Having a trailer that can easily attach to your vehicle and be pulled to various destinations is a wonderful luxury. If you have a boat, for example, a boat trailer will make it possible to explore bodies of water you couldn’t have reached otherwise.

Unfortunately, the fact that this trailer is easy to hook up to your vehicle means it is easy to hook up to other vehicles, as well and therefore stolen. Below we will highlight some effective solutions to this problem, so you can return from a fun day to find your trailer right where you left it.

Keep Your Trailer Safe at Home

To keep your trailer safe while at home, your best option is to park in a secure garage or shed from American Steel Carports, Inc. With the trailer hidden behind a locked door, it will be far more difficult for thieves to haul it off. Try our Build & Price tool today to create a structure that works for your needs, or contact us to get assistance.

How to Lock a Trailer So It Can’t Be Stolen in 4 Steps

Lock Up the Hitch

One common strategy trailer owners use to prevent theft is keeping the trailer firmly attached to their vehicle. Most believe that someone will be less likely to attempt to steal the entire vehicle and trailer at the same time. There is some merit to that thinking, but if the hitch isn’t locked to the vehicle, this step is easy enough for a criminal to undo.

To make this strategy work for you, having a hitch lock in place is important as the hitch on the vehicle will make it significantly harder for a criminal to switch the trailer over to their vehicle for towing. Investing in a quality lock is worth it for the peace of mind it will deliver.

Lock Up the Wheels

If your trailer can’t roll down the road, no one can steal it which is why chock locks exist. This device will wrap around the tire and engage with the wheel, where it will be locked into position. Without getting this lock off, no one can drive away with your trailer, as the wheels won’t be able to turn. While this is an effective technique, these kinds of locks are pretty big, so be sure you have a plan for where you will store the lock when it isn’t in use.

Park Indoors

So far, we’ve been talking about putting locks on the trailer itself, and those methods certainly are important. But you can also put your trailer behind a locked door. When parking inside, with a lock on the garage door that you use to get in and out, it’s going to be very difficult for your trailer to be stolen.

Of course, this is only a method that works while you are at home, so you’ll need a combination of strategies to be successful. For instance, you might have a wheel lock that you use while out on trips and a parking spot in a secure garage or shed from American Steel Carports, Inc.

Add a GPS Tracker

This last tip won’t stop a thief from driving away with your trailer, but it will make it far easier to get it back. There are plenty of GPS tracking devices on the market today, so consider picking one up and attacking the tracker in a discrete location on the trailer. Then, if the trailer goes missing, you can simply open up the app on your phone and see exactly where it has been parked.

Get a Secure Metal Carport, Garage, Shed, Barn & More

Taking steps to protect your trailer is a smart move that will help to protect not only the investment you’ve made in the trailer, but also whatever you use to pull it. Given the security and other benefits enjoyed by parking inside of an enclosed structure, considering a detached metal garage from American Steel Carports, Inc. makes a lot of sense. Get started on this project today by contacting us.