Killing The Illegal Spare Wheel Trade
They say Gauteng is the only place in the world where you can park your vehicle, walk a hundred metres and buy your own wheels (from the vehicle you just parked!) from a street vendor. Yes, it may be tongue in cheek but the reality is that syndicates of this nature do exist.
Working at a well-known dealership in the West Rand of Gauteng, I noticed that virtually on a daily basis, individuals would come into the spares department to purchase rims for their vehicles. The dealership found it difficult to keep up with demand and at times, a customer would be advised to try roadside vendors at certain places where he would be able to purchase the rim and tyre combination for less than the dealership charged for the rim only. Passing these vendors on the side of the road, one could see that rim/ tyre combinations were even sold in matching sets of four.
I thought to myself that there is a huge market which targets the drivers of light delivery vehicles, double cab vehicles, utility vehicles, 4x4 vehicles and even heavier delivery vehicles. Once this triggered in my sub conscious, I noticed while driving daily that vehicles in front of me had their spare wheels missing. It was obvious that it was stolen because the chain and bracket keeping the wheel in place, was dangling underneath the vehicle. It made me realise that those spare wheels are extremely easy remove - only a jack handle is needed to lower the wheel onto the ground and the bracket is released. One, maybe two minutes are required for a person to remove the wheel and to take ownership thereof.
25 years in the security industry got my mind working on a plan to prevent this insane trade to continue. The sad part is that vehicle owners created the lucrative market by purchasing stolen wheels from roadside vendors! A vicious circle if ever there was one.
The answer dawned upon me. Make a bracket with a lock that holds the spare wheel secure in its cavity. Normal spare wheel locks do not seem to prevent the theft of spare wheels as they are simply broken which increases the time to remove the spare wheel by approximately 2 minutes.
Obviously, when criminals are desperate, they adapt their ways to ease their operation. I decided that an alarm should be fitted that triggers as soon as the spare wheel is moved out of position. The alarm has to have an override facility for when the owner needs access to the spare wheel. It also needs to be waterproof for those fanatics who enjoy a 4x4 trip through water and also driving in the rain could render the system useless if it gets wet.
I also keep in mind that all newly manufactured vehicles are bound by warranty issues and therefore the system cannot be incorporated into the electrical harness of the vehicle. The thought also crossed my mind that trailers for example, do not have their own power sources. For months, I designed, redesigned, gave up, went back to the drawing board and eventually patented the protect-a-spare concept that integrates a lockable bracket and alarm to secure the vehicle's spare wheel.
We all know that when a vehicle alarm activates in a car park with many vehicles around, nobody takes notice which brought me to the next idea to link a strobe light into the circuit which lights up the vehicle being tampered with. Security and passersby will easily identify the vehicle and surely, anyone found in the act of removing the spare wheel will be in a most uncomfortable situation.
The system needs to be rugged for obvious reasons and cannot work with sensors as these activate easily for no apparent reason.
Protect-a-Spare commits itself to provide peace of mind security in terms of all accessible spare wheels. It is like having a personal guard on duty looking after the spare wheel.
Johan van Vuuren,
Member,
Protect-a-Spare
(Div of J V V Risk Solutions cc),
http://www.protectaspare.co.za
20 Jul, 2011
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Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6421919
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