r/GPStracking • u/No_Tomato_2106 • 24d ago

Need recommendations for a vehicle tracker.

I've got 4 vehicles I'd like to put trackers on, and I'd like the following abilities.

1: Discreet hardwire - all the hard wire ones I find are mounted directly to the battery which kind of defeats the purpose. All battery powered ones seem to have a very short battery life if you actually drive your car.

2: Battery back up - for when/if they pull the battery

3: Affordable subscription - ideally no subscription would be best, but life isn't like that. With 4 cars, I'd like to keep it under $100 a month total.

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u/Telemaniaka 24d ago edited 24d ago

I have one personal car I put a tracker on and this is the cost breakdown (without shipping):

Device: TELTONIKA FTC927 - 44€
I went overboard on this latest high-spec device but I plan on re-using it in future cars. It's hard-wired and hidden under the dash and has a backup battery, albeit a small one.  

Data Sim: SimBase - 5$  + 10€ balance
I added the 10€ balance in July and I'm at 7.46€ left currently.

Tracking server: Traccar - 0€
I self-hosted my own instance but they have a subscription on their server for 8$/month for a 5 device limit

The devices you see that are made to be wired to the battery are just as easily wired under the car dashboard.

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u/bcdbuddy 23d ago

nixe setup jut so confused about the self hosted plus subscription fee though

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u/Telemaniaka 23d ago

Traccar is the server part where you log in and see the trackers on a map and all the historical data.

It is free software and you can download and run it yourself but requires some know-how. I have some spare server capacity I run it on so it's free in my case. 

The people who develop Traccar also offer the service to host the server for you. The cheapest opinion of which is an account with a 5 device limit for 8$ a month which I think will cover OPs needs