One of the most common questions every camper or off-roader asks is ‘how to keep my trailer from being stolen?’
I’m sure you have the same question in your mind; otherwise, you wouldn’t have landed on this page.
I understand the pain of securing a trailer from being stolen. In fact, sometimes I feel like it’s not possible to secure a trailer completely. The thieves are smarter than the hitch lock manufacturers and us.
With that said, I’m not going to sit on the fence here.
Here I’m Going to Discuss 5 Most Effective Ways of Keeping Your Trailer from Being Stolen.
So, without any further delay, let’s secure our trailer. Shall we?
5 Ways of Keeping Your Trailer from Being Stolen
1. Using a Secured Trailer Hitch Lock / Coupler Lock
Not all trailer hitch locks will secure your trailer.
Using a secured trailer hitch lock is crucial here. Remember, all locks are not adequately secured. A thief can break some locks within 10 seconds; for some locks, it takes around 5 minutes to 8 minutes, and some locks are not easy to break at all.
The two dependable locks that I suggest are – MegaHitch lock coupler vault pro, and Proven Industries lock
Let me tell you why.
The MegaHitch lock coupler vault pro is a kind of lock that a thief won’t be able to dislodge effortlessly. It will take a lot of time. In fact, I doubt if any thief will be able to break it at all. Moreover, it will make too much noise for whatever tool the thief might use to dislodge the lock. Altogether, you will have ample time to catch the thief in the process.
The Proven Industries lock is not as secure as the MegaHitch lock. Nonetheless, it’s more reliable than other standard hitch locks. It’s because this lock covers the entire coupler, and it also covers the chain.
Covering the chain with the hitch lock is essential. Otherwise, a thief can easily take your trailer without hooking up to the hitch.
Besides these two coupler locks, you can take a look at these trailer hitch locks reviews from this link.
Pro Tip: Don’t use a bolt-on system to attach the coupler with the trailer frame. Better weld the coupler with the trailer frame. Otherwise, a thief can effortlessly unbolt the coupler and use their coupler to steal the trailer with ease.
2. Take off a Wheel or Use a Wheel Lock
Taking off one or two wheels and keeping it inside the trailer might be the right solution unless the thief brings his wheel. If you do this and the thief doesn’t bring his own wheel, he can’t tow the trailer anymore.
If you don’t want to take off the wheel, alternatively, you can use a wheel lock.
You can either use the Homdex wheel lock or the Winner International Club tire claw. Both of them are excellent and heavy-duty options.
Should you use the wheel clamp in the front of the trailer or the back?
I prefer using it for the back wheel. Sometimes I feel like I don’t need to tell the thieves that I have got protection. Better, I let him invest his time to fail finally.
Pro tip: Using lug nuts along with the wheel lock will secure the wheel even further because it will restrict the thief from removing the rim.
3. Use a Trailer Tracker
Well, this is not a theft preventing solution. But an easy solution to find the trailer if someone steals your trailer.
Setting up a digital fence, in this case, will send you an alert if the trailer crosses the digital fence. Furthermore, a GPS trailer tracker will help police to find out the missing trailer quite effortlessly.
A GPS tracker like Spark Nano 7 4G LTE or Trak-4 GPS Tracker should do the work for you.
Most of the excellent GPS trackers feature a long battery life, and you can track the location on your smartphone, desktop/laptop computer, or tablet.
4. Park the Trailer at a Proper Place
This is vital.
Don’t park or keep the trailer in an open place. It will make it easier for the thief to steal the trailer.
Make their life harder by parking the trailer in a secure place or locked place where the thief won’t get easy access.
Out of sight, out of mind. So, better, don’t let the thief see where the trailer is.
You can use a commercial trailer storage service like Hilltop Commercial Storage. With that said, service like this is costly.
5. Discourage the Thief in Different Ways
Here the idea is to let the thief think thrice before he attempts to steal the trailer.
First of all, mark the trailer distinctly and in a way so that the police can identify the trailer quite easily.
You can weld any distinct number or something that you can remember and recall easily if the trailer gets stolen.
I don’t recommend writing your name on the trailer. Letting know your name or family name to the thief helps him to find a lot of your information if he searches online against your license plate. He will eventually blackmail you in many ways.
All these will deter the thief from stealing your trailer as he knows he is about to get caught up by the police sooner or later.
Another way you can make the trailer easily findable is to paint the top of the trailer and put a number. This will help to identify the trailer from the air.
If you use a flashy hitch lock or coupler lock, then this might discourage the thief too.
Closing Remarks
‘How to keep my trailer from being stolen’ – is it still a question to you? I believe, no.
If you follow the above 5 easy but effective ways to make the thief’s life hard to steal, then you should be able to protect the trailer.
Even if the trailer is stolen, you have some ways to find it out with ease. I mentioned those ways too.
In short, the whole idea is to deter the thief and make his life as hard as possible.
You can use both receiver lock and coupler lock together for better security. If you use a hitch pin lock along with the receiver lock and coupler lock, then it’s even better. However, these will just discourage the opportunistic thieves but not serious thieves. For staying safe from serious thieves, use the locks that I discussed above (point number 1).
Do you know any other ways to keep the trailer from being stolen? Comment below to let me know.