input on the alarm, triggering it.

i'm not good at explaining things but you should get the idea.

 

There are bolts you can buy to lock the lights onthier-you need a special key to remove the bolts. Dont recall the link though.

 

weld it

 

what do you think about the permanent locktite?

 

That means you wont be able to take it off without heat, 350F heat. Get the locking bolts for the lights at least. Me, I created my own locking bolts a few times-nothing to it besides cutting out notches on the bolts and making the adapters.

 

Probably easier to deal with than welding! I've tried to stay away from really expensive things like lights. I use the little Hella 500/550's. I figure if somebody steals those, they most REALLY need lights!!!

 

My lights are 100W and cost 15 bucks a piece. Not a big deal if stolen. Who steals lights anyway?

 

Asshats...

 

you really have to be a jerkface loser to steal someones lights off their truck

 

I haven't had any lights stolen, but the covers for my daylighters on the other hand...

 

interesting. protecting easly removable items. hmm

you could try and use specialty bolts that are harder to remove.

I used to have some lights on my durango:



i had the top lights on the car for over 4years. Never got even the piaa covers stolen and i've parked it in spots that i thought for sure i was going to come back and something was gonna be gone.

i guess best bet would be making your own lock nuts, or find some specialty bolts that will get the job done.

 

thanks for the ideas guys. the roof rack isnt so much of a problem, as its really obvious when you are taking it off, but the lights are something that could take less than 2 minutes to get at.

i think what i might do is find nuts that fit the threads, round off the corners and grind in my own slots that my own special socket will fit into.

in the mean time. ill go put a tiny bit of epoxy on the threads. you know the kind that never works like you want it too... and never exactly bonds to the metal, just sticks, sorta. slowing them down is the name of the game on this one.

and if they steal them, well, then they stole them. ohwell...

thanks for the ideas.