Trailer Security

[TroutBum]

Seeing a link for a wheel lock made me think.  

How much trouble is there with theft/break ins, etc?


I am still relatively new to PUP's and camping in more public places.  I haven't campground camped much since my Scouting days.  I figure to be leaving my PUP unattended while fishing for long periods of time.  I am not really worried about someone breaking camp and running off with my trailer.  I lock the hitch and lock the door and leave it at that.  

Obviously I am not going to leave $1000's of dollars in flyfishing gear laying visible on a bunk, or anything irreplaceable.  But there are $40 Battery powered lanterns, $50 Coleman Stove, Lodge Dutch-oven, this stuff adds up.

I figured that the stuff like that would be easy to put in a locking footlocker.  Sure, you could slash the fabric, or dissasemble the locked door to get it out of the PUP but that takes a bit of effort. Likewise, you can cut a padlock with a pair of stout bolt cutters, but what honest person brings something like that camping?

Does this sound like a plan?  Or can you just leave the lantern on the table and the door locked and get away with it?


Random Background Biographical Info for those who want to listen to the rambling, philosophical reasoning I am using:  (Warning---random musings read on at your own risk!!

All of the camping I have done over the last dozen or so years has been expedition-based camping or backcountry camping in a tent.  If a bunch of guys in a motor boat show up on your island in the Amazon or guys in a truck show up along the Kenya/Ethiopia border with guns and want to kidnap you, you just have to go along.    

Backcountry tent camping near Penns's Creek (near State College, PA) in the Bald Eagle SF, I just had to trust that my backpacking stove would be there when I got back to camp. You would have to be pretty lost to even find the little 1/8 acre clearing about 200 yards back at a 45 degree angle from one certain boulder on the far side of the river where I camp.  It takes me about 20 minutes to find it for the first time each year when I go there.

Likewise, I drove a Jeep Wrangler for the better part of the last decade.  It was a soft top.  I had a locking glove box and a  small bolt-in trunk that I could lock thatwould hold my CD's and a little fishing gear. But nothing that is going to stop a determined theif.  They could still get the stereo eaisily.

My typical thinking is that you should do just enough to keep the honest people honest (i.e. don't leave a cd player on your car seat with the windows rolled down), and to just trust that the really bad people just know that God is watching when no-one else is.  Worrying is not going to make bad things not happen.  Besides, don't we go camping to leave worries behind?

My 2c.  Congrats to anyone who even made it this far into my ramblings.  Actually I would love to hear Wave's comments on this.  I am sure you have had to moor a boat in less than desirable places at some time or another.

6 days until I can fish again (post-back surgery) and 9 days until our first PUP trip of the year (Napa Valley for the better part of a week!)

Chalk this screed up to an extreme case of cabin fever (or was it the back-pain pills?) that is growing exponentially with mercury height.

[Kay in NC]

we have been pop up camping for about 7 years and never have had a problem with things not being there when we get back.  Now if we leave for the day, we will put things up and out of site, but if we go off for a walk, things are left out and no one has ever bothered them.  All in all, most campers don't bother with others things.  But you never know, there are always some bad apples in the pile, but so far we have yet to run into any.

[wynot]

Well, you summarized it pretty well.  If you really worry about it, either take it with you or hide it well (and takes your chances).
 
We have been pleasantly surprized about the lack of theft, etc. at campgrounds.

[jonathan]

I have never had a problem with people... just raccoons!

Don't leave it in plain sight and you will probably be alright.

[tlhdoc]

The only thing that we ever had missing from our campsite was a bungy cord.  I found the cord walking back to our site and thought "that looks just like our bungy cord".  It ended up being ours and I had to walk back to get it.  I am guessing that some kids were playing and picked it up then left it.  Even locking the camper door is debatable to me.  I would rather someone walk in then damage the tenting getting in.  Also if the door is locked (my stepper door folds up to lock) anyone walking by can tell it is locked.  If I leave the stepper door down, they may wonder if someone is in camp.

[tackhammer]

The only thing that we ever had missing from our campsite was a bungy cord.  I found the cord walking back to our site and thought "that looks just like our bungy cord".  It ended up being ours and I had to walk back to get it.  I am guessing that some kids were playing and picked it up then left it.  Even locking the camper door is debatable to me.  I would rather someone walk in then damage the tenting getting in.  Also if the door is locked (my stepper door folds up to lock) anyone walking by can tell it is locked.  If I leave the stepper door down, they may wonder if someone is in camp.

I have found through the years of popup camping that everyone around you sort of watches out for your stuff.  We lock the camper door but thats to keep the dog in everything else we leave out.  Also I installed a Brinks security box under the cabnet to keep valubles in.

[PLJ]

Theft has never been an issue for us either. We have bikes we leave behind at the site when going for walks etc and they are always there when we get back.

The only thing that we ever lost was some gobstoppers that a raccoons came across at 3 in the morning. Let me tell you, a raccoon eating gobstoppers directly under your popup is incredibly loud and not the most pleasant way to be roused from a sleep  :yikes:

[Gone-Camping]

You're not likely to have too many problems at a campground, unless a rowdy bunch of drunken teenagers move into the site next door...and if they want to steal anything, it'll likely be your beer not your fishing poles! As for a PU, since it's canvas there is no security anyway...you keep anything valuable locked up in the truck!

 
Be that as it may, I've also read a number of threads where people have had their entire trailer stolen, usually right from their own driveway! They are not hard to steal, and very difficult to find them once they are stolen. I posted the link about the wheel boot, and though I don't have one myself, I would recommend one to anybody that has any doubts at all about their trailers security.

[howlinowl]

Doubt that'd I'd do it, but I figured that if I took the wheels offa my PUP, it'd probably still be there.... how many thieves carry extra wheels for a PUP around with them?

Allan

[Old Goat]

I have friends who, three years ago, sold their popup and bought a new TT. On their very first trip while stopped for groceries, they came out of the store just in time to see the spare tire on their new camper being loaded into a van which quickly drove off. I have never lost a thing in all the years I have camped.

If a popup is parked at home where it can be seen from the street, I would think that removing one wheel or both would discourage any thief.....

[Fuzzymike]

Once a band of reckless squirrels took all of my peanuts I left outside.  Other than that never had a prob in my years of camping.  Hide $$$ and valuable in TV.

[aw738]

I had a black bear get my Doritos.  :mad:

[Shelly]

We have never had any problems when we tent camped.  Last year with the pup there weren't any problems out camping either.

Having said that we did get a call from a neighbour last year at 5:30 am in the morning.  Someone was pushing our pup out of the driveway to their waiting vehicle!  Now at home it gets chained up, ball locked, wheel taken off.  Camping we do put the lock on it since we have it.

The private & provincial campgrounds up here are pretty well patrolled.  They are pretty strict with noise levels, campfires after hours, and are always around.

Shelly