Is your trailer locked?

[ladibugg]

I have read many posts about owners getting ripped off. Five Star is one that made a light go off. Why not make a trailer hitch that is unique to your truck, something that they can't just drive off with. Big Jim, was your trailer locked on ? How easy was it to remove ? Was it taken during the night ? How can we keep ownership of our tools? I have even considered going to a fifth-wheel trailer to make it harder to drive off with. Does anybody even lock their trailer on or is that a waste of good steel?

[Lawn Services]

I personally leave mine unlocked but i park in a way that it would be impossable toget the trailer. when i disconect from any of my trailers i leave a tracter or a truck in front of it.:cool:

[mdb landscaping]

my enclosed trailer has locks on all the doors. i then use a tongue lock so nobody can drive off with it. i even have a lock on my reese hitch. i think if somebody wants something bad enough, they will find a way to steal it. unfortunately some people are just slime.

[awm]

i lock the hitch with a hardened lock . ruined a pair of bolt cutters on this type lock.so its not easy to cut.if im gone
i take measures that will slow the thief down or stop him
depending on his mechanical ability. a kill switch only u know about helps ,as far as the mowers go.like someone said
a professional thief is hard to stop . but they want to get in an get out. i give him enough different things to figure out ,that hopefuly he will look for an easier target. a couple o dogs raisin cain also going to make him nervous good luck.
ps also theirs always the chance that i ll come home,and my place is set up so i can look the place over as i approach from the rd.hes got to come out the way he came in unless he is going to leave his truck or whatever .

[lamblawnscaping]

I have a master lock specially designed to lock trailers. I bought it at Trak Auto for about 10 bucks. It fits so snugly that there is no room to get a saw or bolt cutters on it, here is a picture.

[lamblawnscaping]

Here is another one, it looks even tougher than mine.

[accuratelawn]

Just because you place a truck or other vehicle in front of your trailer does not protect it. A guy I know left the his truck hooked to his trailer. Someone crawled under the truck and put the auto trans in nuetral and pushed the truck away from the trailer. They took the trailer loaded with all equipment. Lazer hp, JD tractor, push mower and all hand tools. OUCH

[PrimeGreen Lawn]

Originally posted by lamblawnscaping
Here is another one, it looks even tougher than mine.

This is the one I use. Great for the trailer tongue. Both doors on the enclosed trailers have locks on them. They are kept at a storage lot so security always worries me.

[Ray&Christine]

When my trailers are not being used I have locks that go up inside the trailer tongue where the ball would sit. These locks simply block the trailer tongue from accepting a trailer hitch ball. One is called Trailer Cop made by Reese and the other one I have is called Gorrilla Guard. If someone wants to steal something bad enough nothing can stop them 100% but if you make it hard for them they might give up. Other locks that I have seen are like brackets that you lock to a trailer tire so the trailer can't be moved. Padlocks help but even the good quality ones are not that strong. I used to work at an ice rink and quite often the players would loss or break the keys to the dressing rooms and we would have to get the lock off the door. I was surprised how easy it is to snap a lock. The best padlocks we found were the round ones with a small opening on them something like the ones shown above.

Ray

[augs dad]

For open trailers, how do you secure your mowers and equip when you are in the BIG back yard doing mulching and the truck is out front out of view? 'Kryptonite' makes a thick wire cable that is supposedly secure. Rather pricey at $20 for 20 ft plus a strong lock as you mention above. Thought about weaving that through the handhelds and mowers...a bit inconvenient I know...anyone doing anything like this? thanks much

Gary in PA

[Five Star Lawn Care LLC]

IF SOMEONE WANTS IT BAD ENOUGH THEY WILL GET IT!! Ive heard stories about guys going through the roof vents of an enclosed and taking whips and hand tools. ive heard of guys using cutoff saws to cut a big hole in the side of an enclosed trailer. if you park your truck in front of a trailer your just going to get it worse cuz there going to steal the truck too. people can torch locks off in minutes. enclosed trailer locking systems can just be knocked right off the trailer with a 6lb sleg. its imposable to be completely secure, unless you can bring your mowers to bed with you

[Richard Martin]

In addition to kill switches I also use this:

http://www.rittenhouse.ca/asp/Product.asp?PG=1347

[augs dad]

I think the point here is what can we do to make our stuff less appealing in a relatively simple and convenient way...if some yahoo wants it bad enough it'll be gone... I think this is why we turn on a porch light.....

