Thieves....

brian2sun said:
LOL! I never really thought about it, buy my BudBuilt belly pan serves another purpose other than getting bashed by rocks, it would be a serious pain in the arse to try to cut my cat off with that on! Might be a good idea for you if you wheel your truck anyways.
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Yeah, this thread got me wondering if my belly pan covered the cat.

I know I was thinking about mine possibly getting stolen about 6 mo ago when there were several other threads about this. but completely forgot about it when I put on my belly pan.

Ill have to look at it tomorrow and see, between the IFS the belly pan skid and the gas skid, most of my undercarriage is covered...
 
I'd like to know exactly which belly pans REALLY cover up the Cat good?!

Those with pans on here, would you check yours out and post back? Prices and where you can buy them would be great too.

I'm thinking about getting this catclamp, but a belly pan would serve 2 purposes well, no?...

Catalytic Converter Theft Prevention Lock
 
My Budbuilt covers most of my '97's single cat (non-cali). I can't take pics right now because my truck is n the shop getting the whole motor rebuilt (woo-hoo!!). It's definitely enough to make it a real PITA to cut out and very time consuming. I think I would have to take the pan off completely to get mine out. The later model dual cat systems are not as protected by the belly pan, but still would be a lot more difficult to cut them out than without a belly pan. The pan just makes the space too tight to get a sawsall in there easily even on the dual cat ones. They could always take the pan off too, but it takes me 5-10 minutes with a floor jack and a ratcheting box wrench. If I was doing it with a normal wrench and no jack, it would take probably 20 minutes to get the pan off and without a buddy to hold it up, it would come crashing down on me and be pretty darn loud too.
 
Mine's a California truck, does that mean I have 2 cats? The CatLock is only $150 + shipping. Budbuilt skidplate looks like it would work too, but it's $264. Would I have to pay shipping for it or can stores in Cali get it for me?

Do Cats last all different lengths of time? Mine has 150K on it and is 12-13 years old!
Maybe I shouldn't worry about protecting this old one? If it gets stolen I get a new one and then protect that one?
 
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Jeffkin said:
Mines a California truck, does that mean I have 2 cats? The CatLock is only $150 + shipping. Budbuilt skidplate looks like it would work too, but it's $264. Would I have to pay shipping for it or can stores in Cali get them for me?

Do Cats last all different lengths of time? Mine has 150K on it and is 12-13 years old!
Maybe I shouldn't worry about protecting this old one? If it gets stolen I get a new one and then protect that one?
Click to expand...

You probably do have 2 cats (unless you're like me and your truck came from a different state originally). Looking down there to see for yourself is easy though. I had to pay shipping on my Buds. You have to order directly from him (unless there are stores that carry his stuff that I don't know about). Eventually someone will probably post a pic of how well the Bud covers the 2 cats and you can decide if it's good enough for you. Some cats can last decades, soem last a few years. It depends on how much rust you get and the running condition of your engine mostly.
 
Thanks for the info! Mine's a '98 Limited and was originally California.
Great, so I have TWO to protect or TWO to replace? Twice the cost?! *SIGH*

Maybe we should have a bumper sticker group buy: WANT MY CAT? MEET MY GLOCK!
 
brian2sun said:
You probably do have 2 cats (unless you're like me and your truck came from a different state originally). Looking down there to see for yourself is easy though. I had to pay shipping on my Buds. You have to order directly from him (unless there are stores that carry his stuff that I don't know about). Eventually someone will probably post a pic of how well the Bud covers the 2 cats and you can decide if it's good enough for you. Some cats can last decades, soem last a few years. It depends on how much rust you get and the running condition of your engine mostly.
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Check with SteezeMcqueen but I think toytec was starting to carry buds, if thats the case, its probably cheaper to ship the buds to Cali from Colorado than from back east where Bud is.

the benefit of the skids is that it will help prevent your cat from being stolen and is also is protection from rocks etc when you are wheeling!
 
Your truck was probably originally sold in a different state like mine. I think even the early 3rd gens had 2 cats if they were sold in CA, but I'm not 100% sure on that. At least you only have to worry about one cat now and the Bud belly pan should protect it just fine from thieving lowlifes.
 
Two-cat system started in '99 and was only on Cali.'s in 1999 and 2000. Then all 50-states got the two-cat system in 2001 and beyond.

1998 and before was one-cat everywhere, including California.
 
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One of the good things about being lifted. A normal jack wont get the tires off the ground so your likely not to have your wheels/tires stolen. Bad thing, makes it easier for your cat to get stolen........ doh
 
djbrand1 said:
One of the good things about being lifted. A normal jack wont get the tires off the ground so your likely not to have your wheels/tires stolen. Bad thing, makes it easier for your cat to get stolen........ doh
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normal jacks fit under the lower control arm.

and the rear axle is no higher with a lift. both are perfect lifting spots to put a lifted runner on blocks
 
What about wrapping a chain bolted to the frame around the cat? Would that work as a theft deterrent?
 
They had an update on one of the local news stations about this a couple weeks ago.

The theory is that 4 wheel drive vehicles have enough clearance under them to get under with an electric sawzall, thus an easier mark.

My .357 is smaller than a sawzall.

Moral of the story? Don't bring a sawzall to a gunfight. :-)
 
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