Living better electronically

[Paddlinhal]

I just bought a new car. I can start it from 100 yards away. I can unlock it with my mobile phone from anywhere in the world (except at the take-out where there is no service). That's fantastic right? But wait, I will never again utter the words: "Just lock the keys in the car, I have a spare." Because the car won't lock with the keys in it. So how does one get their car shuttled? Entrust your $200 spare key to the shuttle driver for to mail it back later? Leave the car unlocked? Hide the key on top of the right front tire? (As if no one wanting to break into your car hasn't heard of that one before.) So, what does everyone else do?

 

[Iskweo]

I used to drill a hole in a spare key and take one licence plate screw out, place the key behind the plate, and put the screw back in.

 

[Canotrouge]

My wife once after a day on the river told me where she had stash the key so I can retrieve the truck after a 10km run in the bugs.... She says" It's under the rock...." so I get there all sweaty and being attacked by the gazillions mosquitos and black fly to realized that where we parked the truck at the put in look more like a quarry so lots of rocks took me wile to figure out witch one it was....

We now have a spare with us or I leave it in the trap door of the gas tank...

 

[OCDave]

Prior to interior hood release mechanisms, we kept a spare in a magnetic box under the hood. Accidentally lock the primary set inside, simply poop the hood to retrieve the spare.

If you can disable the keyless auto-unlock feature, you could find a spot under the hood that the shuttler could leave the key, then lock your doors after the hood is secure.

 

[Odyssey]

This past September we left the vehicle in a busy parking lot with lots of other cars and trucks. It's a toss up whether it was safer with more people around. I tied a black hair elastic around the black key fob attaching it to the black windshield wiper blade. Even I had trouble seeing it despite knowing it was right there in front of me.
I like that rock story.

 

[Boatman53]

The tube for my trailer hitch is open all the way through. I took a cube of black foam just a bit larger than the opening of the tube, slit the foam, shoved the key into the slit and pushed the tight fitting foam into the trailer receiving hitch. It sits way in past where bar with the ball goes but it still is in the tube. If I need the key, I just need to find a stick and push it the rest of the way through and it falls to the ground. I thought about adding a loop of string so I could pull it out from the back but decided that wasn't necessary.
Hope that makes sense.
Jim

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

Jim,
Sounds like a good idea. But, now that it has been posted publicly, I'm afraid to try it ( I'm distrustful). I've been putting my key & fob, cell phone and wallet in a smallish dry box and securing it to the thwart in front of me where I can keep an eye on it (remember, I'm distrustful).

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Why couldn't one use one of those combination lock boxes that realtors hang on multiple listing front doorknobs? Don't they still have those? Seems like you could hang it from a safety chain loop on a hitch receiver or somewhere similar.

 

[lowangle al]

You may not be able to get these new electronic keys wet, so stashing outside the car is not as simple as it once was.

 

[yknpdlr]

20's model Subarus had a commonly known place to stash keys. There was a kind of dish in the spring and strut assembly. At any gathering of canoers or hikers, you could on a number of Subarus in the parking lot, many with keys hidden in the same place. Newer models do not have the same strut configuration, and there doesn't seem to be any other easy to get to protected place, so I hide mine behind the rubber cover on the trailer hitch... sshhhhh.

 

[Cruiser]

My key always stays with me, I have a little waterproof container and it just goes in the food bag, it lives there until the end of the trip. If I were going to shuttle the car (which I don't) I think just dropping the key off and picking it up makes the most sense ... for a canoe trip, the distances aren't usually that far.

Ok ... thought about that a bit, it doesn't apply for some folks here, just the mortal ones (lol).

Brian

 

[Odyssey]

I stash the spare key only. The main one stays dry with me on the trip. Used to use a magnetic key holder but the vehicles I've driven lately have plastic wheel well liners and too few places to hide it elsewhere. Plastic bumpers. Locked gas door. Locked hood. My second option was key tied under the roof rack.

