This is what happened when my trailer was stolen...I hope nobody else has to go through this. My trailer was an 18 foot tandem axle car hauler. I used it to haul my project cars around . I didn't have a lock on it, but I usually parked my truck right in front of the trailer, except the day it was stolen. I did, however, have a huge logging chain connected from the axle to a nearby fence post. This was a huge fencepost, not a picket fence or chainlink fencepost. I thought this would deter thieves. I was wrong. Early one morning, I heard a loud knock on my door. By the time I got out of bed and looked out my window to see who it was, I saw a truck backing up to my trailer. My first thought was that it was a friend that needed to borrow my trailer. When the driver got out to hook up, I realized I had never seen him before. As quick as I could I threw on a pair of jeans and ran out the door, realizing my trailer was being stolen. By this time, the guy had hooked up to my trailer and started to drive away. He got about 5 feet before the logging chain stopped him cold. I knew I had him then...so I thought. He put it in reverse, got a running start, and floored it. The SOB yanked my fencepost out of the ground, pulled down 2 sections of fence, and drove away with my trailer...dragging the debris behind him. I couldn't believe the ***** this guy had. It all happened in a matter of seconds. I did manage to get a make and model of the truck, the tag number, and a detailed description of the guy. After immediately calling the police, an officer eventually came out to make a report. I told him the entire story. He was very unsympathetic, and told me not to expect to see my trailer again, despite all the info I had on the guy. Weeks later, the police officer told me that the truck used to steal my trailer belonged to a guy who was in the hospital the day of the theft. The owner of the truck said someone must have borrowed it while he was sick. That's all the investigating the local police did. They said the owner couldn't be held responsible since he didn't know who borrowed his truck that day. Needless to say I no longer have any respect for my local police. Anyway, my homeowners insurance bought me a new trailer and fence. If there is a moral to this story, it's spend $50 for a lock so you won't have to go through what I did.

 

It is amazing how some police officers seem to be so uncaring and all.... Sure, they see this type of thing several times a day, every day for their whole career, so it's just another report to them at the end of the day..... However, they also have to deal with the fact that they can be taken out at anytime by some stupid thief or a simple traffic stop..... Granted, being able to track down the owner of the truck and them just saying that "someone must have borrowed my truck" is a bit lame.....

Here are some things that I've grown up with and do with my trailers.....

A simple pad lock on the coupler will do wonders for keeping someone from being able to hitch up. Sure, they can break the lock or the coupler, but that's gonna make noise and take a couple of minutes.... Two things "A" holes like that don't want....

Well, I guess they could use a bolt cutter on a simple Master lock type of lock, but they do have other coupler locks that has no exposed bolt to cut thru or ones that cover the whole coupler part.

For tandam axle trailers, you can get wheel chocks that are basically a sissor jack that goes between the two wheels. Most have a place to set a lock on this, so that it prevents you from loosening it and the wheels from turning... Cheaper way would be to just run a chain or cable thru the wheels (if you have the spoke kind) and lock them up.... Sure, they could still pull the trailer with the wheels locked up, but that might be a bit obvious going down the road, and they won't be able to get too far before the tire blows out.....

Bottom line is, if someone wants something bad enough, no amount of locks, alarms or whatever is going to prevent them from taking it....... All we can do is try to deter them a bit and hope that they just move on to the next unlucky sole down the road...... Even though insurance is spendy, and we hope we never have to use it, it's at least there to recoup some of the loss.....

I'm not religious at all, but I do feel that scum bags that do things like this (and worse) might get away with it at the time, but something will happen to them in the future that will bring justice to it all.... Could be some simple accident that occurs to them later on or whatever, but in the end, these fu@&s will pay!!




Mitch

 

This brings up a point, who has insurence on there trailer?

I dont on the one I have now, but its a 5x8 and for what its worth, hell if they want to go through the trouble of stealing it, they can have it. Usally is behind my fence but currently its on a friends farm WAY back in the woods by his barn. Insurence would be pointless on a $500 trailer.

I am planning to get a 18 foot tandom soon for my off road truck. I will get a used one for about a grand so again I dont know if its worth insureing. If its at home, does your homeowners cover it?

Anyway to install a lojack or GPS type thing on a trailer?

 

He said his homeowners insurance paid for the trailer and the fence.....

I've got insurance on my travel trailer. I don't have it on my little utility trailer however....

 

why dont you get a coupler lock, then there would be no way at all for them to even get hitched up to it.

We have one of these on our trailer:
http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/me...ategory_Code=L

Our little trailer cost us like $1500, but its nearly 10 years old now I would guess, and its in somewhat sad shape. But this keeps people from even getting the chance to hook up to it.

 

I just switched insurance on my sled trailer. It is a 2003 Triton 2 place enclosed snowmobile trailer. I paid $1800 for it so I wanted to insure it. There are different brackets to pick from, so I picked the bracket from $1500-2000 in coverage. The insurance cost me $48.00 a year.

 

The pop-up tent trailer I have had to be insured separately from my home owners insurance. I wonder about a utility trailer? I put a Kryptonite Coupler lock on mine anyway.

 

you could allways park something in front of the trailer...years ago we went drag racing down to orlando speed world...there were 6 race teams..trucks trailers etc..one of our friends had a chebby ramp truck..someone tried to steal it from our motel with his '32 t still on it..we caught him and the police came and took him away...so to stop that from happening again we had the ramp truck park way out in the lot...everyone else used there tow rigs and trailers to "circle the wagons" to block it in...took awhile to get everything so close together and it took the right truck to leave first or else NOBODY could move... ...zap!

 

Apparently you forgot to grab the shotgun by the bedside with the 12 ga 00 buckshot. I wouldn't have hesitated to shoot out his lights!

 

Haha! A trailer with a fence dragging behind going down the road isn't obvious enough!

Although, I like jaymz approach, too...

 

Just remember folks- it's not the job of the police force to protect you, only outline your body in chalk. The way we lock up my dads trailer is attach it to a concrete post with a heavy chain and then a coupler lock. course we leave out 4wheelers and dirt bike chained to the trailer so its a little more than just the trailer.

 

Somebody borrowed his truck while he was in the hospital???

Correct me if I am wrong, but is that not theft? You dont know who borrowed your truck???? What a bunch of bull!!

I hope your homeowners insurance if going after him at least.


If he ran over and killed someone would they say, the same thing? No, they would fry him( the owner). But your trailer is just not important enough. Where do you live, i wanna make shure i dont ever pay taxes in a place like that.

 

I recentely had my car trailer stolen also.I had it stored at a friends shop and the cut the lock off the gate and my trailer and were gone. The bad thing was that I didnt know about it for about 2 weeks.The police also said dont expect it back because all the thief has to to is pull the vin sticker off and register it as a homemade trailer. Im going to insure my next trailer for sure. Which brings me to another question. I am in need of an opened car trailer.If anyone knows of one for sale please let me know either here or at Cobra1993svt@aol.com Thanks