OnlyHondas

www.ravelco.com
www.nohotwire.com

Do you guys think this would prevent an R from being stolen? Just wondering if it would be a waste of money or not because im planning on getting a R as my first car sometime this year but im hesitant due to all the theft... It says that that no car has been stolen with ravelco and millions have been sold. what do you guys think about it?

wrinkly

it's still not going to stop a thief from coming with a trailer and taking your car....f*cking thieves....i hate to say it but if they want your car badly enough, nothing in the world will stop them

John 07

i had ravelco in my old GSR. Its not a bad device but it is over priced. USe it as a layer and not a primary source for keeping your car safe. You can think of it as a kill switch without a switch but rather a button you plug in to complete the circuit

Tekkaboy

iTrader: (2)

Ravelco is a glorified kill switch that in some ways is worse that a regular kill switch because it is in plain sight. With the money you'd spend on it you could buy a proper alarm system AND make your own kill switch(es).

https://honda-tech.com/forums/audio-security-video-27/best-ravelco-security-thread-evar-2069021/

IanBlake

read here

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2069021

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:...ient=firefox-a


$25

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/New-R...Q5fAccessories

OnlyHondas

so would ravelco be a good idea? and what about the 25 dollar one on ebay ^^^ looks legit or no?

IanBlake

i can not find any articles of any fake ravelco ... im going buy one of does the guy has 100% feedback all from the same item

Loud-N-Clear

He also notes that Ravelco keeps requesting that his items be taken down due to copyright infringement... And it is a tenth of the price of a real one. I'm going to say that they're fake.

Southside Micha

Hello Gentlemen,
I my get my A$$ handed to me, but I respectfully request permission to reply to the thread. I am a Ravelco Distributor so I'm not trying to do a stealth sales job. You could call the Ravelco a kill switch, we prefer engine immobilizer. Kill switches are generally connected under the dash by amateurs and are easily found and by-passed. Since you guys wrench your own rides, installing custom theft prevention comes easy, but you are in the minority of car owners. The Dealer wanted $130 to change my head light bulb, of course I did myself. Could my neighbor do it? No way, so he pays the freight. It takes us 2 1/2 to 3 hours to properly install a Ravelco, sometimes more. Rember this: thieves have 3-5 minutes to steal a car, you have all day trace wires and figure out connections and you know what you're doing. We're successful because thieves don't have time to figure our product out.
What's your time worth $50, $75, $100 an hour? Add expenses and travel time and $450 installed at your location maybe isn't so bad, for the neighbor of course. This isn't a product you'll find at Auto Zone for the weekend warrior to install, we don't want our neighbor cutting into his wiring harness now do we?
We have territories, if you're not in one, the manufacturer will sell you one for $269.95 and tell you to have a mechanic install it. We don't know if the E-Bay Ravelcos are knock offs or not, but they aren't warranted by the manufacturer, you can't order extra plugs, or get instructions. So even if someone was able to install one, good luck you're on your own and don't lose the plugs. Experience says you get what you pay for.
I have taken enough of your time, I appreciate the opportunity, I beg forgiveness for intruding. I will look into the marketplace and pay for my future advertising. I'd love to answer any questions you may have for me. I believe my e-mail address is visible. If you want to rip me a new one for joining the conversation, so be it.

Good luck,
Michael
Chicago, IL

IanBlake

maybe yes /// anyway is a kill switch .... $25? vs $300 or $400

why put the plug visible? .. is not better to hide the plug?

OnlyHondas

notice its his first post and he registered today LOL he tryna pull us into buying one

Southside Micha

OH,
Read the post, don't assume I'm selling, I'm just defending my product.
I made it clear who I am and what I'm doing. If you're not in my territory I can't sell to you anyway. If I don't sell to you, I don't make any money. I'd like to provide some facts for you to make an educated decision, that's all.

Mopedstud

best ways to keep ur car safe..
if ur in the driveway park a non honda behind it
install a couple kill switches
take out ur ecu at night
have a pager alarm to tell u when ur car is being messed with
get a car cover(helps out)
also there are rims locks
i perfer lo jack.. also

redsidriver

lol i had a car cover on and some dude tried to jack my rims in my drive way . the set off the alarm when they jacked up the car . i think they got careless . get alarm with good instal kill switch auto lock wheel boot car cover sometimes its just too much but its all worth it

Tekkaboy

iTrader: (2)

Read the threads we linked above. Ravelco is not a good idea.

