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mblair1@home.net wrote:
> > I'm trying to figure out how to secure my MVs from theft as well as
> > possible without making major irreversible modifications to them.
I decided to use the Pit Bull Tire Lock that I mentioned in a previous
posting on my M998 HMMWV:
A co-worker told me that he saw one at Aircraft Spruce, so I went
there to look at it and try it on my truck. (I think another customer
and I bought their last two, so call before you go there to look at
one...). The lock cost me $350. Not cheap, but neither is the truck
I'm trying to secure.
The jaws of the lock would just barely go onto a rear wheel, and the
product looked well-made, so I bought one. Later, I found that I
couldn't quite get it onto my front wheels, which have brand new
tires. I made it work OK by making a fairly simple modification to the
lock. I removed the heat-shrink boot from the inner (longer) jaw, and
then cut off the protruding portion of the inner steel core right at
the end of the aluminum casting. Then, I ground off the sharp edges,
covered the tip with some 3M rubber-lined mastic tape, and applied a
new heat shrink boot. The heat shrink tubing they used is extra-thick
adhesive lined polyolefin tubing, available from McMaster-Carr. I
happened to have some lying around, because I used it to insulate the
lugs on the battery cables I made to replace the ratty ones in my
HMMWV.
The pictures on their web page look very slightly different than the
lock I got, so I don't know if the tips of the jaws are the same on
all of the locks. If you decide to get one of these and can't fit it
around your wheels, you might need to modify it a bit differently than
I did.
The lock also wouldn't fit around the 9x20s on my deuce, but I haven't
had a chance to try it since I modified the lock.
Cutting off that 1/2" or so gave me the extra space I needed to get
the lock onto my HMMWV's wheels fairly easily, and doesn't appear to
reduce the lock's security at all. I think this lock will be a good
way to secure my truck from drive-away theft, without any
modifications to the vehicle. Big military truck tires are on the
borderline of the sizes of tires it's made to fit, so if you think you
want to use one, I recommend that you find a local distributor who
carries it so that you can drive your MV there and see how well it
fits. There are also several other similar products from other
manufacturers, but I don't know how well they would work.
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE
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