In 2020, some 75 quads were reported stolen in Ireland. The chances are a tracking device would have led to the recovery of a number of these quads if one had have been fitted.

Earlier this year, a stolen quad that had a tracker fitted led to the recovery of it and four others.

There are two types of trackers - battery-powered and hard-wired. Straight away, the benefits of battery power is that they can be fitted quickly and easily in or on any asset without having to interfere with electrics.

Another benefit is that they can be fitted to assets which have no onboard power. The only downside is that the battery will eventually need replacing.

The device we got our hands on was the Meta Trak T.36 Pulsar wireless tracker, a new product supplied by Quality Tractor Parts Ltd (QTP).

The Pulsar T.36 is comparable in size to a credit card.

How it works

Many of the devices on the market transmit a constant location in real time. The Pulsar T.36 is different in that it connects to the GSM network up to 24 times each day to report its location and check geo fence and theft mode status.

This way, battery life is preserved, as the device remains dormant the rest of the time. A three-year service plan is included in the buying price but costs €35 annually thereafter.

In the event the asset has been stolen and theft mode has been activated via the app, the tracker then reports its co-ordinates every minute.

Theft mode can be set to switch off automatically anywhere between one and 24 hours to preserve battery.

The tracker itself only measures 95mm x 42mm x 18mm (roughly the size of a credit card) and claims to be IP67-rated. We can confirm that dust and water splashes caused no issue.

Setup

Included in the box are two CR123A batteries which are said to last three years, depending on usage.

A clip-on back plate and two adhesive strips are also included for mounting purposes. The tracker has two 5mm holes for direct mounting.

Setup is relatively straightforward. Once the Meta Trak Pulsar app is downloaded and opened, the QR code on the device needs to be scanned.

After that, the registration process is completed and the batteries fitted. The required parameters and settings are then selected.

Initially, we found the app layout and certain functions took some getting used to.

Essentially, the system can be controlled through three main sections accessible at the bottom of the app screen. These are: main screen, notifications/event history and settings.

Up to 20 trackers can be assigned to the one account, with each being assigned an individual profile.

A geo-fence ranging from 100m to 10km can also be set up to trigger an alert once the set radius has been exceeded.

Verdict

The Meta Trak Pulsar T.36 wireless tracker is a discreet, cost-effective device. The fact it can be easily moved between assets is a major bonus over hard-wired types.

We tested the tracker on a quad and on an Ifor Williams cattle trailer as far away as 120km. It worked well regardless of distance. Almost two months of use later, our device used 4% battery.

According to the manual the tracker only wakes up three times every 24 hours at most, but navigating through the app settings, this can be increased to 24 wakes daily, with 24 position updates. The major issue with this is that it would severely affect battery life.

Once activated, theft mode will not engage until the next wake-up which could be hours away. We would like to have seen the device wake straight away to locate it.

If you leave it on defailt settings, you will potentially have to wait hours for the next wake-up if an item has been stolen.

However, the benefit of the tracker being asleep most of the time is that there is no signal to be detected by thieves.

Given that prices start from €250 plus VAT, the Pulsar T.36 is certainly a device worth fitting to at least the more vulnerable assets on the farm. The beauty is that it is discreet and extremely versatile and could be used to track almost anything.