Sawmill Security away from home

[WV Sawmiller]

    I mostly do mobile sawing and am paranoid about someone stealing my mill while I leave it on site overnight and sometimes for days at a time. To be honest most of the places I saw are very secure but I still worry.

    Yesterday I went to move my mill here at home and I could not unlock the hitch lock. You know the yellow locks you see in the trailer accessories departments that look like a ball hitch with a big C-clamp that slides down over the hitch preventing removal? I have used one ever since I got my mill but yesterday I could not unlock it. It was either frozen or had some crud inside preventing the key going all the way. There was a little slack in it so I thought maybe I could slide it out using the bar from my landing gears. Instead, with amazingly little force, the pot metal just broke. I'm convinced anyone with a large screwdriver could have popped it free. It provides a false sense of security.

   Anyway, tonight I left the mill on site with just a padlock through the hitch lever so they have to cut the lock to lift the lever and put it on the ball on their truck. I also loaded a good sized log on the mill and moved the head back off the hydraulics power strip. My mill has live hydraulics any time there is contact rather than going through the switch like other models. I think I will do that in the future and help annoy any would-be thieves who happen by.

   I have read of others who remove and take the hitch home with them. Other suggestions are welcome.

[Southside]

Bouncing Betty?  :D I am actually more concerned when I stop at a store and have a $900 saw in the bed of the truck over the mill being messed with.

[Magicman]

I will sometimes put a padlock through the hitch but not because I particularly feel that it is necessary.  The saw head is at the hitch end so someone would have a very difficult time moving it.

Other than someone swiping my tape measure once, nothing has ever been tampered with.

[Resonator]

Some suggestions: Park heavy machinery /objects in front of the hitch at end of day. Construction companies often put an excavator in front and /or behind the doors of their tool trailer to deter thieves. Put a remote wild game camera nearby to provide some security. Permanently mark your equipment /record serial numbers in case it is stolen it can be recovered. You could always disguise it too, I remember seeing a picture on here of a mill covered in tarps and a garbage can, looked like a dinosaur. ;D
Good Luck!

[starmac]

Well iffen a guy thinks he might lose some sleep over it, just make sure it is insured and sleep like a baby.

[Stuart Caruk]

Trust me, locks are a waste of time. My 12 year old daughter can pick most Master Padlocks in under 10 seconds, a skilled crook might take 3 or 4 seconds. Personally, I'd use my Dewalt 20 VDC battery powered grinder with a 1/16" thick cutoff wheel. It goes through any lock or chain in seconds. ( Just ask the guys who replace my locks and park their RV's on private property)...

Best advice is insurance, or park heavy equipment on both ends, or chain a mean hungry dog to the hitch.

The reality of it is that anyone who is willing to risk serving time in prison for stealing a mill, isn't likely to let a little lock slow them down. It's a sad world we live in sometimes.

[Ianab]

While it's not a foolproof solution, things like locks and wheel clamps DO make something "harder" to steal. This may deter some of the more opportunistic thieves, and it looks better on the police report / insurance claim. Like if someone breaks into my shed, they have to bust or cut a lock to do it. It's not a big or expensive lock, but it would take some tools to force it, which makes it's a "breaking and entering" to the police. If you have taken some "reasonable precaution" to secure the property, but someone has taken a battery angle grinder to the lock, it sits better with the insurance company than if they just backed up, hooked on and drove away. (or stole the tools from an unlocked shed)

And a lot of insurance policies may not cover things that are left "unsecured". Once the thief has cut a lock, that proves it was "secured", at least to some extent.

There are also gps / cellular devices that you can fit to anything. Unless the thief recognises and disables it, your cell phone will report the current location, or last known one if it's now in a tin shed. And that's enough for the cops to get a warrant to look for it. I'm thinking you could stash that in the control box with all the other wires and control boards. Only a WM tech would spot it wasn't a factory install.

A lot of new industrial machinery has that built in to the ECU now, and several stolen excavators and skid steers have been recovered locally by the owner logging into the manufacturers web page and using the "find my machine" function.

[square1]

Tire boots, like the police use to immobilize vehicles, are now commercially available.
https://www.google.com/search?q=tire+boot&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJlLOas_rYAhWCoFMKHQcMAjEQ_AUICigB&biw=1624&bih=966

[Kbeitz]

Phone tracker...

http://blog.dailylifetech.com/trackr/d/entry/tiny-device-allows-you-to-track-your-car-using-your-smartphone-1211?engsec=60

[Chuck White]

Some suggestions: Park heavy machinery /objects in front of the hitch at end of day. Construction companies often put an excavator in front and /or behind the doors of their tool trailer to deter thieves. Put a remote wild game camera nearby to provide some security. Permanently mark your equipment /record serial numbers in case it is stolen it can be recovered. You could always disguise it too, I remember seeing a picture on here of a mill covered in tarps and a garbage can, looked like a dinosaur. ;D
Good Luck! 

