I’m sure it was nice once upon a time . Now it’s not far off from Mad Max.

 

2 men enter… 1 man leaves.

 

Yeah, it was hard to watch. Hobo camps under any handy overpass that provided shelter. Thing is, Seattle government allowed and encouraged lawless behavior and they would come from across the nation to take advantage of the situation. It was a common story to hear of some tweaker state that they were from some other region of the US, but they were told to go to Seattle. Once saw a police van from Yakima in Eastern Washington pull up under the I-5 bridge and drop a few inmates off that were being released. Basically shipping their problems on over to us. . I'll stop there before I start talking politics, we get charged with off-topic and then this thread gets locked and the OP has to start a new one.

 

Unfortunately that bolt had to be reused. Sorry!

 

I keep hearing about the Ravelco unit. My understanding is that the unit is hidden somewhere in your truck and only the tech that installed it knows where.
Upon a theft what happens then?
I've heard that the law enforcement folks cannot track them?
So, say a truck IS stolen; driven or towed away; What is the process for FINDING the truck?

 

That is why I have an AirTag in all my vehicles.

 

Ravelco is just a fancy switch with a special key. A good installer will interrupt wires in a place that is difficult/impossible for a thief to access. I would probably drop the dash if I were to install one of these.

There are lots of GPS tracking devices on the market these days. They range in price based on battery life and frequency of ‘pings’. These are frequently used by everything from equipment rental companies to trucking outfits, etc to track the location of their assets.

 

Okay, getting back on track. I've been down and out with Covid for the last 10 days or so, and I'm still not back to 100%. I had an insurance adjuster stop by last Friday to take a look since I couldn't get my truck in to any body shop in a reasonable amount of time. He came back with a quote of $5750 for parts and labor. I'm most likely going to be doing this myself, and I already have some parts ready to go on it. However, the adjuster gave me a couple of ideas for places to take it, so I'm going to call them this week. We'll see how that pans out. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have much time to work on my truck until late July. My wife and I are leaving on a road trip to Utah and Colorado in a little over a week. Being down and out with Covid set me back a ways in getting ready for that trip. Every spare moment I have right now is getting that stuff ready.

Thanks SSJ! I will take you up on that if you still have it. Let me know. I'm happy to pay shipping.

Keep the comments coming. I love to hear all of it. Also the ideas for theft deterrents. I'm making a list of things to go on my truck as I rebuild it.

 

The Ravelco isn’t really hidden, the wires are what’s hidden and protected by their armored steel cable. As for what circuits and how the wires are connected inside the plug, only the tech and Ravelco know. In order to order a spare plug (it comes with two) you have to send in proof of ownership and a code to get the proper plug.

I also run an alarm system with GPS tracking that allows for bread crumbing and turn by turn updates. I plan on adding some air tags without speakers soon too just to be on the safe side.

Here’s the vehicle side of the Ravelco and where it’s at on my truck. If the plug is removed the only way to steal the truck in a timely manner would be a flatbed at

 

Actually, that looks a lot like the adjustable track bar bracket that I have as well. See the “ears” at each end of the slot? A cammed bolt goes in between them. Don’t ask me where I got the bracket from. It came with the truck when I bought it with a mystery 4” lift installed.

 

Seems kinda janky.

I’ll go look now.

edit: BOOM!

 

That bites, glad you got it back and hopefully, you can get it back to good as new. I think they should still hang horse thieves. When they got out, did they take their stench with them or is it still in there?

 

I am still curious to know if the OP has tracked down and eviscerated the thieves yet... Thats all i want to hear.. some good ole Charlie Bronson action... in this case with a lead filled pipe vice a gun.