[Ray&Christine]

We are starting to get concerned about small tools going missing from the truck and trailer like blowers and trimmers. Never had a problem before but last season we had a couple of times where we left the truck out of our sight while we were working and came back to find someone taking inventory of our tools. As soon as they say us one guy took off tearing up someones lawn from thier spinning tires. Maybe we will just have to take the extra time locking everything up or we might end up losing it.

Ray

[FrankenScagMachines]

On most of my equipment (older engines not fuel injected or using pumps etc.) i have a fuel shutoff valve and i sometimes will shut it off and let the engine burn all left , at idle, and then don't forget this when you go back! also at www.jcwhitney.com you can get things to mount to the battery posts that are a big kill switch (when you open the knife switch, it does not let current flow) and also pull the key obviously, or have hidden kill switches, or pull a wire connector off of something like the ignition switch if accessible for you, if mechanical blade engagement, leave engaged, or leave electric pto on (better ask a mechanic if that will hurt it) , or if gear drive leave it in gear, pull spark plug wire(s), etc, just think of things that will deter, slow down or possibly prevent theft... that's for equipment, trailers i put a padlock on it. if you use chains and load binders, drill hole(s) through load binder handle and get a cable with loops in either end and go through the chain and load binder, fairly tight, and put a lock through it, if you have trailer brakes there might be a lock for it, my uncle's trailer has one at least. there are many things you could do i guess, just look at your stuff and try to figure how you would do it if you were trying to get it, and block it somehow...
just my $0.04 worth :D

[jman00]

have you guys ever seen a locksmith open a lock. i ruined a pair of 36 in bolt cutters on a master lock on stupid alluminum ustore shed and i had to call a locksmith. the woman had the smallest drill i have ever seen. and a tiny drill bit and it took her a minute and a half and she had the lock off. that kind of worried me. this was a fat lock and she said as long as they have a key hole you can open them that way.


scary. i guess the locks just deter the honest people.

[awm]

that lock alarm ,cable thing looked like the best preventive
measure ive seen so far. not a bad price either. later now

[roscioli]

Locks deter. WIthout a fortress and armed gaurds, we won't be able to stop the dirtbags. 2 methods I use are to chain my trailer right to my bumper and lock it. I use the safety chains, and another one to loop around the bumper. The other is when I leave the trailer behind, I crank it up so high that unless they have a huge ass truck, they wont be able to lower it enough to hitch it up. Of course, this only deters too, because they could break my chains somehow and crank it down.

[plow kid]

for those that just put a lock on the coupler, all you have to do is buy a 3/4" carrage bolt and put that in your drawbar and you can move the trailer by setting the tounge on the head of the carrage bolt (dont ask how I found this out) what I do on my trailers is get a hitchball, a cheapie and take it to a muffler shop and have them cut the shaft off of it with a flame wrench, stick that in your trailer tounge and then lock it, no way to pull it unless they use just the safety chains.

[SLS]

Here's what I use when the trailer is not on the truck.

I have not figured out how the trailer could be hooked up to anything with this gizmo attached.

All the key does is close and lock the small hole on the underside of the lock that you insert a 'hex-type' wrench-thingy you use to screw the bolt up into where the ball goes.

It is very thick and heavy and fits snugly...no way to pry it off. I guess if someone wanted to spend a load of time and make a bunch of noise in the process.....cutting this thing off with a saw or a torch would be a major pain in the crack. :eek: All I know is I hope I never misplace the keys to this thing!