I believe that might be MagicMans mill with all of it's covers on it!

Lynn; You said that you leave the sawhead at the front of the mill, and leaves me wondering how you disable the hydraulics so they can't be moved!

[Magicman]

Chuck, the SuperHydraulic has a solenoid that disables the hydraulics when the key is off/removed.

[Resonator]

A day cutting wood page 4 Reply#75 sawmill dinosaur pic. ;D

[PA_Walnut]

Locks deter novice thieves, insurance covers from pro thieves.

Note: I have those TrackR devices. They are kinda cool but require BlueTooth, not cellular. If you are in the boonies they have little value as they require someone else within proximity of the device to also have the TrackR service and BlueTooth. They have a map online that, when entering a zip code, will shot you other registered users in the vicinity.

[firefighter ontheside]

Sadly, tongue locks really just keep the honest people honest.  You can do things to make it more difficult for someone to steal.  I'm not sure how your trailer is, but there are removable tongue jacks.  You could remove the crank handle.  When there is significant tongue weight, most crooks probably won't be able to lift the tongue and set it down on their hitch.

My fifth wheel camper is totally unsecured, but I take solace in the fact that most crooks don't have a nice truck, nor a fifth wheel hitch to be able to hook up to it.

[WV Sawmiller]

FFOTHS,

   Thanks. That's what I call the "Sticky Note" approach - simple, cheap and effective. I have not added a trailer jack but I do have all 6 landing gear under tension. If I remove or hide the bar it makes it real hard to release the tension (especially since I left a 1,000 lb log on the bed). If it wasn't chrome I could paint it black so nobody would likely see it in it's holster on the landing gear or I could paint it WM orange and hide elsewhere on the mill. Simple fix is take it with me.

    I am not interested in the insurance option as I already checked inland marine policies and felt the price for coverage was excessive so only keep liability insurance. I can cover the damage or replacement in a worse case scenario.

   I know I'm likely being anal retentive worrying. Where my mill is right now is in a field at the end of a dead end road across from the customers house being watched over by him and his 2 donkeys. The donkeys bray every time I drive past. Maybe I should buy and tie a donkey to the mill when I leave it. :D

[Southside]

You paint that rod black and loose it and you will be the one trying to figure out how to get your mill out of there!!!  I dropped mine once at night and was in a pretty good scramble mode trying to find that thing knowing it was going to be a fun time getting her moved!! 

[KirkD]

Phone tracker...

http://blog.dailylifetech.com/trackr/d/entry/tiny-device-allows-you-to-track-your-car-using-your-smartphone-1211?engsec=60

From what I understand these are Bluetooth and not GPS so you have to be 15 to 30' from it. Most of us with our glasses on would see our mill by then.
They have them on Amazon also and only manage to gather a 3 start rating.

[firefighter ontheside]

I understand that llamas are pretty good guard animals.

[4x4American]

A lock on the hitch isn't gonna do anything. All they have to do is come with a 1-7/16" ball/pintle combo and the small ball will slid right into the hitch and then they close the pintle hook latch over it to keep it down and off they go.  What I did for a lock was take a ball with the nut welded to the bottom of the threads so they can't get onto it and close the latch and lock it with one of those brolic masterlocks that has the extra thick reinforcements over it so you can't break it with bolt cutters at least not easily.  Well once I had trouble with the locks seizing I just started unbolting the hitch and bringing it home with me. 

[Bandmill Bandit]

Those blue tooth things work well for keeping track of my wifes keys and that is about the extent of them.

I had one job/incident where I was sawing out in the bush on the landing. When I cam in one morning there was a guy backed up to the mill trying to push the head back so he good get to the front jack to lift the mill. I grabbed my shot gun from behind the seat and laid it across my lap with barrel out the window (security) and drove up and asked if he needed a hand. His back was to me when I stopped and when he turned around to answer he had a the gun barrel about even with his chest about 6 feet away.

