Anti-Theft Measures To Keep Your RV or Trailer Safe and Your Insurance Rates Down

Keeping your trailer safe, secure and parked where it should be is a growing concern among RV owners of late. And it’s not just RV’s that are at risk: boat trailers, horse trailers, cargo trailer and pretty much any other kind of trailer you can think of are susceptible to theft as well.

When you think about it, a trailer is a fairly simple piece of machinery to steal. All a thief has to do is back up to the RV or trailer in question, hook up his hitch and drive away. Which leads RV and trailer owners to ask, “What can I do to keep my trailer safe and secure?”

The first thing an RV or trailer owner can do is put themselves into the criminal mind set. If you can think about what a potential thief might need or do to steal your RV or trailer, you can come up with methods to kybosh their efforts.

Thieves want something quick and easy to steal; if they cannot get in and out with what they want right away, they’ll go looking for an easier target. Think about it: if your RV or trailer is parked next to one that has alarms and security measures installed on it, which do you think the thieves would target?

Unfortunately, a good thief can steal pretty much anything with the right tools, time and knowledge. But if you can make your RV or trailer look less appealing to thieves, you’ve won a good portion of the battle. This is why we recommend having anti-theft devices installed on every RV or trailer you own.

Conventional Coupler Locks

The marketplace has created many locking mechanisms to ensure our example above doesn’t happen to you. Conventional coupler locks come in different shapes and sizes and generally work by placing a ball or similar device into the coupler. Some of these locks have built-in machinery that covers the ball socket, locks it into place and doesn’t allow the coupler to be lowered onto the hitch ball. 

Coupler Hatch Locks

These anti-theft devices for your RV or trailer work by not allowing the latching apparatus to open. Coupler hatch locks have a shank that fits through the hole in the coupler’s latching handle and then a lock that attaches the entire package together. This option also averts thieves from lifting your trailer right off the back of your tow vehicle when parked out and about, since it makes the coupler unable to disengage from the hitch ball.

Locking Receiver Pins

Locking pins have been developed to ensure that conventional hitch balls don’t go missing. Since ball mounts are easily removed by pulling the spring clip out, a locking receiver pin will secure the ball into the receiver tube with a key lock.

Immobilize the Wheels

Even with a lock on the coupler, sometimes thieves will merely ignore the hitch completely and chain the RV or trailer to their towing vehicle and drive it away.

By removing of one or more of your wheels, you are forcing thieves to replace the tire with one of their own in order to move it, which of course slows down their response time. To really thwart a wannabe burglar, mount locking lug nuts on the empty lug bolts. And if you have a spare tire for the RV or trailer, remove it and place it somewhere out of sight and secured until you travel.

If jacking up your RV or trailer repeatedly to remove a wheel or two is too much trouble, there are a number of wheel locking devices currently on the market that not only stop the use of the wheel, but are almost impossible to remove without a key.

Less Invasive But Still Sneaky Security Measures

If we go back to the original example used in this article, where many thieves won’t spend the time needed to steal an RV or trailer that is more pain than gain, we can come up with a couple of more ingenious ways of keeping your RV or trailer safe.

When parking your RV or trailer, make sure it is in a well-lit area with lots of people around. The more strangers that may see someone fooling around with your RV or trailer, the better. If this isn’t possible, park it instead behind another vehicle so that it cannot be easily hitched to and driven away.

If The Worst Happens

Unfortunately, you can go to a lot of trouble to make your RV or trailer less desirable to thieves, and yet it may still get stolen. If the worst happens, call the police immediately and report what happened. Give them all of the necessary information (serial numbers, identifying marks and decals and equipment add-ons). Then, call your insurance company and let them know what has happened as well. Send them receipt copies for all of the anti-theft devices you’ve installed, and inform them of your call to the police as well.

If you take heed, think like a criminal and install some anti-theft devices on your RV or trailer, you’ll be taking greater security measures to ensure the safety of your property – which can only help in the long run.