Trailer & yard anti-theft ideas

LHIS

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Opportunist thieves are combing the area I live looking for easy targets. There have been several reports of people in the area catching them snooping around, checking places out, caught on cctv sneaking around yards and properties, and even using drones to scope out properties. I am going to have a sweep of my place this weekend and plug any gaps as it were, but I am most concerned about my trailer. I also have 2 cobs which will appeal to this particular type of thief who are out in the fields 24/7.

Obviously a determined thief is going to take what they came for, but I’d like to make it as difficult as possible. Short of guarding my things myself!

Suggestions please!
 

OldNag

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Maybe won't stop it being stolen but might make it easier to find in the short term - put your postcode in big letters on the trailer roof. You could paint it on. I used vinyl letters. Yes they can be removed but it makes it easier for me to sell in future that way, and it would not be that easy to remove them. Cost about a tenner
 

Farmer Chalk

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With trailers you need to chain them down to an anchor point, use a decent hitchlock and fit a tracker to them ... look at the Can Track T7... it’s brilliant...it’s sealed for life, battery powered and lasts for 7 yrs.... you can hide it between the axles....

I have one and mounted it with shear bolts

It’s what the Construction Industry are using to protect their fleets....
 

LHIS

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With trailers you need to chain them down to an anchor point, use a decent hitchlock and fit a tracker to them ... look at the Can Track T7... it’s brilliant...it’s sealed for life, battery powered and lasts for 7 yrs.... you can hide it between the axles....

I have one and mounted it with shear bolts

It’s what the Construction Industry are using to protect their fleets....

Anchor them into the ground? I have got a bulldog hitchlock on it already. Wondering if it’s worth buying a wheel lock too?
Will take a look at the tracker 👍🏻
 

GeeBee45

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Great idea to chain trailers down. There are a number of ground anchors available from motorcycle accessory sites and stores, concrete these in place then get a good quality motorcycle padlock and chain around axle or A frame. Look for the 'sold secure' label on stuff. Try to keep chain links tight and off the floor as that makes it harder to use a sledge hammer.
As an alternative to hitchlocks fit a good quality wheel clamp to the rear wheel, if you fit to the front it's possible to use a raised tow hitch and tow trailer with front wheels suspended off ground.
Postcoding roof is good and relatively cheap, use large letters. Trackers are great, the effort you make to fit them in a hard to get at place will make them more difficult for pondlife to find and remove.
Failing all this, a six foot deep moat around trailer parking area with a couple of salt water crocodiles in usually acts as a pretty good deterrent and is environmentally friendly too!
 

Sealine

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My trailer has a hitch lock and a wheel clamp. A friend had her caravan stolen off her drive despite it having a hitch lock. There is CCTV of it being stolen and they didn't bother hitching it up properly, they just chained it to their tow bar. The caravan has never been recovered.
 

LHIS

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Great idea to chain trailers down. There are a number of ground anchors available from motorcycle accessory sites and stores, concrete these in place then get a good quality motorcycle padlock and chain around axle or A frame. Look for the 'sold secure' label on stuff. Try to keep chain links tight and off the floor as that makes it harder to use a sledge hammer.
As an alternative to hitchlocks fit a good quality wheel clamp to the rear wheel, if you fit to the front it's possible to use a raised tow hitch and tow trailer with front wheels suspended off ground.
Postcoding roof is good and relatively cheap, use large letters. Trackers are great, the effort you make to fit them in a hard to get at place will make them more difficult for pondlife to find and remove.
Failing all this, a six foot deep moat around trailer parking area with a couple of salt water crocodiles in usually acts as a pretty good deterrent and is environmentally friendly too!
I do fancy myself a moat. 🤔😂
 

Hanno Verian

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What Ive done before is bolted a tow bar onto a building hitched the trailer too it and then put a hitch lock onto it to prevent someone unhitching it.

I have seen these -

https://www.barriersdirect.co.uk/wo...e-secure-trailers-and-caravans-p2150?shopping

Or would use a combination of hitch lock & wheel lock - but make sure you buy the "Sold Secure" version, its the highest standard.

If someone is really determined, has time, opportunity and the right tools & vehicle pretty much any trailer can be stolen, the secret is to make it harder to steal than everyone else's, so they go elsewhere. But you have to have a balance between your convenience of use and the level of protection, I've seen people with elaborate security precautions that they don't use, because "its too much trouble".
 

Fransurrey

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Depends on how often you use it, but I have known people to remove the wheels, at least on one side. Blocking in with a heavy vehicle is another one, but both are arguably a lot of hassle!!
 

ihatework

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I just use a wheel lock and a hitch lock and insure the trailer. It would be an annoyance if it got stolen, hence double deterrents, but not something I loose sleep over. If the thieving take-what-you likeys put their mind to it they will find a way. Most are too bone idle to go that extra mile though, so just make it easier for them to steal from elsewhere.
 

