Gas Tank Security

[jake]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any good ideas for keeping your gas in your gas tank, and protecting it from gas thieves? Locking gas caps probably only prevent really lazy thieves...I have heard that you can basically just twist them off with a little force. And you can just use a screwdriver to pop open the gas cap metal cover.

The best thing I can think of, is to pull your car right up tight beside a building, gas tank facing inwards, so that it's just darn hard to actually get near the gas tank.

Of course, this leaves the bottom of your car still vulnerable, but I am not sure what can be done about that by most people.

Anyone have any other ideas on how to prevent someone siphoning your gas from the tank. I have a feeling that gas tank thefts are going to increase quite a bit this summer...:sad:

Thanks,

J.

[cinok]

This may sound crazy but if they want it they will get it. I don't car if its gas,you car stereo etc. I may be the odd ball but I don't even lock my vech most of the time. Now I don't drive anything fancy or have a flashy stereo in my dash but i have in the past and If the door was locked I had to replace the stereo and the window.
Back to the original question those locking gas caps come off with a pair of pliers I have had to remove more then one from customers cars and my own. Often times the neck would get screwed up. It is not super easy to siphon gas nowadays it can be done but requires a bit more effort.

[patience]

Maybe get an ornery dog to ride with you? That worked pretty well on our farm some years ago. I found the gas barrel hose lying in the driveway, a dented gas can down the hill a ways, and a blood trail from there to the road. Our German Shepherd was sitting by the gas barrel, looking smug when I got there. That dog was rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. AND he stunk to high heaven from finding his own well-aged meals in the woods, but we never lost ANYTHING to thieves from that place. He had decided that it all belonged to HIM.

[sweetsadie]

My husband and I were talking about this last night. He knows two people who had their gas tanks punctured with a sharp object (they think an ice pick) for a quick way to steal the gas. It seems the old fashion way to siphon gas does not work on new vehicles. We don't have any ideas on how to prevent this type of stealing. Only thing we can come up with is security lights, a pistola, and a prayer!!!

[Rimfire_Red]

New fuel tanks often have filters and baffles in them that prevents siphoning.

Park vehicles CLOSE to the house. When gas was high a couple of years ago the guys who farm our little bit of cropland and some other places in the area lost the fuel out of full tanks in a couple of 2 or 3 ton grain trucks that were parked in a field access within a couple of hundred feet of an occupied home just south of us. The trucks were parked there FULL of gas after dark (maybe 10:00 - 11:00 pm) and emptied by 5:00 am when they showed up to start harvest again. The gas was bad enough. Towing both vehicles all the way to town to have the gas tanks replaced cost them 1/2 a day and even more money.

[Travis]

I use to work for a company and we had gas thehfts all the time. Well one time I came to work and somebody actually stole the whole tank from under the truck.

I say short of a guard dog or vehicle inside its not "safe"

[Mike LI]

I'm a big fan of barking dogs lights and guns. :meeting:

[momma_to_seven_chi]

A big dog.
We have had locking caps in the past, but I tend to loose keys, so that's not a good idea for us. And we don't often have gas stolen around here anyway, so what is the point? I had gas stolen from a car once way back in the 70s. Since then, we've been fine. Big dogs seem to work great.

[chris-wasan]

Is there a way to add on some heavier duty metal to the bottom of the tank somehow? Welding or something? Maybe you guys who weld would know the answer. Maybe they are bolted on, I just don't remember. The only reason I think of this is that when I used to be really young and really crazy my ex and I used to go four wheeling up in the high country of Colorado. The trails we took were really tough. Think redcone, rubicon type stuff. Serious four wheeling only type stuff with lockers etc.

One of the things we had to do, even with some of the higher profile vehicles was to put metal plates in place to protect some critical parts under the rigs. Like gas tanks etc. Skid plates I think is what they are called (tells you how old I am now, lol!)

Would this work to at least slow somone down with the puncturing of tanks, if not stop them all together?

My current (and last lol) DH and I were talking about the same thing. We live in a tiny little bitty hamlet, not on some maps but there are a few dirt bag types that go back and forth on the closed to traffic bridge right at our house. They know we have 4 shepherds (who are always alerting) but we park our cars in front of the house. We were talking about fencing in the driveway area and letting dogs patrol that portion as well. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, consider skid plates perhaps..we did it for our 4bys

[cinok]

Question is how much do you want to spend to protect $100 or so worth of gas

[chris-wasan]

Question is how much do you want to spend to protect $100 or so worth of gas


Definately something to be said for that...but then again, how much is the 100.00 worth if it is imperative you have it? Seems the value might rise exponentially if it's life and death (which is extreme, I know) or it's the only way to get to work and you have to either keep putting a hundred bucks in or you have to replace the whole gas tank.

