I too am pretty uptight about my spare. Before I ordered new wheels I ran the original Mopar beadlocks that came with the Jeep when I bought it and were I think $500 a piece at the time. I'm not sure if you've heard of the company "Kryptonite" but they make some pretty intense chains and locks to prevent theft. Long story short, the lock jammed up and the tire place had no way of changing out my spare so they had to cut the chain off. Less than two minutes with an air saw and that "6-sided chain made of maximum-strength 3t hardened manganese steel" was off haha I'm sure if they want it bad enough they will take it.

 

Just so we all don't get off topic and go back and forth on "if a theif wants your tire, he's gonna take it". I'm well aware of that fellow members, I live in Jersey and know all too well what is safe and whats not. As stated, it was to be used simply as a deterrent. Also, the cable lock I happened to be looking at is a steel braided cable 26mm thick. Yea, I'm sure it can be cut, but being 1" thick, that's gonna be pretty damn hard to cut, dont you think? Yea, I looked at the lug-nut locks too, but I'm not so much interested in the tires under my rig (yes, I know it sounds stupid). Thats more work for someone if they are gonna jack my tires....no pun intended, being that they'd have to jack up my jeep on stands and take em all off....a lot more involved than ripping off the spare in the back. As far as removing my tire carrier all-in-all to get the spare tire., I have that rigged where you can't just "remove it". I don't run a stock spare tire carrier.

 

Don't get me wrong but locking lugs help but they are not a deterrent from theft , the thief gets ready to go to work and then realize that you got those gets pissed and slash your tire or damage your jeep , a lock highly visable a thief can see you have it lock will move on to the next one or still make a effort but more them likely move on

Been rocking the cable lock for 3 years no issue or anything
You can see it in the picture

 

That's why you have insurance....for those ones that act like big babies when they don't get what they want. I wouldn't be totally against getting a new set of tires out of the deal...maybe even a new paint job.

 

But you asked for some pros and cons to running different lock systems and that is what you got. What is off-topic about that. Anyways, I think the cable one might work really well for you. I have never actually seen one with a cable 1" thick.

 

Yea, pro's & con's OUTSIDE of the obvious "if a thief is gonna steal something, he is gonna steal it"... I can gather that much...that doesnt really have anything to do with different locking mechanisms, that's just a generic statement about people who steal things....

 

If you search amazon for the one I listed above, you'll see what Im talking about...

 

Ok, I understand what you're getting at now. Yeah, it is rather obvious. On a side note, I noticed one con to the Mcguard wheel locks... They are much larger than the lug nuts themselves, so on a black rim like mine, it makes it stands out from the rest and looks like a big eye sticking out. I ended up using a black tip permanent marker to black out the outer ring of the lock, but I may end up just painting all my lugs black. That's just an asthetic con though.

 

Thanks, I'll look into it. I might have some other uses for one like that too.

 

If you're talking about the cable lock you mentioned in the first post you may want to look at the reviews on Amazon. Evidently it's a 1/4" cable with very thick poly coating and multiple reports of it not holding up to thieves.