So car thefts in my area have sky rocketed. I've actually have had 3 cars stolen out of my businesses' parking lot. So I peeked around on the internet for GPS tracking and stumbled upon this cheap solution I thought I'd share with you guys.

There's a site: http://www.instamapper.com that has a program you can download on a Motorola iDen phone readily available on Boost mobile pre-paid packages at Wal-Mart. Once you have this program installed on the phone, it reports the location of the phone every set amount of time. You can then either track/locate your vehicle online in real-time, or pull up past trip data. This is a great service for the price = FREE, not too many bells and whistles, but it gets the job done. You do have to pay the unlimited data fee via Boost mobile pre-paid phone, a grand total of $0.35 per day, or around $10.50 per month.

I also tested accutracking.com's software which is a more advanced version of instamapper. Accutracking.com's service is a paid service though, however the extra features and ease of use might make it worth it. You can get a month free to test it out, and I'm still on that month, just haven't decided if I'm going to keep it. The biggest advantage with accutracking is if the phone does not have service, it stores your GPS data until it returns to a service area, then uploads everything all at once, so you don't have big gaps in your trip logs from a dead zone.

Anyway, here's a screenshot of instamapper:



and one of accutracking:




Here's a pic of the phone I got from Wal-Mart - $39 (with $5 free credit Boost service)



After a couple weeks of testing I decided I wanted to hardwire the phone somewhere on the truck so it didn't take up one of my electrical sockets. I found a cheap 12v car charger at a local gas station for $5. The housing was screwed together and made it easy to dissassemble. Once I got it apart, it was easy to see the wires I needed to hook up to a 12v source and ground. I needed something to house the phone and charger, so I bought some PVC pipe, wired everything up, and attached it to the front bumper. (Please forgive me for the lack of pics as my camera was dead during the installation. The end result though looks like this:






There are a few things you need to do to setup the phone to get the tracking program to always stay on whenever the phone is on. It's quite simple and works better than expected, and I've got less than $50 in it.

 

That's a pretty cool idea. Thanks for sharing


ohh, how come it says your ram is moving 2mph heading NE?....lmao

 

brilliant. good share. how much does lowjack cost?

 

So how do you keep it charged all the time? Have you let it sit for a few days and see if it either drains the truck battery or if the cell battery dies? Its a winderfull Idea though as long as it doesn't kill the battery in the process.

 

Great idea.. but what happens when they drive the truck to an area of no cell phone reception? Does it still track?

 

I would think it would take a month or more to drain a truck battery with a cell phone, but I could be wrong. Thats just my guess.

 

you are on the right track. maybe not a month or two, but a LONG time.

when it is out of range the phone documents it internally and uploads the whole thing when it finally gets service. the OP said that.

 

Alright thats cool, I was just curious how much the phone would draw from the trucks battery after sitting idle for a few days.

Only other concern I would have with it is where is it mounted? From the pics it looks like it is outside the truck. From experience, I can tell you those cheap walmart phones dont like extrems as far as heat and cold go. After leaving a phone outside during the summer the screen would go black and would never come back up again, same thing if it was left inside the truck, the heat would kill it. Also had one that was left in my pack outside while we were up hunting, temps dropped down into the 20's and the phone decided to give up.

I am really curious how it reacts after a few weeks / months on the truck that. If it works out fine then it be a great thing to try. But it is also something that you may want to check periodically to make sure that the phone is still in good operating condition.

 

If you use instamapper, it does not still track with no service. Accutracking keeps the tracking data in the phones memory until it's back on a network. Either way, if you don't have service, then no, it won't report location. However Boost mobile runs off of Sprint/Nextel towers, pretty good coverage, and as long as it finds 1 bar for a second or two, it will transmit current location from what I've seen.

I've had my truck sit in long-term airport parking for almost 4 weeks when I went away on a business trip with my window mounted GPS navigation unit powered on. Got in the truck, and she fired up without hesitation. Cell phones are very low on the power consumption, I would imagine it would take quite a while to drain a fully charged 12v truck battery.

That was the last location transmitted. To save battery life, it only transmits when moving. That's where I parked, pretty much in that exact parking spot.

 

Yep, I to have thought about that. I originally put it inside the truck behind the glove compartment, it worked except when it transmitted I could hear static in the Sirius radio. Couldn't have that.

I'm actually planning on stuffing insulation into, and around it before winter hits. I'm going to be putting a 3" pipe instead of 2" so I can keep it entirely enclosed and not have the plug sticking out like that. It's ok for now. If the screen breaks, I don't particularly care as long as the phone continues to work. I have the app setup to where as long as the phone is powered it runs in the background.