I'm pretty sure someone was trying to steal my catalytic converters

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jack67

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Converters.jpgI'm pretty sure someone was trying to steal my catalytic converters off my Ram while we were fishing out on Takhlakh Lake under Mt Adams last week. . I think we came in early and they took off. Because, that afternoon, while I was driving down the mountain to Trout Lake 23 miles away to gas up, go to the general grocery store, hardware store and favorite burger joint, and as we were heading down about a mile or so, we heard this grinding noise under the Ram by the bed. So, I pulled over to take a look and saw both tailpipes with catalytic converters loose and one was rubbing on the driveline. Just the L shape hinge was keeping it from completely falling off. The roads are very rough up there, 8 miles of gravel washboard, potholes, so at first I thought it's what caused it... BUT started thinking what are the odds of both coming off at the same time? What do you folks think?

This is the remote lake I'm talking about, last six miles of rough gravel washboard road with potholes to get there, then no water, electricity, no motorboats allowed. This was from one of our best 8 trips up there, before I got the Ram:
https://moskovita-photography.com/MtAdams-TakhlakhLake-2017.htm
 
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Daw14

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I thought most were cut off using sawzalls. At least the footage on my local tv news shows . a holes hit several businesses nearby ,showed them with reciprocating saw then jumped into a Mercedes’ for the getaway. S cumbags . Love the censorship, even though I know it's an automated function.
 

chopperman1

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Cat's are all the way up front, no one would unbolt everything especially the rear exhaust to get to them, they'd just cut them. Possible someone was trying to steal your whole exhaust or simply that the muffler clamps were not tight and vibrated loose.
 

NJMOPAR

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Two ways I can think of to stop them:
Bag your truck so you can lay it on the ground.
Weld 1/4" steel plate to frame so it's covering the cats.
 
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jack67

jack67

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Cat's are all the way up front, no one would unbolt everything especially the rear exhaust to get to them, they'd just cut them. Possible someone was trying to steal your whole exhaust or simply that the muffler clamps were not tight and vibrated loose.
Well, it's a very rough 8 mile stretch on gravel washboard with lot's of potholes road, so that's possible and what I thought at the time. But after thinking about it when I got home, thought it strange that both sides would come loose at the same time. So I guess I'll never know. It was perfect for thieves as they could watch for me on the lake and get away before I came too close. This is a remote lake with no cell service, nor water and electricity.

As for the catalytic converter, I thought it was between the muffler and exit? This pic shows what mine is as you couldn't see them very well in the pic I posted. Or are those resonators? This ad says catalytic converter.

PipeConverterMuffler.jpg
 

Dixie

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Pity you cannot remove "cats" without setting codes.
 

Wild one

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Pity you cannot remove "cats" without setting codes.
Google anti-fouler trick. I ran no cats on the wifes untuned 2019 Challenger for 10,000 miles with no codes,before i finally had it tuned.
 

EdGs

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Looks like your cats may have been the only thing still connected.

Any signs of cutting on any of the parts of the exhaust system? If a sawzall was used, you'd know it.
 
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jack67

jack67

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Looks like your cats may have been the only thing still connected.

Any signs of cutting on any of the parts of the exhaust system? If a sawzall was used, you'd know it.
Didn't see cuts. Looks like it either was broke off on it's own or yanked off.
Still seems strange that both sides "broke" at the same time, don't you think?
 

KeithP

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Didn't see cuts. Looks like it either was broke off on it's own or yanked off.
Still seems strange that both sides "broke" at the same time, don't you think?
I work for U-Haul. System wide, we have hundreds of CATS stolen daily. The overwhelming majority are cut off. Although, I have seen some that had the exhaust disassembled with the unwanted parts neatly set aside. ‍‍
 

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You were in the forest where noise would resonate. Taking the exhaust parts off properly is mostly silent. Also, if someone drove up, they could wave and smile, and pretend they were looking at something.

IMO, they were stealing it, but were thwarted by your presence or something else. No way both loosed at the same time - way too random. I'm not saying it's not possible that they came loose...just highly unlikely. It's more likely someone loosened them to steal. Moreover, maybe they needed your exhaust and not your cats. Most country boys understand hunting and the power of stealth. They wouldn't be grinding off parts in the woods to draw attention.

Around here, they will steal your headlights (LED), tailgate, spare tire, exhaust, cats, your entire vehicle, and even your life. About those headlights, they're using crow bars to open the fenders and hood - it's brutal. You can also use a window breaker and pull the whole window out with tint. Crawl through the window and most alarms won't activate. Craigslist is so inundated with parts our police/sheriff can't keep up. We have gangs of car thieves in the ATL and metro. Vehicles are easy targets, and most don't look when they hear a car alarm, these days.
 
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