Making your trailer a little safer, just an idea

Each year we see posts on trailers being stolen on race weekends and traveling to and from those weekends at hotels and restaurants. I had an idea last season and plan on trying it out when I pull the trailer out of storage. A friend of mine brought his trailer to my house last year with a wiring problem. Whenever he plugged in his trailer to the truck the wheels locked up. When I checked his wiring out I found that he had re-wired his 7 pin and switched two wires. The actual brake wire was wired to the recharge the battery wire and the constant power wire for recharging the battery was wired to the brakes so whenever you plugged in the trailer to the truck the brakes locked up. So I thought to myself, why not drill a small hole in the bottom of the trailer somewhere along one side of the trailer, splice in a wire to the brake wire and attach the other end to a battery hidden inside the trailer among all the gear with a toggle switch that could be hidden as well. So when you park the trailer, you go inside, flip the switch and the brakes will lock up so if someone tries to take your trailer, just follow the skid mark to them. You could run another wire from the battery charging system to recharge the battery or even run a solar battery charger from the roof to the battery. I asked a trailer guy by me and he said as the brakes are electric having them in a locked position does not hurt them.

Just an idea that may help some of you out there. I would appreciate any constructive comments with out the usual bbs ass whoopin as this thread is posted to hopefully help stop trailer theft.

 

How quickly will the battery run dead? I know the little break away battery won't last the night with the brakes locked. Maybe a larger car size battery would?

 

you can also put an alarm on it. i have a gorrilla bike alarm set up under my rear bumper with the sensitivity turned up. if someone was to tap the pin, try to unload the trailer etc, the alarm goes off. its wired up in the bumper/ hitch area and is a little hard to get too. its just wired up along the frame rail (inside) to the battery.

 

How about taking all the motorcyle and racing related stickers off the trailer and replacing them with "Jose's Lawn Service"?

 

Then they'll steal your lawn mowers.

Bigger locks? Cameras? Guardian Alarm stickers? There have been way too many trailer thefts lately, that's for sure ..

 

Or Jose's septic cleaning service.

 

Wonder how long that would take before you came out to a trailer on fire...

It's not the worst idea I've heard, but hell, buying a "BOOT" like the cops use might be more effective...

 

"Caution: Unrehabilitated pit-bulls,stay back 50 feet"....my anti-theft :up:
a friend of mine used to have that on his car trailer and people would give us the dirtiest looks at gas stations

 

I'm sure if they wanted to take the time and nobody was around they could probably use something to cut this off but I use one of these hitch locks on mine.

http://store.towshop.com/store/more_info.asp?Product_ID=940&Category_ID=68

 

Sleep in it with your 12 guage double barrel.

Locks are not really even an inconvenience to a thief. A loop of chain and the trailer is gone, as you don't need the hitch to tow it away.

 

Hence my thought of the boot... I used to loop .75" thick cable through the wheel and around the axle and then lock it to where somebody would get about 10' before the tire locked up on it. That would have been pretty damned inconvenient to work around. But it wasn't as visible as a boot.

Something highly obvious and visibly deterrent would probably work best IMHO.

The LO-JACK, alarms, etc are cool, but at that point it's often times too late.

 

the thing about the alarm is that most thieves will be looking at how to get the trailer off, and not expecting a loud siren as soon as they touch it, which would be fairly loud since its right next to them in the bumper. having not expected it, i am sure they wouldnt be prepared to deal with it, so its my assumption they would take off...

 

My Suburban will have a car alarm/ign. cut/pager alarm installed shortly. When I park my trailer, I back it up hard against a fence or wall such that the only practical way to steal it is to steal the whole rig...then concentrate on making the truck harder to steal.

I have also pulled the FI relay out of the fuse box and removed the coil wire when parked. I know these things are not at all undefeatable, but I figure the more roadblocks there are, the better the chance of the truck still being there in the AM.

 

My truck and trailer that was just stolen had no marking that would relate it to racing. I have a sad feeling someone just wanted the trailer, and the bike and gear is just going to get dumped somewhere.

They did steal the whole rig, it was backed up in my driveway to my garage. The truck has been recovered by police with the stereo missing, but I don't think it was what they were after.

 

I like this idea.....!!!:up:

Let's see if I can make it happen for next week at VIR!

 

just a note on that alarm... i have a clifford RSX3.5 with all the bells etc. well the pager got wet and wouldnt function so i basically opened the door (alarm went off) tried the switch under the dash (didnt work, pressing that damn button late for work ugghh) alarm is pissing me off now, so i pop the hood and rip ot the siren thats there. get in truck (siren IN truck is still going - how nice). turn the key ahead - thinking this wont start, i will miss work, it has an ignition cut off . NOPE - started fine. drove to work with a siren blaring in my ears, but i got there...


moral of the story, check to make sure it all works well and right. mine doesnt, i still need to get it in to be fixed.

 

Joe's Plumbing
You Poop It,
We Scoop It.

 

You won't stop a determined thief. Just make sure you don't have the easy target. Or just buy a little motion activated camera at a sporting goods store (also check your digital camcorder, some have that feature) and set it up. The bike alarm is good as well. It may also help to simply ask if you can park your trailer in view of the hotel/motel office. That has worked for me on road trips with the bike where I couldn't bring the whole bike in the room (interesting story there too) , why not a trailer?
Even the dumbest thief isn't going to steal a whole trailer right in plain view of the desk or office clerk.

 

This may seem stupid, but why not remove one or both of the wheels??

 

It's getting power from the vehicle, not the break away battery. Brakes won't lock until you plug it in. Smart thief could just unplug and go. Still pretty clever for the average Delta Bravo.