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  View original topic: GPS locator to find a stolen Vanagon Page: Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 25, 26, 27 ... 32, 33, 34  Next
cmayna Mon Nov 05, 2018 8:20 am

I use FIN (Find It Now). Not cheap initially but now runs me about $80/year. Well worth it to me to have a peace of mind.

Abscate Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:27 am

Just saw an ad for Findster

$150 all in, no monthly fees. Aimed at Pets but should Work for Busses too.

No idea on technology, but if three people group up it drops to $80 each

5 km range, nominal

cmayna Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:54 am

Signal range is an average of 5 km? That's all? What good is that? For sure, good for pets.

Abscate Wed Nov 14, 2018 10:32 am

cmayna wrote: Signal range is an average of 5 km? That's all? What good is that? For sure, good for pets.

In NYC it takes a week to drive 5km, so you have a week to recover your stolen Bus, Van

In Queens, soon it won't be possible to drive at all....

danfromsyr Wed Nov 14, 2018 10:42 am

findster lists 0.5miles in urban environments.
*well marketing says at least, I say at best ;-)

it's a DUO item that uses low range paired radio to communicate with the dogtag.

https://getfindster.com/how-it-works.html

Quote: There are 2 modules, one for your furry friend and another for you. Using our MAZE technology, they can communicate wirelessly in a radius of up to 3 miles (4.8 km).

Quote: Range Performance
Findster Duo+ allows you to track your pet in an estimated range up to to 3 miles (4.8 km). However, this will depend on your surroundings - key factors like the physical environment or the weather may influence the modules' connection and GPS accuracy.

Due to this, in most cases, you can expect at least 0.5 mi (0.8 km) in congested urban areas - but in open outdoor environments, you may even surpass the 3 miles estimate! (for reference, the current range record is 10 miles!)


Abscate Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:38 am

Yeah - I guess its only good for letting you know your Vanagon has left the compound - Tile is probably better for that - and cheaper

Tom Hutch Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:42 am

I have used Trak-4 for about a year:. https://trak-4.com (link fixed) it does a nice simple update of location on smart phone every hour for around $5 a month as per data contract linked from the website. Very easy to set up. It recharges by USB or can be left plugged in. The company owner appears to be the support staff and was very responsive the one time it needed to be hard reset. He said if it happened again he would send me a new one! The advantage this unit has, it can easily move to another vehicle or even luggage. Thanks Dave for the good thread.

dougnlina Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:11 am

I use Trackimo and am very happy with it. First year service is free and $50/yr after that. It uses the cellular networks so there is some shadowing but it managed to show us in Death Valley which is pretty off the grid. Has an onboard battery that charges off an included 12V adapter. Has web and phone based apps to track vehicle and is very accurate. You can set up a "geo fence" that sends you a text alert if the vehicle is outside of the fence (handy if you are going away for vacation and want to be alerted if the van moves)

https://trackimo.com/

dobryan Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:43 am

It is great to see all the new alternatives out there! :D

danfromsyr Fri Feb 08, 2019 7:16 am

Tom, you need to remove the ending period (.) from your url link.. https://trak-4.com

Tom Hutch wrote: I have used Trak-4 for about a year:. https://trak-4.com it does a nice simple update of location on smart phone every hour for around $5 a month as per data contract linked from the website. Very easy to set up. It recharges by USB or can be left plugged in. The company owner appears to be the support staff and was very responsive the one time it needed to be hard reset. He said if it happened again he would send me a new one! The advantage this unit has, it can easily move to another vehicle or even luggage. Thanks Dave for the good thread.

E1 Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:57 am

On December 10, I ordered a Spot-Trace, to be delivered to a mechanic's shop in Indio, California. My card was billed, but the product never showed up.

I just yesterday finally received a refund, after having phone messages unreturned for weeks and having to get verbal with them. They claim it was returned to them in December, yet no credit was given, nor any attempts made to contact me. If I hadn't pursued this, I'd have likely never seen my money back.

This constitutes theft in my book. Avoid Spot-Trace.

dougnlina Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:42 am

I can no longer recommend Trackimo. In fact steer away. After posting the glowing recommendation a few posts above I went on to my tracking portal to discover that it had stopped tracking on December 21st. Good thing the van had not been jacked between then and now.
I tried to get recourse through the manufacturer who worked on getting it to work remotely for a week. They then told me I would have to get a replacement through the vendor. Which is an Amazon Storefront, which has sent me down the rabbit hole because it was purchased exactly one year ago. So in general I seem to be holding a $159 paperweight.

I want to have a decent tracker in the event my van gets stolen, this one worked great for 10+ months but seems to have built in obsolescence. You need to trust these devices are working reliably in the background, this one did not.

If anyone can recommend a reliable tracking device Please post their long term experience. Thanks

E1 Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:54 am

Yes, please do!

It took me ten back-and-forth letters to Spy-Tec to get the straight scoop -- that they use T-Mobile. I loved T-Mobile as a company, they were great to us! But once we started full-timing, we almost never had a signal away from civilization.