Ravelco is installed in plain sight, so it is even easier to find and bypass.

Precisely. It is quite easy to fashion a kill mechanism that does exactly what Ravelco does (or better) at a fraction of the cost.

itr#1334

iTrader: (2)

Yeah take your ecu out and safe the thief time. Most if not all itr's that are stolen the thief puts his own ecu in to bypass the immobilizer.

Ramirez428

What I have been doing is installing latching relays to alarms.

Remove power from the car(cut battery cable) alarm might shut off but the latching relay defaults to armed. Only way to turn it off is from your alarm keyfob. All you have to do is hide the relay as if your life depended on it, or in this case your Itr's life. You don't have to hide the alarm that well (but I still suggest you do) even if all the wires are cut and alarm removed the relay is still armed.

noeticnormy

iTrader: (1)

RAVELCO FTW! As others have said, it is not the end all be all but rather an integral layer in a system. It is way better than a kill switch because you need the matching mating end to start it. Even if it is in plain site it is not quickly by passable. Whether you think it's worth $400 installed is another matter. For me, it's worth knowing that unless they tow or push it it's not starting. As I said, I agree that a ravelco, won't stop your car from being broken into but it will stop your car from being stolen unless they have a tow truck/trailer or push it somewhere secluded and strip it. If that happens then there is nothing you could do anyway. Additionally, it's all about layers.

Alarm- just to lock/unlock the door and give the appearance of security
Power Door Lock Mod- switch doesn't work without key in the ignition
Ravelco- go to the website for details but it's a more sophisticated kill switch
Hood Cable relocation- prevents easy access to your engine compartment
The Club- so they can't turn the wheel if they decide to push it (although I've heard of people cutting the steering wheel to get the club off)
*you can also just turn your wheel all the way one way to lock it, but I don't think anyone does that anymore
GPS Locator; such as lo jack

Basically in the battle to protect your car, IMO, if I am going to throw thousands into my car, I'm going to spend a few hundred to make sure it's still in the garage or in the parking lot in the morning.


In my case I also live in texas which helps a lot also, check my sig...

Tekkaboy

iTrader: (2)

I'm glad that you take car security so seriously, but what you said is not entirely correct. There are many problems with Ravelco.

First, it is in plain sight. If a thief knows what it does (it basically interrupts a number of wires such as fuel and/or ignition) the Ravelco basically shouts "Look at me! Someone cut the fuel and/or ignition wires and routed them all right to this plug!" So the thief goes to the plug, finds the wires, traces them to their origin, and completes the circuit.

fcm is a reputable installer on these boards, and he bypassed a Ravelco system in about 30 minutes.

Second, the Ravelco is not an alarm. There are no sirens blaring or lights flashing to alert you or others around that something is going on. So if you do not have an alarm (maybe because you spent $400 on Ravelco instead), the thief has all the time in the world to sit in the vehicle and trace the wires. The car CAN be stolen without towing or pushing if a Ravelco is the only security device.

Third, Ravelco interrupts fuel and ignition, maybe the starter. It is very easy to bypass these things. You go to the circuit being interrupted and provide 12V. You do not need the mating end to start the car. The fuel pump is under the rear seat. The others are in the engine bay. This is also a problem for homemade fuel cutoffs. The solution is to interrupt the injectors (which cannot be hotwired) at the main relay or ECU, but Ravelco does not do this.

Fourth, the thing costs hundreds of dollars to do the same thing as a kill switch. For a whole lot less you could install your own ($10), or pay any halfway competent alarm shop to install one for you (~$50). And you could kill the things that are important, like the injectors, instead of things that are easily bypassed. And you could hide the switch so the thief has no idea where to start looking.

So if you already have it, great, just be sure to have additional layers. If you are planning on buying it, look elsewhere.

This thread has more detail about everything I just said: https://honda-tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2069021

The thread also includes this tidbit of info:

noeticnormy

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the link to the archived threads. Good info... Basically, it's one of those things if you are installer, have wiring experience you are probably going to wire up a kill switch for this layer. However, in my case what I will say is $300 isn't going to hurt me. It's just a layer, to me $300 is worth it to delay a thief, at least, 30 minutes. You have to remember that the member fcm that did the bypass was in optimum conditions with all of his tools and his know how as an installer. Not to mention that he pretty much had to rewire the ignition, fuel and injection system. A thief at night with, I would venture to say, would have a harder time and take longer. Additionally, here are two opposing quotes that I took from that 5 page thread that sum it up quite very nicely.

