Catalytic Converter Shield

I live in wonderful TTown (Tulsa) Oklahoma where homeless and tweakers are rampant.

Have a friend a street over mine who had his Tundras cat stolen, figured now I’d spend some time finding a way to deter my Tacoma from being a target.

I got this coming in the mail https://getcatsecurity.com/purchase...cat-security-toyota-tacoma-2016-2021-4wd-qv3z and wondered if anyone has installed it? I did some research and saw someone who decided against drilling and just used the Tacos mounting points. I normally don’t have a problem drilling but I have concerns over rust building up around the holes long term.

edit: heres the install diagram. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/8638d99d-509b-4d37-8d43-6afe0411b56e/downloads/Toyota Tacoma Gen 3 v.2.pdf?ver=1627019988659

 

Just paint the holes after drilling them. Or put a liberal coat of silicone sealer in the hole and on the rivet nut before you install the nut.

(You can probably buy the rivet nut tool at Harbor Freight as cheap as renting it.)

 

That sure ups the price of a new cat.

 

What do they charge for this?
Also, are there 2 Catalytic converter units, left and right?
Does this serve as an oil pan skid plate as well?

 

$309 shipped, Theres 4 total, 2 main (no need to worry as they are up in the engine) and 2 secondary which are the ones getting stolen.

it covers the diff oil pan and both secondary cats

edit: theres a guy on another thread who makes them out of 1/4 aluminum which is thicker but I realized that after I ordered already.

 

My guess is that any tweaker that gets under there to steal cats and encounters this thing is going to do something to damage the car just out of spite.

 

Who was this that did this?

 

See post 188 here https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...alytic-converter.555978/page-10#post-26009565

 

maybe, maybe not, but it sure beats out having a $1k + insurance claim on you + the wasted time getting it fixed. All the videos I’ve seen on this, thieves are looking for quick jobs, they abort whenever it gets complicated.

 

Yea its the same conundrum with the locking gas cap. Some say not to get one and let them get the gas, otherwise they'll just cut the gas tank and you'll be out even more money.

At least there is some good karma out there:

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/202...hief-crushed-to-death-collapsing-car-anaheim/

What a legacy...killed by a Prius

 

karma baby! I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but I read this happens a lot in CA, has it surfaced around your area?

also the gas tank thing, I heard most modern cars have an anti siphoning valve (for roll over protection) most I see is people throwing crap down the tank.

 

Yea it mostly happens around the big cities and lower income areas that have meth/heroin issues, just like everywhere else. Thankfully I have mine garaged at night so one less thing to worry about. I do get concerned when I have to travel and stay at hotels though. Hopefully the full set of steel RCI skids front to rear will help.

 

After drilling rivnut holes in the frame of my Tacoma, I sprayed the holes with zinc-rich "cold galvanizing" spray paint (Rust-Oleum is one brand), let it dry, then mounted the rivnuts.

Here's the rivnut tool I bought from Amazon for about $31 ($40-20% discount):

$40 WETOLS Rivet Nut Tool Kit, 14" Rivnut Tool with 7 Metric and SAE Mandrels, Professional Hand Riveter with 70Pcs Rivnuts Assortment Kit, Manual Rivet Nut Gun with Rugged BMC Case

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081GDRTXP

 

Dang man, thats my fear too, I have to driveway park since my house was built with a garage too small for the truck. I’ve seen a bit of tweakers on my driveway camera walking by at night. (Maybe 1 every 2 months)

one time I street parked out of the cameras view (never again) and they busted the window on my girls rav4 and stole my ice scraper and 2 water bottles. I live in a nice area but at night these individuals make rounds.

 

forgot to add, while looking for my plate, I saw someone add/weld “Wings” to his RCI plate to cover the cats.

 

I was thinking about picking up the harbor freight one but this is better, thank you. I just ordered

 

Interesting...if you happen to run across that would you mind posting or dm'ing the link to me?

 

sure! I just got a break from work. Post #106 https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...deterrent-options.713072/page-6#post-25746238

also a screenshot of post #99

 

Thanks brother! Looks like he has the aluminum version. I'll have to see what a shop would charge to weld some wings onto my steel plate.

 

I think it wouldn’t be much, cheap route since you already have the plate, see my edit on the previous post, found some images of it installed on his truck.