How do you lock and secure your boat and trailer?

[MonacoMike]

How do you lock your trailer to your truck when staying at a hotel overnight?

How do you secure your trailer when off the truck out eating or shoppingi?

I have looped chain through the wheels of a tandem trailer to keep them from rolling. Chained wheels to light poles. Chained jack crank too tight to crank. Locked some safety chains where they can't be removed from the truck.

These are in addition to normal coupler and receiver locks.

What ideas do you have?

MM

 

[Stray Cat]

When I trailered my Ranger, I locked the receiver pin, the trailer coupler was locked, the prop was removed, and I was parked under a light. When off the truck, I locked the coupler, but the coupler nut is exposed on the bottom side, a thief can unscrew the nut, drop it on a ball, tighten it, and he's gone. I took a circular metal plate and welded it to an old trailer ball to keep a thief from unscrewing the coupler nut from the bottom. Once this was in place, locked the coupler, unless they had bolt cutters for the lock, nothing was going to couple up to the trailer. This is offered from boat supply stores...I made one, and it went with the boat when I sold it.

 

[Sundancer]

I just park next to a nicer boat and trailer! I've never really worried about it because of where we live and not many crooks have a tow vehicle capable of towing a 300 DA!

 

[chuck1]

I use a cable and lock to the tow vehicle. When I park I try to find a place that I can back the trailer up to a curb and block it in so that even if the cut the cable they could not attach/move the trailer.

 

[Nehalennia]

4 of these

They are Medeco High security padlocks, designed for Department of Defense specs. All stainless steel and hardened shackle:
One on the Garage I store the boat
One on the reciever pin
One on the trailer coupler
Onc holdin' my bow bling on.

 

[Dick Whetstone]

Practically anything you do to secure your boat / trailer can be defeated. What you want to do is make it too hard or make it take too long to steal. When I leave my truck and trailer at the boat ramp for up to a week at a time, I use the previously shown coupler lock on the trailer tongue.

I also use a 5/8 inch diameter, 5 foot long, wire rope "choker" with swaged pre-formed "lifting eyes" on each end. This is the type choker used for lifting with truck cranes. I run the choker through the lugs of both wheels on each side of thge trailer and then around the trailer frame. I secure each choker with a BIG Master Pad Lock (#7 - I think) with a hardened 1/2 inch shackle. The wire rope choker cannot be cut with bolt cutters or with a hack saw and it would take a massive bolt cutter to cut through the hardened 1/2 inch shackle on the Master pad lock.

When snaking the chokers through the wheel spokes and around the trailer frame, position the choker "eyes" under the trailer frame and between the wheels if possible, so the BIG Master pad lock is hard to get to. This makes it even harder for a potential thief to get a bolt cutter on the shackle.

I think most potential thieves would look at this and go somewhere else.

PS: This Master Pad lock is usually not found in hardware stores. It has to be special ordered.

 

[chumbley]

I don't tow my boat, but when I pull the jet ski, I use a cable lock to secure the ski to the trailer, and a cable lock to secure the trailer to the receiver hitch. That way I don't have to worry about locking receiver pins, etc. When overnighting at hotels, I try to find a spot where I can back the trailer wheels tight against a curb.

Beyond that, if they want it that bad, it's insured.