locking down trailers

[Babberney]

My chipper arrives tomorrow and I realized I need a way to secure it when I'm not around. What do you do to lock up? I'm looking at "boot" style locks. http://www.immobilize.com/shopping.html looks nice, but expensive. http://www.trailerlock.com/testimonials.html is cheaper, but I would not want to save $50 bux to have it defeated and lose a $17.5K chipper.

Ideas?

TIA,
Keith

 

[Kevin]

Can you beat that with a spare and a wheel wrench?

 

[Colin]

Looks like a good idea, Keith. I'd combine it with a tongue lock and sleep soundly.

Kevin- practically every theft deterrent system can be bypassed. The key is to make it more inconvenient than the other guy's down the street. Thieves will go for the easiest target. But your disapproval is noted.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Kieth,

All locks have an Achilles heal, the tumbler. Trying to find a way to shield the lock mechanism is mandatory.

The locks that you linked look good and could be fabricated quite easily by a weldor. Got to a locksmith and see what they might have in secure pin locks like they use with reciever hitches.

Something that I thought of for a trailer is to make a hitch that removes along the line of the 2" reciever hitches. But the reciever on the trailer would be made with some unique shape or dimension. That way you pull off the hitch, leaving only a tube with a unique shape.

How much does Inland Marine insurance cost?

A fellow that worked for me had a nice trailer that he added a little protection on by wiring the turn signals wrong. Hitting a turn signal on the towing vehicle made the clearance lights blink and the tail lights turn off if I remember right. If a cop saw that there is a chance that they would be stopped.

Tom

 

[NickfromWI]

So then did he have to put on the right signal to turn left, and hit the brakes to turn right!

love
nick

 

[Babberney]

They say it can't. One model covers a lug nut so it can't easily be removed, and another covers a lug and also the center hub.

K

 

[Colin]

One of the guys I climb for parks his chipper at his church. He has more problems with teen vandalism than worrying about anybody stealing it. Fuel and hydraulic caps disappear, wires get yanked, etc. He has a locking fuel cap now but you can't get a locking cap for the hydraulic or motor oil.

 

[hl_tree]

The locking fuel caps are nice. One way to keep theft down hopefully would be by backing the chipper up into some form of tunnel, and leave some form of vehicle or other dead weight in front of it so that it cannot be pulled off to the side, and in order to move it forward, the piece in front would have to be moved as well, which would take more time. Another idea would be to put the thing down in a hole. It would be a real PITA to put in and take out, but unless you have some form of specialized equipment... you aren't going to be getting it out of there anytime soon.

Long story short, if the thieves want it, they will find a way to get it.

 

[John_Paul_Sanborn]

A metal fab place around here makes a tougn lock for pintal hitches that imbeds the whole lock similar to the high end job boxes.

The assembly covers the entire pintal ring.