I got my 2003 Kodiak stolen from my garage yesterday (hotwired), and I need to know what's out there for effective anti-theft mechanisms for a Kodiak. The cops recovered it at midnight last night, and I'm going to pick it up at the compound today.
It's a small town, and after I find the thief, he'll be watching moto-cross on his TV while sitting in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Any GOOD anti-theft devices out there? Thanks. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

 

Welcome to the forums, its a bummer, that this is the reason why.
Best theft deterant, is out of sight,... keep it hidden, in a garage or shed. Most thieves are working on opportunity, and if they cant see yours, or know its there, its safe.
A good Kryponite, cable with a good padlock, and a solid anchor would make it tough to wheel it away.
Write your phone number, and last name , on the inside, of the plastic pieces, with a permanent marker, this will make it very hard for a theif to resell it.

 

Insurance is the first and most effective step to take. After that out of sight and make it inconvenient to rip off. I chain all three together in the garage and then I park the car in the way. If they want a quad the must first take the car out. One of the locks we have has a built in alarm which will go off if the lock is tampered with or the cable is cut. AS you can see from my photos I have three large four legged alarms as well.

I hope you recover your wheeler

 

Thanks for the reply, guys. Your right about keeping it out of sight. He spotted it sitting in the garage from the highway.
The cops chased him last night and recovered it, but the thief fled. Lots of damage done to it but the motor seems to run fine.
Nothing on the market to protect the ignition? (for added secutity). Yamaha made it SO easy for him with their lousy/cheap ignition lock design.

 

that sucks.but what comes around goes around.there will be better days ahead

 

Why are most garages facing the roads? (including mine) People driving down the road can look in and see everything you own.

Locks should be mounted with round headed bolts that extend through the door or wall. Not baby screws. Make sure the windows are secure with something across the opening like bars. Cover the windows with curtains so they can't see in. Motion lights inside and out. Anchors to chain or cable stuff to. Locks that are hard to cut off.

There is a way to get through just about anything. You need to make it as hard and loud as possible. The longer it takes to steal something. The better the chance that they'll get caught.

What kind of locks were on your garage? How did the crooks break in?

 

This guy walked right in the open garage door, in the middle of the afternoon, popped the ignition and drove away. I was busy in the house.
That takes incredible ballz or a lot of stupidity. Cops got it back for me but with lots of damage (at least I got it back).
Thanks for your input, all. You've given me some good ideas to work on, so this won't happen again.

 

Just a tought, actually I was thinking of doing this on my quads. I have always tinkered with stuff so this was easy for me. Back in my younger days I had a Yamaha on/off road "Enduro" sytle bike. It had the road stuff stipped off and was just a dirt bike for me. Any way, a "buddy" borrowed it from me while it was parked at a friends house. I was inside. No harm, just bothered me. I figured out where some wire was (this was like 15 years ago so my exact memory is gone) that was hot when the bike was running. I picked up a project box and small key switch from Radio Shack and wired it into said wire. I mounted the box under the seat. When I wanted it off it was off. Yes, easily overcome but you had to look for it. Not to long after that someone else, not a friend but one of those self important know it all do what I want types tried to borrow my bike to run down the street. Wh tried to roll start it down his drive, then kicked the hell out of the kick start. I walked up, flipped the seat open (he was on the other side and could not see in), keyed the bike on, kicked it once, rode off. He was flaming mad.

Brent

 

Take $500, go buy a rottweiller and use the garage you store your quad in as a dog house too. That should work. I have two rotts and NOBODY has the ba!!s to walk up and take their chances. My quad is actually stored about 100' from the dog pen but nobody can come on my property without me knowing about it.

P.S. Did the punks do any damage?

 

That's exactly what I have in mind (German Shepherd). There is NO substitute for a good dog. I had a Bouvier which I had to put down because of age.
Lots of damage structurally because he went headlong into a deep ditch. Still waiting for an estimate.
The motor still ran fine and started right up instantly. I loved that ATV.