I bought a cheap little trailer to haul my four wheeler but I'm wanting a good way(s) to secure it because trailer theft around here is totally out of control!
My carpenter buddy just had his trailer and tools (about $10K) stolen last month and it was parked only two blocks from the police station. I was thinking of some kind of receptacle lock plus a wheel lock plus something else so at least three ways to lock it. Bolt cutters and sledge hammers are the theft tool of choice and I know if they have enough time, anything can be stolen I just want to make it is difficult as possible so they choose someone else's trailer.

Bolt a Port o Potty to the bed

Seriously, receptacle locks are the hardest to defeat quickly. But the fact that it's a cheap trailer might be your best defense. (unless they plan to use it, there isn't much "profit" in stealing a cheap trailer.

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Minimize the variables

Sorry to say, locks don't keep theives out, they just keep honest prople honest. In a locked building would be my guess, maybe with a vehicle parked in front-- it can still happen however---

I like a hitch lock with the safety chains tightly crossed over the hitch lock and tongue and securely pad locked. That makes it even harder to get to the hitch lock and stops some one from simply crossing the chains a couple times and towing the trailer away by the chains only.

I also like to run a heavy chain through the wheel and around the frame and padlock, you can x2 if you want more protection.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

If someone wants your trailer they'll get it when your not looking. Even if you take the wheels off it they'll use a flat bed to take it. If you put a tongue lock on it they'll get it anyway. Your best bet is to not leave it alone. Don't ask me how I know this. Surveillance is key. Locked up in a garage with cameras that you can monitor with a cell phone is most likely your best bet. Criminals are great actors and can fool almost anyone that's how they get things. Usually a friend of a friend is the culprit.

Someone needed their yard cleaned up so they hire a few people to clean up. They came back when that someone was at work. Later they we're caught at the junk yard with 400lbs of that someone's scrap lead. They were not instructed to clean up that stuff and it wasn't in a spot they were supposed to be in. Thankfully the scrap yards check everyone by getting them on video, their ID, they even fingerprint you at this one. Luckily the police were notified in time and the scrap yard was alerted.

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YouJustCantSeeMeLaughingIsAll

Utility trailer theft is also a big problem in my area, especially if they are stored out of sight of the house. Master lock makes a hitch lock that is very very good, but as an additional safety measure, I remove all the lug nuts from the wheels. They won't waste the effort with those two obstacles.

No problem.. tie this to the trailer!

If anyone wants my old travel trailer, I'll PM you my address.....seriously!

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Even older, even crankier....

Leave a detailed note with the address of one on the next road over that's nicer than yours. Good luck.

The greatest guard dog in the world is no match for pepper spray especially bear spray.If a dogs sense of smell is 400+[?] times as acute as a humans think what that spray will do to your best 4 legged friend.I wouldn't want my dog to have that happen to him/her. Nick

Pretty hard to "prevent" the theft. If someone want's it bad enough they'll get it. About all you can do is try and make it more trouble than it's worth. Another thing to try is to make the tongue removable along with chaining the rear wheel(s) to the frame.

Any spot for a game cam where it is parked? Taking the lug nuts off one side sounds good.

You could use reverse psychology and post large signs on it saying >>> "Please Steal This". This will have them looking all over the place before they finally leave, LOL. Oh yeah, if they're illiterate it won't work.

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YouJustCantSeeMeLaughingIsAll

If you've got a quad, can you put a trailer ball on it and tow the trailer to a part of your property that can't be accessed by a bigger motor vehicle?
I've had a box trailer broken into and lost $1000 in tools and $500 in damage. My brother launched his 19-footer near Boston and went fishing. When he got back to the ramp his trailer was gone. He managed to arrange temporary dock space at a nearby marina and walked back to his truck. He had to buy a new trailer the next day and fetch his boat. Never found the stolen one. I hate trailer thieves.

Mobile homes are anchored to the ground by attaching the home to large eye-bolts that auger several feet into the ground. Get a couple of those installed where you intend to park your trailer and secure the trailer to the eye-bolts.

I have such an eye-bolt in the ground at our home in the mountains. We also have motion sensor outside lights.

Don't use an electrical deterrence. I had a device hooked up to mine that would convey a shock... but I kept finding small animals around it where the trailer would arc off on 'em... just smoke 'em, literally. Got tired of cleanin' 'em up. Tried to think of a method of using dynamite... but couldn't figger out how not to blow up my trailer in the process. Finally said to hell with it.

