best car trackers

**cookster** · 01-02-2016, 11:14

as per title really had my e30 nicked on sat and cant have that for my escort been building it for 4 years and dont want it going anywhere. just wondering what the best trackers are out there for it thanks

**Adam Brown** · 01-02-2016, 12:11

This is what i have done with my escort. I wired in an android charger into the car it a hidden place that cant be accessed without a strip down. Not going say where it is but eg behind the kick panels in the cavity in the door pillars. I placed my old android phone htc in there. I downloaded an app called pray and you can track the phone in live time to 2m radius. The gps works without a sim on my phoneso i leave it on airplane mode with everything turned off to lengthen the battery life. I leave it plugged in so even if the battery is disconnected it has a weeks worth of battery to track. So i can track it myself. Can be alot cheaper than some trackers. but thats what ive done.

cant be too careful sorry to hear about your car lots of snakes about.
Hoped it turns up for you in one piece.
Regards Adam

**cookster** · 01-02-2016, 12:46

hi adam thanks for your reply yea unfortunately to many snakes out there at the mo least 2 or 3 going missing a week disgusting. unfortunately i dont have a old phone and i dont mind to much on price what ever it takes to keep it safe really and yea i would be putting it some where it takes a while to get to for sure already have a place in mind you can get some off ebay vary on price just wondered which ones are good and not

**stevieturbo** · 01-02-2016, 23:00

If the phone is in aeroplane mode, how can it send any data about it's location ?

At Autosport last year there were some guys selling trackers. Some small devices you could just chuck into the car, battery would last for days, or ones you could hard wire.

They werent cheap at all, some around £60 and then £10p/m for the SIM card monitoring.

Not sure how much info they actually sent, or in real time etc etc. Or whether it uses text messages, live data etc.

But overall they werent expensive. Of course they all still need a mobile signal which if my phone is anything to go by means any such tracker will be shit !

**Mkdu** · 02-02-2016, 10:00

Hi,

I use a locster, french made, with sim card, around 10€/month.
Apps exists for mobile phones, you can define zones, and a "Out or In" from a zone will send you and SMS.
Lots of alerts, low battery, impact, fall, movement, ...
you can follow in real time from 3 to 10 mins intervals.
Good support as well.

**haz87** · 02-02-2016, 10:29

Originally Posted by stevieturbo

If the phone is in aeroplane mode, how can it send any data about it's location ?

My windows phone's GPS still works even when in aeroplane mode, so guessing the same is true of Android and others.

**stevieturbo** · 02-02-2016, 13:07

GPS might work, but there should be no ability for the phone to send or receive any phone, text or data when in aircraft mode.

**Adam Brown** · 09-02-2016, 18:58

There is no need for that function anyway ?

The app i have installed works on using the gps signature of the phone that the app is installed on. you then access it from a pc or other device and track the phone using the gps. you dont need any sim in it to work. gps works without a sim and when in aeroplane mode (this helps conserve the battery life).

**stevieturbo** · 09-02-2016, 19:03

Yes, GPS on the phone works, but how then does it transmit it's location so it can be detected on your computer ?

Information has to transfer somehow otherwise the phone cant tell the computer where it is.

It's different if the phone is in your hand and you're looking at it...then the data transfer is simply you looking at it. Which is difficult if the phone is miles away.