Their more-pricy model uses AT&T, which we're in the process of getting far away from after several attempts of taking money for nothing.

Can you imagine having a van stolen, just to have the tracking disappear?

< Shudders >

dobryan Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:11 am

dougnlina wrote: I can no longer recommend Trackimo.


If anyone can recommend a reliable tracking device Please post their long term experience. Thanks


dobryan wrote: After looking around some more I finally bought this GPS tracker. Since I am on AT&T which no longer offers 2G I had to find a new unit that was 3G.

3G-WCDMA-GPS-Vehicle-Tracker-CCTR-805

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3G-WCDMA-GPS-Vehicle-Track...2047488292

I really like these type of units since I do not have to rely on a third party website to track the vehicle (although this one does offer that). I call the unit and it texts me back the location via a google maps link. :D

It is very similar to my older TK103 but this also uses 3G (and 2G too). D

This is till working for me. I just pinged it and verified that my bus is at home in the driveway.

They are available all over ebay under the same name or variations of it. Just make sure you get one that handles 2G/3G some older models are only 2G.

Aryana Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:17 am

SPOT Trace has been flawless. Buy your unit on Amazon and you won’t ever have any issues like E1 experienced.

I’m on my second year of coverage and the portability of the unit allows me to move it to my airplane whenever I go on trips. It alerted me when the ramp monkeys tried to move my plane when I wasn’t there.

They were surprised when I called them within minutes and asked them WTF they were doing trying to move my vehicle!

Vnyd Dog Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:27 am

I'm AT&T too. Remind us what that add-on service costs for such a device? Sorry, I read the entire thread a while ago...
dobryan wrote: dougnlina wrote: I can no longer recommend Trackimo.


If anyone can recommend a reliable tracking device Please post their long term experience. Thanks


dobryan wrote: After looking around some more I finally bought this GPS tracker. Since I am on AT&T which no longer offers 2G I had to find a new unit that was 3G.

3G-WCDMA-GPS-Vehicle-Tracker-CCTR-805

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3G-WCDMA-GPS-Vehicle-Track...2047488292

I really like these type of units since I do not have to rely on a third party website to track the vehicle (although this one does offer that). I call the unit and it texts me back the location via a google maps link. :D

It is very similar to my older TK103 but this also uses 3G (and 2G too). D

This is till working for me. I just pinged it and verified that my bus is at home in the driveway.

They are available all over ebay under the same name or variations of it. Just make sure you get one that handles 2G/3G some older models are only 2G.

dobryan Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:50 am

Vnyd Dog wrote: I'm AT&T too. Remind us what that add-on service costs for such a device? Sorry, I read the entire thread a while ago...
dobryan wrote: dougnlina wrote: I can no longer recommend Trackimo.


If anyone can recommend a reliable tracking device Please post their long term experience. Thanks


dobryan wrote: After looking around some more I finally bought this GPS tracker. Since I am on AT&T which no longer offers 2G I had to find a new unit that was 3G.

3G-WCDMA-GPS-Vehicle-Tracker-CCTR-805

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3G-WCDMA-GPS-Vehicle-Track...2047488292

I really like these type of units since I do not have to rely on a third party website to track the vehicle (although this one does offer that). I call the unit and it texts me back the location via a google maps link. :D

It is very similar to my older TK103 but this also uses 3G (and 2G too). D

This is till working for me. I just pinged it and verified that my bus is at home in the driveway.

They are available all over ebay under the same name or variations of it. Just make sure you get one that handles 2G/3G some older models are only 2G.

No add on service needed. Just get the cheapest AT&T sim you can find to activate a phone (I think I pay $10 a month). The device works when you call it like it is a phone. Instead of answering it sends you a text with a google maps link that puts a pin at the location it is at. It can also do geofencing and other alerts.

davevickery Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:12 am

The trak-4 looks interesting. $5.99/mo for hourly updates. It also runs off the AT&T 3G network and will work with 4G if I read that right in the Q&A.
It also has a 4600mA battery that lasts a very long time and can be plugged into USB to keep it topped up.

Couple questions I didn't see answers for. No contract is required so you can sign up month by month. But could pay for one month, set it up and then if your van gets stolen in 6 months, sign up for another month's service.

2nd question. They have more frequent tracking. Could you leave it on the cheapest (hourly tracking) plan and upgrade to the 2 minute tracking plan if/when your van goes missing.

E1 Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:14 am

Aryana wrote: Buy your unit on Amazon and you won’t ever have any issues like E1 experienced.
By all means. :roll:

E1 Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:17 am

Tom Hutch wrote: I have used Trak-4 for about a year:. https://trak-4.com (link fixed) it does a nice simple update of location on smart phone every hour for around $5 a month as per data contract linked from the website. Very easy to set up. It recharges by USB or can be left plugged in. The company owner appears to be the support staff and was very responsive the one time it needed to be hard reset. He said if it happened again he would send me a new one! The advantage this unit has, it can easily move to another vehicle or even luggage. Thanks Dave for the good thread.
Thanks Tom, this will be my next call. 👍🏼



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