Lets just say he didn't hang around long. I did get a clear picture of the back of the truck that I sent to an RCMP friend along with the GPS coordinates where I took the picture. I finished the job on that landing about 2 pm that day and when I was heading down the lease road to another landing I noticed the pick up parked on the approach  into the landing I was heading to and a Logging truck with picker loading logs. That log truck did not belong to the guy I was sawing for so I called the RCMP friend and told him. He was about a mile away when I called on his way in with the forestry officer checking out my and a few other reports of unusual equipment in the area when I called. Turned out it was a pretty significant operation of logs and equipment theft.   

I was lucky that it was all kinda happenstance and I didn't get hurt.

Ever since then my hitch comes off when I set up my mill and goes home with me every night.     

           

[dgdrls]

short of Insurance a trail cam is a great idea,
IMHO the key is to make it as difficult as possible to easily hitch up and pull away.
block it in, pull the hitch off and if you can pull a wheel or both or more.
You have to make it more trouble than most dishonest people will work for.

D

[Chuck White]

As Dan said, trailcams are a good idea!

I would suggest putting a trailcam "sorta" in-sight, watching the mill, almost hidden so the potential thief will likely notice it and probably remove the chip from it, BUT then have another trailcam out of sight, watching the mill and the first cam!   ;)

[Larry]

I fabricated a hitch receiver on the mill itself.  The mill hitch plugs into the receiver and is held tight by a draw pin.  Same as the draw bar on the truck.  Takes 10 seconds to pull the pin and remove the hitch.

Second defense is a cable lock that threads through the hole on one of the spoked wheels. After 15 minutes of sawing its buried in the dust and won't be noticed.  Not for sure what would happen if somebody is pulling the mill down the road with one wheel locked....might catch it on fire.  Hope I don't ever forget to take it off.

[Resonator]

Reply #19 reminds me of a sign on my friends hunting cabin which reads: "WARNING if you can read this, your in range!", written above a rifle target.

[pine]

I have more concern over vandalism of the mill than I do actual theft of the mill. 
Stealing it is more difficult than some punk doing damage to the mill. 
People just don't respect other folk's property anymore.

[Brad_bb]

Kbeitz, Do you have these trackers? Have you used them?

[Kbeitz]

Kbeitz, Do you have these trackers? Have you used them?

My son does...

[Jim_Rogers]

I second taking a tire/wheel off the mill.
I did that once or twice.
I carry a small floor jack in a box in my truck to help level the mill in rough yards when needed.
It is easy to jack up the mill and put a block under it and lower it back down. I like walking around a mill without the sawdust side tire/wheel on it.

Jim Rogers

[JJ]

I had a 33 ton hydro log splitter, nice one with honda motor; cub cadet.
while I was away on travel a gang of meth thieves dragged it our of my shed, to steal it.   I had taken off the hitch, so it was still sitting in my driveway when my wife came home.
not fun, sheriff took 45m to show up.
+2 on removing the hitch, otherwise I would have lost $1500 wood splitter.
I now have a camera, ring [ https://ring.com/ ] which replaces outside motion spotlight, and all videos go to cloud. 
Very easy to install, and recommended by me.

         JJ

[TACman]

Cabelas sells a GPS tracker. It's called SPOT TRACE anti theft tracker. It costs $100 for the tracker but then you have to purchase a separate tracking plan.

[Stuart Caruk]

I think I'm pretty safe.



My mill is welded to pads that are bolted to the concrete. I've recently removed the wheels and axle, and the tongue is gone. It will take more than a bolt cutter to get to it from behind a locked gate with a scary looking Akita. Of course the Akita will help load it if you bring her treats... just don't get between her and mamma...

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sure makes it tough on those mobile jobs though doesn't it?

[GAB]

   Sure makes it tough on those mobile jobs though doesn't it?

You're right, but it stays put.
GAB

[thecfarm]

just don't get between her and mamma...

I had a dog like that. Care less about me.Mama burp and the dog would be at her side to make sure she was OK. That dog would of died for her. Twice she scared a person away. Even scared her!!!!!!

[Brad_bb]

but then you have to purchase a separate tracking plan.

That is what I hate.  In this day and age of technology, that should not be necessary.

[4x4American]

I think I'm pretty safe.



My mill is welded to pads that are bolted to the concrete. I've recently removed the wheels and axle, and the tongue is gone. It will take more than a bolt cutter to get to it from behind a locked gate with a scary looking Akita. Of course the Akita will help load it if you bring her treats... just don't get between her and mamma...

pull the pin, lift the leg up all the way and see ya!!

[Southside]

4 X 4 - I am a bit concerned with how many well thought out ways you have thought about "procuring" a mill.    :D :D

[otherguy]

I have one of these and use it, I'm sure it could be busted off but might take some work.