 

[Canotrouge]

our 06' dodge diesel have some keys that can unlock the doors, but can't start the truck, so I have one of those magnetically fasten in the bumper(all steel) and one of the real deal hidden in the truck.

 

[Paddlinhal]

Why couldn't one use one of those combination lock boxes that realtors hang on multiple listing front doorknobs? Don't they still have those? Seems like you could hang it from a safety chain loop on a hitch receiver or somewhere similar.

Good idea! They sell them at Staples and I could lock it to the trailer hitch.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

the car won't lock with the keys in it.

Surely, there must be a way to get around this other than locking or hiding the spare smart key outside the car. How about:

1. Turn off the smart key.
2. Remove the battery or chip from the smart key.
3. Disconnect the smart key circuit under the dash or wherever it is.
4. Put the smart key inside a metal container that will shield the RF signal from reaching the receiver sensor. Perhaps wrapping it in foil would work as a shield. Put the shielded key as far away from the sensor as possible, maybe in the trunk. Experiment with this.
5. Manually lock the car by pushing down all the lock buttons, opening the driver door, and then manually locking the driver door with your hand.
6. Leave a non-electronic mechanical key inside the car. Will the car not drive with a mechanical key? How else could you get into the car and drive it if the smart key loses power from a dead battery?

 

[Chip]

I'm not looking forward to replacing my 2009 Taco. It has a metal key (At least I guess it is metal. The key goes paddling in my pant pocket and has gotten wet hundreds of times, yet somehow it doesn't rust, even though the stainless steel knife on my PFD does). There's a spare metal key in a magnetic key-hider box, which I attach to a little nook on the frame. That box has been riding in that spot for 150,000 miles, including lots of washboard dirt roads, except on the occasions I needed to borrow it out, maybe a half dozen times. But the new vehicles don't have metal keys.

My wife's 2016 Toyota only has an electronic FOB, and the car unlocks when the FOB is nearby. There is no key. Perhaps MacGrady is on the right track. Get some kind of box that will prevent radio waves from communicating FOB to auto. Then hide that somewhere on the vehicle. Or maybe there are options to turn off the automatic unlocking. The car came with three manuals, about 3.5" thick in total, and I think most of it is about the electronics in the car. Possibly, somewhere in there, it explains how to use a FOB on a canoe shuttle. Barring that, the all electronic entry system just isn't cut out for canoe shuttles.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

My wife's 2016 Toyota only has an electronic FOB, and the car unlocks when the FOB is nearby. There is no key.

This sounds nutty. How would you get in the car if the fob battery died or the car battery died? Both of which will eventually happen.

 

[Paddlinhal]

I have figured it out. I can have the shuttle driver slide the metal key out of the fob and hide that somewhere, then take the battery out of the fob and leave that locked in the car. Then I can unlock the car, get in, and reassemble the fob. BTW Glenn, with a dead battery you can hold the fob near the ignition button and it will start.

 

[latremorej]

Most of the FOBs I have seen have a metal key hidden inside which is released by a small slide button on the FOB. As for me, I take it with me in a waterproof box. I don't keep it with the food though! I would hate to have a critter run off with my car keys in the middle of the night! Mine is in the box along with camera, batteries, phone and wallet.

on some models that don't allow you to lock the key in the car, it will ring a bell when you press the lock button.... a second press of the button will usually lock the doors.

some of the keys a few years ago (chevy/ford) had metal keys with a chip implanted in the plastic top half... if you had a plain metal key cut at the hardware store it would not turn on the ignition... the work around was to tape the broken key (the plastic chipped piece) to the column under the plastic cover. This could also be helpful for shuttle drivers.... give them the $5 copy and hide the real one inside the steering column, if it's lost... you're only out the 5 bucks.

I'm assuming that this is the same type of chip that is in the new Key Fob, which is why the car will still start while you hold your dead FOB up to the start button. The metal key hidden in the FOB will only unlock the door... on my Chrysler anyways
Jason