"Any car thief willing to take a 1/2 hour after they got into the car to get it going, probably will not be in the business very long."

"If you believe that Ravelco is good enough to protect your car then by all means go ahead and get it. Why come here and ask us our opinions and then try to argue with us as to why it is a great system after we all tell you it's not. "

Lastly, I am going to introduce a term called opportunity cost. It's an economic term that means that just because you can do something or make an product yourself doesn't necessarily mean you should. If it takes you all day to produce an item, while it takes another person only 2 hours, you should do or produce something else that would be more efficient and then barter/trade with the other person to get what you want. Basically, in my case I hate all things wiring related. It would take me way too much of my time to learn and rewire my car so instead I am going to go to work and with that money, buy a ravelco system. If I had the experience/knowledge like fcm, rameriz428 or wrx-killer-Sti-eater I would have already hooked up a bad *** series of cut off switches and have an impermeable security system. What I'm trying to say is what might be stupid and a waste of money for some is a viable solution for others.

96gsrvtec

GARAGE
Baby monitor
Glock 17 with 33rd mag full of 124gr hydra-shocks
concealed permit
something else to drive daily
THEN..car alarm
____________________________________________
= Drastically reducing chances of Johnny Tran jacking ur ****

just my 2c

There is not 1 single thing that will 100% stop someone from jacking your car. If someone really wants it...its theirs. We have all heard stories of flatbeds, boken garage doors, etc. It's a combination of many different things:

-dont tell the whole neighborhood about your new toy..keep it on the DL
-make sure you are not being followed
-be careful where you drive/park it and even sometimes, IF you drive it - dont go for a stroll through shady town and then lead everyone there back to your house.

Car alarms and technology are out there to make some dude rich, not to protect your inestment. Common sense, diligence, and restraint trumps all when talking about ITR security. If you plan on using it as a daily and parking it etc, there is a 99% chance that it WILL get stolen or molested in some way...get something else to drive as a daily.

Ravelco Cheap

Here is the real scoop: It is all about control

These are not fake ravelcos that are on ebay but the real thing. I just list them at my cost. They are not thrilled that I am listing these things at cost. The delta in price is their profit for the product mark up as well as the labor for the install.

If ravelco is successful in pulling my ebay listing by claiming copyright infringement then they control the market again and charge what they want and the customer has no place to go except to them (if you want one). I have several threatening emails from them as well.

I stated in the listing about the copyright infringement so people might understand that they are trying to find a reason to pull my listing.

You figure $30 for 1 replacement control head, $199 or $399 (or whatever) yet you can buy the whole thing for $25

Once I am out of inventory that is it - no more from me.

I am not going to respond to any questions because:
like the x-files "trust no one" They are out to shut me down so do not take offense.

By paying more, does that mean you get a better product? They want you to think so.

Nope, just that someone made more money from a consumer buying the same product.

I love my cars no different then anyone of you. If you want a ravelco, great, I just make it affordable.

I just want to set the record straight on the ebay ravelcos. Good day and night.

Rammjager

Have Ravelcos on all our Hondas as well as silent paging alarms, tip sensors, GPS tracking, etc. etc. etc. Recently some little brain tried to steal our 95 Civic coupe from the mall to no avail and got caught. You can flush mount and/or hide the Ravelco as we have done on all our cars. It is just one of the many layers one needs to do these days to make it as hard as possible for a thief. Personally, I WANT to catch them in the act as I did this last time and have done before. It is a great product that when used in conjunction with the security measures mentioned (as well as others not mentioned) makes it virtually impossible to take the car.

The best tip I was told is this: NEVER apply the brand name security decal to your car, it only aides a tech savvy thief in how to defeat it. Keep them guessing, use a generic looking one. Good luck!

JDM illmatic

All you really need is an alarm and a GPS tracker. Yea...alarm.. As long as you watch where you park and have both of these you should be ok. If they do take it, you'd on there *** before they get to stripping it. No R should be parked where you or pedestrians can't see it. If that's the case then you really brought it upon yourself.

coolhandluke

iTrader: (2)

Layers.