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Locks/Master-Lock/379DAT.html?feed=npn&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhrbTBRCFARIsACY7MW10JAynQcyvd6Y2tihVDWHjQHTG9xjfkVvB907MgCFeAv3Fl_romEEaAi3MEALw_wcB

[4x4American]

4 X 4 - I am a bit concerned with how many well thought out ways you have thought about "procuring" a mill.    :D :D

:D :D my old man taught me real young that to beat a thief/terrorist/mugger/etc you have to think like one.  Also I used to work in da Bronx for a construction company in the shop and we always had to design our own measurements to beat the thieves.  On our conex containers we would weld up boxes over the latches to make the padlock about impossible to get at with any tools, we stopped using chicago fittings on our big air hoses that were on the trucks and started using wacky european ones to make them less desirable, we'd make up chain locking systems for everything on a truck that could potentially walk, etc etc.  Down there we had an extensive population of R&D crews who would constantly test our designs lol.  One time the yard guy parked a mack tri axle dump outside the gate for a couple days to make room in the yard and when he went to bring it in to use it every single light was missing off it and they didnt just unplug them they cut them all out.  i think they even took the heated mirrors iirc

[Southside]

Made me think of this line.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/47fa59e4-6f2d-4da6-be02-8356cebe08f3

[TACman]

Brad_bb,

That's the way it is, they getcha coming and going. It's $149.99 per yr. or $14.99 per month for basic service and an additional $49.99 per yr or $4.99 per month for extreme tracking. With the extreme, it says that you can track coordinates every 2 1/2 minutes. Only problem is, if you have more than one piece of equipment you want to protect, you have to have a plan for each one. Not sure but maybe you could buy the trackers and put them on your equipment and then activate a service plan once your equipment turned up missing lol.

[Ianab]

but then you have to purchase a separate tracking plan.

That is what I hate.  In this day and age of technology, that should not be necessary.

Unfortunately to be useful the tracker requires 2 things, a cell phone data plan, so it can report it's position, and a place (server?) to report it to. Then you can contact that web server and view the latest info that's been uploaded.

Although it might technically be possible to build a web server into the device, it would still take some sort of backend server for you to find the random IP it has from the phone company, and relying on the unit to send data to your phone in real time means both devices have to be online at the same time. If your cellphone is out of coverage or battery, the tracking data is lost as it's not stored someplace.

Now I guess it would be possible to build a device that would upload data to a free account like Google Docs, where you could retrieve it, but you still need the cellular data plan to get it there, and if Google change their rules, the device probably becomes useless.

[Kwill]

Problem is they don't do anything with these thieves when they do catch them. Slap on the wrist and probation 90% of the time.

[Crusarius]

I knew a guy that used a 1/2" cable through his wheels. One day he forgot about it and tried to drive away. Took a good amount of throttle before the cable broke. But it broke pretty easily. I was actually standing next to it when it happened. Needless to say after that he never replaced the cable.

[Raider Bill]

Friend of mine trailers his bike to central locations unloads it and rides. One time when he came back his truck and bike-less trailer were gone [salt lake city], another time just the trailer was missing [Hershey, Pa.] Now he puts boots on both  sides of the trailer and 2 wheels of the truck even if just stopping overnight. So far so good. Pain in the butt but he sleeps better.

[flatrock58]

I mounted a pintle hitch and chains that can be removed.  Might not make it unstealable, but will make it harder to steal.

[WLC]

I don't saw for hire, so no traveling, but we have a lot of druggies and others that will steal the chrome off your bumper if they can.  I've thought about just removing the hitch tongue off my mill and locking it up in the shop.  Only reason I haven't is I'd probably forget where I "put it up safe" at and have to go buy another one in order to find my original.  I do have the tongue latch locked and the mill would be hard to back a truck under to drive off with it and there is always a pile of logs close that makes it even more difficult to steal.

[woodhick]

I don't travel with mine much anymore but when I do I know what you mean about not sleeping at night worrying someone is going to take it.  Lot of money tied up in it and thieves are getting more rampant around here.  Now I know they are not stealing it to use since they wont work but to resell.  My suggestion is buy a battery 1/2" impact and remove the hitch head when you park it.  Doesn't take long with impact and while it wont stop them it will make it very hard if they are not prepared for that.  Carry a couple extra bolts with for the just in case you loose one time.
Woodhick

[TreeStandHunter]

Gps tracker or perhaps have someone fab a removeable hitch?