Wheels off-set on blocks-heavy cable from axle to house trailer tie down under trailer-loud alarm that activates when trailer is rocked, even a little bit. Use trailer for dog house for 200# Rottweiler.

If you're lucky, and things happen to the thief as it happens to you, the tires will go flat, the brakes will lock up, the springs will corrode through and break or the bearings will be dry and lock up welding themselves to the axle.
Other than that, insure it.

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“Look life in its iron face”

Absolutely terrible advice!!!! I copied your picture, blew up the size, and tied it to my trailer. Trailer GONE!! Bet the dog is riding in it with the wind blowing in his face.

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

Same thing happened to a friend of mine. Public Marina with lots of folks in and out all the time. Never did find it.

I always chain locked the wheels. Don't know if it actually was a factor, but never lost my trailer.
It's kind of obvious if someone is using bolt cutters on the chain. Although, that only takes a couple of seconds.

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“Look life in its iron face”

But landmines sure do

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it just needs more voltage

We see a lot of trailers get stolen right after a hail storm. The Gypsies that follow the storms doing roof work use the stolen trailers to haul off the old shingles, and usually leave the loaded trailer on the side of the road - sometimes with broken axles.

I would put his dog house on the trailer. I would not tie him up.
I would feed him on the trailer. I would put the trailer by my bedroom window. When he growled at something in the night I would go out with my shotgun and feed him some hamburger meat and tell him he is a good boy. After a few weeks the trailer is HIS trailer.

My... what big teeth ya got there, Grandma.

I don't have a dog like the one in the picture. My dog would just wag her tail at them!
I keep my trailer in the basement.. I spent too much time building it to let a low-life steal it!



... Besides, I have a guard cat.. Tinker!

Smartest thing you did was get a cheap trailer. Sometimes the BG won't mess with the cheap one's unless you leave your four wheeler on it. Besides if they do get your trailer it was a cheap one.

Now to keep it from getting stolen you have two options.
1) take it apart and put in in your bedroom.
2) get rid of it and get a pick'em up truck your four wheeler will fit in.

If they want it the will get it.

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Psalm 23:4

It is just too bad they don't make a GPS beeper that gives out the location...................

Talk about a Sting !!


Hello !!

Wear the grass down to dirt.
Put a big doghouse next to trailer
Bolt a tow truck chain to doghouse with a spiked collar on it.
Sprinkle red paint about.
throw a big beef bone on the ground.

Sit back and enjoy the show.

But they do! Google... "remote gps tracking devices".

I built my 'usen' flatbed utility trailer with a removable tongue. I also have a 1" dia schedule 80 pipe that has a base welded on one end and an endcap on the other end secured by a massive padlock. This pipe runs thru the wheel spokes from one side to the other. If I feel the need I can run very high tensile strength braided steel cables thru each wheel with good padlocks. These wire rope cables for all practical purposes can only be cut with a cutting torch. Since I built that trailer I moved to new place with enough land behind a good 6' concrete block wall to park the utility trailer, MC trailer and a travel trailer. I duplicated the first wheel to wheel locking pipe system on my recently acquired enclosed motorcycle trailer. But with the portable battery run impact wrenches now available, I intend to just remove the two wheels and lock them inside the trailer.

A couple of years ago I took the enclosed MC trailer with a HD Road Glide to Miles City, MT to do a little riding and a little P.Dog hunting. I locked the trailer to my pickup using those two short high tensile strength wire rope chokers and massive padlocks. One morning I came out and found the trailer had been removed from the ball hitch and was just hanging there by the two cables. It was obvious that someone tried to hacksaw one cable thru and had worked until just giving up. You just got to make it more difficult to steal your trailer than they are willing to make the effort. .......... Big Cholla

Just paint this across the trailer bed. This is assuming that crooks can read.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1411699360.736641.jpg

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It's Alive !!

Lowjack makes a battery operated device the size of a pack of cigs with calmed 15 year life.

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Dennis
SWCA #2409, SWHF #353

http://gpsandtrack.com. Attach a gps tracking system to trailer.

Take a wheel off, put some kind of wheel lock device around the other wheel, padlock through the latch and put a sign on it. The sign should have some small letters so that you have to get close to read it. The sign should say " If you can read this, smile your picture has been taken."

How do you get it up and down the stairs?

Many years ago my dad had a large eye bolt cemented into a new garage floor and then passed a heavy chain through that to a large padlock to secure a motorcycle. Of course any would-be thief would have had to get into the detached garage first - then move cars out of the way before they could even attempt to get the motorcycle.

run a bead of weld with your initials and last four of your social.. might not stop 'em but it'll help in id'ing it later.