LHIS

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Depends on how often you use it, but I have known people to remove the wheels, at least on one side. Blocking in with a heavy vehicle is another one, but both are arguably a lot of hassle!!
At night I park my pick up in front of it, but during the day both vehicles are out unfortunately. We are next door to a farm and there’s always people about so I hope that will help as it’s not very often that the place is totally deserted.
 

Sealine

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This thread has reminded me of something that happened about 25 years ago when my husband owned a very nice, expensive motorbike. He kept it in the garage and I used to park my car close to the up and over garage door to prevent the door being opened. One night my car alarm went off and we looked out of the window but couldn't see anything. The next day the car handbrake didn't work. Someone had cut the handbrake cable and I assume had tried to push my car back to get to the garage door. So, if you do leave a vehicle in front of the trailer remember to leave it in gear.
 

dixie

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You need a wheelclamp usually for the insurance company to cover you - so definitely get one of those and put it on the back wheel.

This is copied from a friends post on Facebook - thought it sounded useful:-

Buy two or three rape alarms, nail wood over them or velcro them out of sight.
Replace the cord with fishing line and loop unobtrusively round gates or objects.
It makes a hell of a racket in the dark and they don't hang around to find them.
 

BBP

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We are taking on a new yard and so far done the following - plant hedges along empty boundaries, ensuring there are plenty of savage thorny things(hawthorn and roses). This is a long term security investment. For gateways, top hinge flipped so can’t be easily lifted off, plus a metal security post concreted in begins the gate and padlocked in. Means if they try to ram the gates they risk suffering a bit more damage to their vehicle. Hidden cameras with infrared lamp on yard.
 

Nudibranch

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As well as the usual, I bought a Datatag kit - microdots, 2 transponders and 2 ID stickers which can't be removed. They claim to have only ever had one tagged trailer stolen, which was recovered. Hopefully it's an extra layer of deterrent. I have the roof postcode but I've never been that convinced by it. The police don't have a lot of time and cctv...well, where would you start looking? And then what?
 

ILuvCowparsely

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Opportunist thieves are combing the area I live looking for easy targets. There have been several reports of people in the area catching them snooping around, checking places out, caught on cctv sneaking around yards and properties, and even using drones to scope out properties. I am going to have a sweep of my place this weekend and plug any gaps as it were, but I am most concerned about my trailer. I also have 2 cobs which will appeal to this particular type of thief who are out in the fields 24/7.

Obviously a determined thief is going to take what they came for, but I’d like to make it as difficult as possible. Short of guarding my things myself!

Suggestions please!
https://h0rseservices.weebly.com/preventing-horsebox--trailer-theft.html
https://www.trailertek.com/trailer-parts/security

http://www.horsetrailerpartsdirect....rity-best-kept-secret-horse-trailer-security/
https://www.datatag.co.uk/trailers.php
 

Farmer Chalk

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The biggest deterrent to any farm or yard theft is to close the gates!! Don’t let free and easy access.... if the gate is open they will drive in and have a snoop around.
If they are challenged then they will come up with a lame excuse, ‘is this Pond Farm?’ Or have you got any old scrap? Plus a myriad of other excuses....

They really don’t like being the wrong side of a locked gate as it is far harder to give an excuse....

Yard owners they will approach in the same way but with a more Equine excuse.... have you got any hay for sale? Etc etc...

Keep tack room doors locked shut! These are purely clandestine manoeuvres to see what you have and what’s worth nicking!

Close the gate and lock it! Lock kit away and secure anything valuable with decent padlocks and chains...
 

Rowreach

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Maybe won't stop it being stolen but might make it easier to find in the short term - put your postcode in big letters on the trailer roof. You could paint it on. I used vinyl letters. Yes they can be removed but it makes it easier for me to sell in future that way, and it would not be that easy to remove them. Cost about a tenner

Where I live the police run a trailer marking scheme where they paint a unique code on the front of the trailer and stamp it into a couple of the metal struts and the two hitch. They then tell you to write the code and/or your postcode in loads of places, visible and hidden,and take photos so that would be thieves realise they'll never get all the marks off if they nick it.

We have had no incidents of thefts of marked trailers in years. Don't know why all police forces don't do it.
 

case895

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I block my horse trailer in behind my muck trailer and tractor. You would have to start my tractor (a challenge at the best of times, although possible with a screwdriver on a warm day), connect the muck trailer, remove the hitch and wheel locks, then its all your's. Oh and you had to find us (invisible from most directions), get through the electronic gates and past several CCTV cameras. The trailer is invisible unless you are standing withing 20 metres as its concrete pad in cut in to a grass bank, so it is 50% underground. My next door neighbour is the county police/fire HQ and training centre. Their firearms teams are based there too. Until recently, the area police helicopter landed over the top of the trailer.

I relayed this to the insurance company when they asked and the lady was dumbfounded.
 

DSB

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Freeze brand your horses and take clear photos of them.We also spray paint our postcode on the rugs and have a tribe of peacocks who make a lot of noise if strangers come round.
 
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