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[AlexB]

Sorry for the off topic nature of this post, but had my ifor williams stock trailer stolen on monday and was wondering what sort of proper anti theft device might be recommended by forum members

The hitch lock and wheel clamp plus chain around the gate and gate post didn't offer much of a deterent, although to be fair, the hitch lock and wheelclamp were dead cheap versions

Any thoughts / recommendations appreciated

[Ray Clayton]

Hi Alec

Sorry to hear about your trailer being stolen.
As for anti theft gear or precautions.
I do not think you could have done much more. I have the same fitted to mine, so am afraid without jacking it up and taking the wheels of every time, you park it up, there is not a lot more anyone can do.
Hope the scumbags who stole it suffer in the long run.

 

[Genem]

Thats bad news Alex.  I really don't think there is anything that will stop a determined thief. Keeping stuff out of sight and not in the same place every night ?

[GlenAnderson]

A mate and I once went halves in a car trailer. I used it once in the six months we had it before it got stolen. We bought another a year or two later that got stolen before I ever used it. We have since solved the problem by not buying another and only hiring them when we need them. I appreciate that your needs may be significantly more regular than ours, but between us we lost over three grand - that's a lot of daily hires, and we also never have to worry about lights not working when you need it, or tyres going flat.

Unless you invest in some form of tracking device and indoor secure storage, I don't think there's anything you can do to foil a determined thief in these days of battery powered angle grinders. I keep my trailers completely out of sight, which is a royal pain in the posterior when you need one out in a hurry, but it has kept them from walking.

[Genem]

^^^^ I sold mine, but to a neighbour and on the promise that when I need it I can borrow it back  .   He'll get more use out of it anyway.

The Trossachs "virtual" Machinery Ring..... lend what you've got, borrow what you need, help out when needed.... works a treat. Fail to help when needed and it'll be noted next time.... 

[rustylandrovers]

Unless you invest in some form of tracking device and indoor secure storage, I don't think there's anything you can do to foil a determined thief in these days of battery powered angle grinders.

I dunno, I find that buying a trailer that looks like a pile of scrap works rather nicely. No-one has bothered nicking mine :D



Seriously though, my ex-neighbour had a plant hire business. All his kit has hidden GPS trackers, so that if anything goes AWOL you can just have a look online and see where it is. If you can't stop folk nicking it, you might.at least get a chance at recovering it.

[AlexB]

All good advice thanks

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a certain make / model hitch lock ? DO the ones which have a ball that fits in the hitch and a surounding metal cage "work" better than the ones which don't ?

Seems obvious that anything which presents something to jemmy / angle grind off is merely a viaual deterrent 

[Robin]

All good advice thanks

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a certain make / model hitch lock ? DO the ones which have a ball that fits in the hitch and a surounding metal cage "work" better than the ones which don't ?

Seems obvious that anything which presents something to jemmy / angle grind off is merely a viaual deterrent

Sorry to hear about your loss Alex!

I'm not sure a better hitch lock will be much more of a deterrent though.

I've heard that scrotes will just wrap a chain around the drawbar and hook that up to their towbar to pull it away and deal with the lock later at a more secluded spot!

[diffwhine]

Part of the problem is that these people wouldn’t be pinching anything like as many trailers if there wasn’t a market for them. The cynic in me believes that manufacturers don’t do enough about theft deterrent and traceability because they can sell more trailers. How many times do I read about stock trailers or car trailers having been stolen? Virtually everybody who owns one seems to have had some sorry tale to tell. I’ve lost two so far and now go down the hire route as well. The problem is that I only need for occasional use. Those that need them for their livelihoods can’t hire do this. There was a common thought that a lot of trailers were going over to Ireland. I beg to differ – both my Ivor Williams trailers were stolen in Ireland and one turned up here about three years later.
For my penny’s worth, I think that one solution may be to require all trailers to be separately registered (their own registration plates) and have annual inspections for safety and documentary review. Obviously massively onerous, but at the moment without any central register we are just asking for trouble. Incidentally, one of my trailers was stolen from inside a locked barn. They actually towed a John Deere tractor out of the way before they cut the locks to pull the trailer out. Not much you can do to stop that sort of activity apart from not buying trailers or parts of trailers from nefarious sources.

[Calum]

How big was the chain that held it to a post? Bolt croppers are fast and quiet and will make light work of many chains... bigger chains (20mm or so section) aren't cheap but will offer much better protection. A lot of them take a lot of cutting with a cordless angle grinder too (which of course is the new tool, albeit a noisy one).
The other thing is whatever the chain has to go round has got to be substantial enough so that it doesn't become the weak link (if you excuse the pun).

[Uffddd]

Given the efficiency of a modern cordless angle grinder I suspect most physical anti theft devices are little more than deterrents to the unprepared. A decent security camera might be the best solution.

[Clifford Pope]

Take all the nuts off the wheels on one side?

[Wittsend]

1) Paint it pink ...

2) Remove an axle when not in use (store axle at a separate location).

3) Keep geese.

4) 24hr security camera surveillance.

5) decent tracker device linked to a monitoring service.

[Robin]

Take all the nuts off the wheels on one side?

They'd probably just use 2 nuts from each wheel on the other side - these guys come prepared!

Even removing and taking away two wheels from one side might not work - they could just take one wheel from the other side and tow it away as a single axle.

If they've had their eye on it, even removing all wheels might not stop them as they could rock up with a pair of wheels and nuts!

However, anything which might delay them could help - multiple layers so it takes them longer and they might just go and get your neighbour's trailer instead if that's easier   

[Andy_h]

Given the efficiency of a modern cordless angle grinder I suspect most physical anti theft devices are little more than deterrents to the unprepared. A decent security camera might be the best solution.

I had my race car and trailer stolen all in front and recorded on cctv at a hotel.  Police given copy and apparently “insufficient evidence” to prosecute even though it showed him taking over 30mins to cut through my security😳😡

Tracker is best in my opinion but you need a battery source. Try hiding that on/in a trailer🤔