All in all...it would be a big deterent to anyone with "snatch and run" in mind. :)

http://www.masterlock.com/images/color_img/33_36_39group.jpg

http://www.masterlock.com/images/schem_img/34schematic.jpg

It is made by Master Lock.

Here is the link to the prices and specs:

http://www.masterlock.com/cgi-bin/app_search.pl?layer=layer2&cat_id=B85&sub_cat_id=D33A

[65hoss]

What SLS has is exactly what I use. They are awesome. Completely elimates someone cutting or putting it on a ball. Only way they could get it is to chain the tongue to the back of a truck and drag it off.

I don't lock the tongue when its on the truck. If they could get it off and move to another truck, then they deserve it. My trailer is extremely heavy, especially on the tongue.

[thfireman]

I started using a 15' Kryptonite' cable to secure my mowers on my trailer last summer. I also used the Master Lock armored lock like the second photo shown above to secure it. One day after parking at Home Depot for about 30 minutes I returned to find a kinked area on the cable. The plastic coating was cut but the inner cable had only been mashed flat. There was no cuts or breaks in the cable at all. That is one tough cable!! I went back inside and told store security about this. Here is what they told me!

They said that in the past it had been determined that a group of persons would come to stores like Home Depot and they would leave 2-3 people in a truck outside. 1-2 others would be inside the store. The guys in the truck outside would watch you park and then use radios to tell the guys inside what you looked like. The guys inside would keep an eye on you to make sure you were not looking outside and that you were shopping. Meanwhile the guys outside would work on getting your stuff off your truck and load it in theirs. When the guys inside saw you getting in the check out line or head for the doors they would warn the outside guys you were coming. Then they would scatter and you would never see them. The inside guys would leave and walk a ways to a meeting place and be picked up and they were gone along with whatever they got of your stuff!

I now leave my partner in my truck to watch over my stuff anytime I go to Lowe's or Home Depot where there is a chance I will be out of sight of my truck for more than a minute.

Watch your back,
Roger

[f350]

i use lojack on my trailer. i also have an anchor drilled a foot down in my slab, then the trailer gets chained to that. i'm not worried about my stuff inside. take it i have insurance, i hope you do when tyson gets part of your arm

[PRECISION LC]

i always keep everything locked, my tailer is locked on the hitch, i drilled a hole i the gaurd rail and locked the gate pin down so it can't be removed easily, my handheld stuff is locked on, i bought a trimmer rack and blower holders with lock holes built in ,they ran me about 100 together, but worth it. i havent had any problms (knock on wood).

[mowngrow]

well as we all know, a lock just keeps an honest man honest.
but there is no reason to make life easy for them.
what I use is jungle jims attachments.(www.junglejimsasp.com)
granted, nothing is perfect but since I purchased these nothing has grew legs and walked off. as far as the trailer and truck are concerned they stay together at all times. If i need to go somewhere it goes with me or i take the wifes car. check out the site i think you will be impressed

[Shadetree Ltd]

This subject makes me paranoid. All these measures are on an enclosed trailer. We use heavy duty locks with metal sleeves that do not allow bolt cutters. We bought a trailer with barn doors instead of the beavertail. Inside the doors we have a steel gate that is padlocked on both sides, the gate is cut in half to make it reasonably light and serve as a ramp. Then the trailer is outfitted with a Viper car alarm. It has a backup battery so it is independent of the exterior trailer battery. There are two sirens mounted inside the trailer out of site that make it impossible to stand inside when triggered, all the lights flash and it locks the electric brakes. All the hardware is glued to an inside wall so it is out of site with no visible mounting hardware to hint at its location.

Scott

[UGA]

Shadetree that sounds like an awesome setup. I will get my buddy to take a look at your post for ideas for his enclosed trailer.

[greenflag]

Ditch the trailer cop. I used to sell them at my truck accessory store until I found mine on the ground, & my trailer gone. It only slows them down, but it comes right out with a prybar.

I would suggest some type of lock at the coupler, & a heavy cable as well. Cables are harder to cut with bolt cutters than chain.

I hope this helps.

Garry