Key Fob Follies

[Bob502000]

I think someone else may have raised this question - the size may have something to do with range? The antenna in the fob?

Yesterday, out of curiosity, I tried it just as I came out of Costco; I had line of sight to my JT. The locks opened, so I paced the distance: 150 feet. The smallish fob I had on my old Dakota would work at maybe 20 feet.

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[Bob502000]

Just for the record; its clear to me that the competition views these forums and stirs up trouble any way they can. There's a lot of money and to much competition in car sales and underhanded crap is the name of the game. This key fob works great with the key less entry. Grinding off half the button fixes the key from popping out. I tested it the other day and you have to be standing next to the door to unlock it key less. Nice leaving the engine running on a hot AZ day. Just put it in your pocket and never touch it again. What more do you want?

 

[jimbom]

Just put it in your pocket and never touch it again. What more do you want?

Bigger pockets.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Bigger pockets.

HAHA - love this place. Creative people ;-)

 

[Bob502000]

Bigger pockets.

Bought some pants the other day, camo. Man, there must be ten pockets on these pants and the pockets are huge. I can carry everything and the kitchen sink in these pants, oh and the key fob to.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Bought some pants the other day, camo. Man, there must be ten pockets on these pants and the pockets are huge. I can carry everything and the kitchen sink in these pants, oh and the key fob to.

I was afraid you'd have to take the kitchen sink out to make room for the fob. Glad it worked out. HAHA

 

[SwampNut]

Can't do that with other systems.

Being that I do this all the time, I can say that's not true, at least at any institution we have. The way I've handled all extra principle payments is to allow the auto-pay to cover the minimum, so there can never be a late charge or forgetting a payment. Then as I have time to do accounting and budgeting I just enter the extra payment. Every loan we have; RV, Jeep, home, consolidation loan all do this easily. I always shoot for payoff in half time except the mortgage.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Being that I do this all the time, I can say that's not true, at least at any institution we have. The way I've handled all extra principle payments is to allow the auto-pay to cover the minimum, so there can never be a late charge or forgetting a payment. Then as I have time to do accounting and budgeting I just enter the extra payment. Every loan we have; RV, Jeep, home, consolidation loan all do this easily. I always shoot for payoff in half time except the mortgage.

USBank makes it difficult - it's not been bad recently, but more than once we tried to do extra principal and they applied it to the next month payment and sent a thing saying we didn't owe anything next month. BS. This happened more than once. They must have made some changes as we've not had any problems so far THIS year.
We really prefer the automate, set and forget method. We get an email when the payment was made and with a couple of places we get emails saying "payment of xxx will be made on xx/xx/xxxx" and then later, a confirmation.
My wife says - we're always going to pay every bill that comes due, why not have direct payments.
She's right -she freaks if she thinks something didn't get paid for!

 

[SwampNut]

Wow, that is so shitty. All of our providers either just auto-apply excess to principal, or they ask during the extra payment how to apply it.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Wow, that is so shitty. All of our providers either just auto-apply excess to principal, or they ask during the extra payment how to apply it.

Like I say, perhaps they have changed by now, haven't had an issue lately.
But we're so close to my wife pulling the trigger and just paying it off, sick of "house payments" (or payments of any sort) we've decided to let it all ride for now and maybe by year's end, ask for the payoff and be done with it. She was SO excited when it got under 20.

Oh, key fob - what was the original question again??
I compared mine to my wife's key fob - mine isn't much larger - mostly larger because of the flip key - and I realized the key in her case is INSIDE the fob. You push a button and pull the key clear out as a separate key - independent of the fob. So it sits in the middle of the fob.
If you removed the whole key portion of the JT fob, it would be the same size as hers!
So the FOB is the same size, the difference is the key on the JT flips out, so they had to add size to the side for that. The fob my wife has for hers has remained that size since about 2010 or so - and is comparable to a MERCEDES fob. Yes, a friend of mine is a Mercedes tech in Germantown by DC. He drives a Mercedes. We compared key fobs when Jeep was still part of that family and they were IDENTICAL except his has CHROME TRIM. SIZE, buttons, thickness, all - identical Jeep to Mercedes car.

 

[SwampNut]

Our BMW key is inside the fob. We never use the key, so that's fine. I use the Jeep key for the trailer lock, a cable lock for the generator, and several other things. I bought all the BOLT locks that use the OEM key. So flip is way nicer.

We had a VW with a flip key, can't recall how big the fob was.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I use the Jeep key for the trailer lock,

Now I'm curious......

 

[SwampNut]

Look up BOLT locks. They make a lot of different locks that key to your OEM key. I have a padlock for various uses like the generator, bike rack lock, trailer tongue lock, and receiver pin lock. I had a wheel lock on the JK too.

 

[Jt-wrx]

speaking of keys, those are points to consider, you have various hitch mounted accessories, perhaps a trailer, perhaps a gun room, perhaps a parents house

key's aren't going anywhere, sucks there is a small percentage of population with an injury or handi-cap that make working a key inconvenient, and so it's good Jeep provides the buttons and proximity stuff for those very few people to be convenienced...

but they are forcing all the rest of the jeep owners who choose sports and basic models to deal with tech they didn't want, doesn't suit the model spec line, and forces them to endure a huge and inconvenient fob for nothing...two to three very short range functions at best

it's really dumb, highly personal as this is highly handled item every day, so, keeping the eyes peeled for the aftermarket willing to provide a kick arse solution ie; rfid delete with key ignition kit etc., simple lock unlock, tiny fob and a proper place to hang the keys in the dash and start/stop it from, for all the sport buyers(or any other annoyed overland/rubicon buyers as well)...fingers crossed...my visa is waiting

lots of traffic on the topic which is great, doubtful jeep/fca will listen but the aftermarket might?

 

[DreamedofaJeepSomeday]

Look up BOLT locks. They make a lot of different locks that key to your OEM key. I have a padlock for various uses like the generator, bike rack lock, trailer tongue lock, and receiver pin lock. I had a wheel lock on the JK too.

Yes, I really like that system. I have ordered a hood lock; probably will get some of the others.

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