I don't know about anyone else but I would never be able to afford it more than once. We are at the fullest limit of our ability to pay for anything, the only slush fund now is food and gas. If I have to keep paying for the gas just to get to work (not getting my money out of it each time it's stolen) then the game is over for me.

100.00 means a lot still...at least when it comes to gas. May not get you much at the store anymore, but it can still get you down the road a piece. Especially if one is rural and the nearest reasonable sized city is 60 miles or more down that road.

[jake]

(thanks for your thoughts and comments everyone)

About the question "how much do you want to spend for a $100 tank of gas"...well, I guess in my mind I am thinking that that $100 tank might soon cost $200, or much more...I believe that gas prices are due to spike due to all the stuff happening in the middle east. If gas prices did in fact rise that much, I can see gas thefts increasing right away. And if gas usage is rationed in addition to this, the problem will be even worse.

Crazy talk? Maybe...they've been saying that there will be gas shortages for a long time...but the threat seems a lot more credible these days. If there are problems in Saudi Arabia, watch out.

Edit -I may just have found a potential solution to protecting your gas tank...check out these Youtube videos on cheap trip wire alarms you can make:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVEXJuMdMWo

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWiM62E_Fyg&feature=watch_response

One of these somehow hooked up to your gas cap or around the car somehow might be a good enough alarm to scare off most thieves.

[Tooldummy]

I've had so much gas stole over the years I can't offer many suggestions. I have several dogs that run free but the thieves must bring food or something because they aren't much help. The worst theft I ever had was a 300 gallon over head fuel tank and 2 tractors drained. Gas was only about .80 cents back then, but it hurt regardless. (As a side note: a guy was caught steeling bulk fuel about 20 miles from me that fall. He had a truck topper, a big fuel tank, a ladder and a transfer pump. He just followed fuel trucks out to the farm and after they left helped himself.)

Anymore, I keep my pickup no more than 1/2 full. If I use a tractor I put just enough in to do what I need. I keep my gas locked in my shop normally. But I have left 5 gallon cans set out for weeks at a time and never had it stolen. But if I put it in a tractor it dissapears overnight! I think the thieves think I "baited" it for them with sugar or something.

Locking gas caps don't work in my area. I've had them broken out, along with my daughters, my mothers, and the ones on my wife's car. I seen on tv down in St. Louis they were drilling holes in the bottom of tanks and catching what they could and letting the rest run out on the ground.

I think parking over a pit of aligators or rattlesnakes might work. Course the thieves are snakes theirselves, so that might not be such a good idea either.

[Wyobuckaroo]

"What are you willing to spend to protect $100.oo worth of gas?"

Or something close to that. The loss of the value of the fuel is frustrating enough. But the real problem can be what was damaged in the process of stealing the fuel.

Compromised connections to fuel tank and fittings that might leak later, contaminates in the tank its self. Fire hazard. This all costs money to inspect the integrity of, or repair the fuel system after the theft.

KnowwhatImean
Good luck
Wyo

[CountryBertha]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any good ideas for keeping your gas in your gas tank, and protecting it from gas thieves? Locking gas caps probably only prevent really lazy thieves...I have heard that you can basically just twist them off with a little force. And you can just use a screwdriver to pop open the gas cap metal cover.

The best thing I can think of, is to pull your car right up tight beside a building, gas tank facing inwards, so that it's just darn hard to actually get near the gas tank.

Of course, this leaves the bottom of your car still vulnerable, but I am not sure what can be done about that by most people.

Anyone have any other ideas on how to prevent someone siphoning your gas from the tank. I have a feeling that gas tank thefts are going to increase quite a bit this summer...:sad:

Thanks,

J.

You'll have to lock the car/truck up in a shed or garage -- or put an alarm on the car. I actually walked right up on a guy who was stealing parts off my car right along with the gas he stold out of my car.

He looked pretty wimpy all squatted down and he got a real dose of one mad Granny. When he finally stood up and ran off, he was way over 6 feet tall. Holy cow.

Now some 3 years later, I'm still locking everything up tight. It also made me rethink how the heck we will protect our family, stock animals and food storage if something really bad happens. There are some really awful behaving people out there now.

[Mike LI]

You'll have to lock the car/truck up in a shed or garage -- or put an alarm on the car. I actually walked right up on a guy who was stealing parts off my car right along with the gas he stold out of my car.

He looked pretty wimpy all squatted down and he got a real dose of one mad Granny. When he finally stood up and ran off, he was way over 6 feet tall. Holy cow.

Now some 3 years later, I'm still locking everything up tight. It also made me rethink how the heck we will protect our family, stock animals and food storage if something really bad happens. There are some really awful behaving people out there now.

Shoot a few, head on a pike at the gate, word will get around to leave the crazy one alone ;) That and doubling up.