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UNDER THE CONE OF SILENCE

I can't believe anybody would ever have a thought like that. You need to be watched 24/7 Larry

Tinker helps me!!!!!

I had a broad day attempt to steal my 5'x10' utility trailer..Happened a month or so ago..A steel cable with a padlock thru the wheel and deck saved mine..
I have since added a very large chain to the other wheel, securing it similar..
Plus the sheer weight of the trailer and it's location, made it pretty hard for the aholes to get away with it..
Given time, the trailer would have went down the road..

Its been mentioned but if they want it they will take it one way or the other. I have to agree that if you value it you have to hide it and even that works only so well. The hitch locks will only keep the honest people honest, don't forget the hitch pin lock as well and then looping the chain and lock that. They will then pick it up by the tongue and haul it away on foot and roll it up onto another trailer. A buddy of mine had his boat stolen out of his carport while he was sleeping, they did it manually, rolled it down the street where they somehow hooked it up to a truck and hauled it a mile or so away, cut the cables and stole the 150hp outboard motor, rolled the boat down a ravine, totally it. You can lock the wheels with bike locking cable but again if they want it bad enough they come prepared. They found out years ago the easy way to get past those Kryptonite U-shaped bike locks was by taking a small can of Freon and freezing the lock in one spot, then hitting it sharply with a hammer, shattering the lock. A friend of mine rode her $1500 mountain bike downtown and locked it to a city street sign, she came back in four hours to find the street sign cut with a pipe cutter and her bike gone...gone...gone. The only thing I agree with the Arabs about is dealing with thieves...they cut off his right hand, everybody eats out of a communal bowl....everybody eats with their right hand, the other hand is the one you use to clean yourself with. Noone eats with a one handed man in that part of the world.

I did a similar thing except I went to a hardware store riding my expensive (and well worth it) mountain bike to buy a lock so I could lock it up at the diner and eat in peace. So I leaned the bike up against the front wall at the front door near all the shovels they had lined up for show. Yes the shovels were outside. I walked in and found the lock and chain. I didn't want to spend a lot of money 'cause I wasn't planning on leaving the bike out of my sight I just wanted something that would prevent someone from quickly snatching it while I ate.

I then went to the cashier who happened to be the owner, handed him the money and said you better hurry up before someone steals my bike. He responded by acting quickly so I said I was only kidding take your time. He started to hand me the change when I looked out front only to see someone trying to jam my bike into a van's side door. I ran to the door and in quick motion went to grab a big horse **** shovel when he just dropped it, got in the van and took off. The police station was directly across the street. I went back in to get my change and said to the owner shaking my head, "did you see that?" and laughed. The hardware store owner was in awe. I almost lost my bike 'cause I took my eyes off it for a few seconds or minutes. Good thing I'm paying attention.

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YouJustCantSeeMeLaughingIsAll

It takes about30-60 seconds to cut a BIG chain with an 18 volt side grinder...It'll make some noise, but it's quick.... Just hide the trailer or put it in a secure bldg.
JIM.....................

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SWCA # L-1911

I thought you were talkin bout a trailer house---I been hopin soumbody would steal mine.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

I've got a double-axle boat trailer in my driveway right now. It belongs to a buddy. It's here for some metal work/weld repairs. I'm going to put a heavy chain through a couple of the wheels and pad-lock it. If somebody wants it, they'll have to do some work to get it.

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'Merica!

I like the heavy post concreted deep in the ground with a VERY large chain that would be tough for bolt cutters.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Friend of mine has a similar sign.....

MORTUARY SUPPLIES

I had a unfortunate incident last year with my utility trailer. I got up in the morning and hitched my trailer to my truck and headed to the local landscape place. I stopped at Walmart on the way. I got a load of mulch and on my way home, the trailer disconnected from my truck. I quickly slowed down and the trailer crashed into the back of my truck. When I looked at it - the pin had been removed (not locking) and the chains had been unhooked and wrapped around the tongue. I called the police (because I could not re-insert the drawbar into the receiver with the weight in the trailer) When the cops arrived they immediately deduced why someone tampered with my trailer - my Trump hat sitting on my dash. I can't say for sure - but the cops seemed pretty sure about it. They said several yards were vandalized who had Trump yard signs. They could have killed someone if my trailer had disconnected on the highway.

Make the other guys look more appealing. Removing/flattening the wheels/ tires would sure make it less appealing. The same strategy goes for home defense, make the other guys house look like an easier target.