Have you ever had a vehicle stolen? How about a kayak? Have you ever wanted to know where your car is, especially when your teenager borrowed it? How nice would it be to go to the location where your items are with the police in tow?

At a recent outdoors show I found just such a device. Secure Outdoors (secure-outdoors.com) makes a couple of different devices that can track an asset. Unlike previous devices, this one doesn’t have to be tied to the item. If you want to track your truck and make sure it doesn’t get stolen you can do that. Let’s say you buy a new Pro Angler and want to make sure it doesn’t leave your tailgate at a WalMart. Simply move the device from the truck to the PA and you’ll know if it moves.

Derk Arnold of Secure Outdoors was intrigued when I mentioned tracking kayaks at the show and wanted me to try it out. With the MT300, I have made several trips, several stops and even left it parked for a few days to test battery life.

So what is the verdict?

The MT300 is amazing! Let’s start as we always do with the good.

THE GOOD

The MT300 device is extremely sensitive. If you move it from your right pocket to your left pocket, it will send you an alert. Alerts are available via email and SMS Text to your phone. I can set a geo-fence that I would only get an alert if the device went outside a certain area. I love the sensitivity but 120 texts about movement get old after a while so set that fence. ( I did say I was testing it). It sends an alert when motion starts and also when it stops. In a car, that could be a lot of messages.

Another cool feature is mapping. You can see every time motion starts and stops on a map available in the intuitive software interface on the web.

The MT300 is small and compact and can run up to two weeks on a single charge. You can buy a weatherproof box for it with a larger power source and get up to eight months of life on a single charge.

Smaller than a 6XD crankbait, this device will fit just about anywhere. Couple that with the powerful magnets and it will stay just about anywhere that has metal.


THE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

Whether tracking cars, kayaks or ATVs, I think we would agree that this is a pretty cool device and service. The first stumbling block for some is the price. Mobility and technology don’t come cheap. The MT300 is $450. That covers the first two years and of course the equipment. It has no monthly charges. $450 might be a struggle if you only think of it as protecting your $300 kayak but looking at versatility in tracking different items, it might be a little easier.

Secure Outdoors knows the price may not be approachable for all and are working on the MT200 model which is only $250 and allows you to hard wire it into a power source for single asset tracking or add the right connectors and you can move it back and forth to multiple devices with power.


FINAL THOUGHTS

I appreciate the opportunity to test this out and think some of you could find the value in this system. A comparable though not equal company sells devices that offer tracking but range from $500-1,000. They also are not portable in most cases. When you compare apples to apples, the Secure Outdoors MT300 is definitely winning the race.