How to prevent campsite theft while camping in your SUV

hello campers this is the suburban camper well there is no other way to put it it sucks thieves want to steal your camping gear and spoil your outdoor adventures it is a harsh reality and after experiencing it a few times i develop some theft prevention measures and in this video i will share them with you the best way to prevent theft is to keep things out of sight but that is an impossible task when you are camping in a vehicle and carrying gear to meet all your needs over an extended period a vehicle loaded with gear is a big target for a thief you may as well put a bullseye on it however thieves want an easy target so the number one priority for campsite theft prevention is to turn your bullseye into a difficult target to hit which will increase your chances of them moving on to an easier target thieves also do not want to be seen while in the act of a crime so the second priority for campsite theft prevention is to increase the likelihood they will be seen which should result in them fleeing without any of your stuff here is my theft prevention toolkit i will take you through how i deploy all of this and i will start with the tools i use to increase the chances a thief will be seen unfortunately i had an experience with thieves during a recent camping and fishing trip with some friends i like my coffee cold so i can drink it fast but my friends decided they wanted a hot cup of coffee in the morning so one of them assembled his jet boil and left it on the picnic table overnight when we awoke at oh dark 30 we could not find the jetboil there was a lot of other camping gear left out and we also left fishing gear in the boat which is close to our campsite but the jetboil was the only thing missing we secured the campsite and proceeded with our day of fishing and when we returned to the campground we checked in with the camp host and he said thieves hit about eight campsites and this happens two or three times a year and there is not much they can do about it we checked with our neighbor and sure enough they had some fishing poles stolen once our anger resided with some help from beer our discussion turned to theft prevention and we agreed motion lights would be a good deterrent i was already working on some theft prevention measures and i had purchased these motion lights but i had not yet deployed them in my setup as i was having a hard time getting them to work we were only staying one more night so we just secured everything overnight and i did not set up these lights when we got home my friends shared some motion light solutions they found online which inspired me to come up with a better solution and here is what i am now using these motion lights are made by luminology and they feature built-in magnets so i can just stick them pretty much anywhere on my suburban and they can be rotated 360 degrees to direct the light where it is needed many of the options we found have a rechargeable battery and rely on solar power for charging i already have too many devices that require recharging so the fact the luminology lights are powered by double a batteries was a big selling point and i think it will make them a more reliable security device the set i could not get to work uses d batteries which made them top heavy the luminology lights are lightweight and the strong magnets enable them to be mounted on the side of my suburban which is the ideal location they feature a power switch with auto on and off modes which the other set did not offer they also come with a metal backing plate for mounting and a flexible tripod that screws into the bottom so they can be set or mounted in lots of places such as a tree the brightness is 148 lumens which is a good amount of light equivalent to a low power led flashlight but i decided i want more brightness so i'm using them in pairs with a set on each side of my suburban this photo gives you some idea of the brightness and the area they cover i pointed the lights toward the camera which is about 20 feet away and you can see a good amount of light is reaching my camping gear which is about 10 feet from the lights the motion detectable range is 100 degrees and 13 feet which i found to be accurate and they were consistent with turning on and automatically shutting off after 30 seconds here is the view from inside my suburban in this first shot my skeeter beater window screens are installed and i'm walking by around six feet from the lights and here's a shot without the window screen as you can see it is lighting me up well these lights are weather resistant but not waterproof so i will see how they stand up to the pacific northwest rain now a philosophical question if a light shines on a thief in a campsite will anyone see them hmm probably not unless the light is accompanied by a sound now in my brightness examples you could hear me coming and that noise level is probably enough to wake me up but not all campsites have a nice and even layer of gravel so you need a reliable sound to alert you and that is a motion sensor alarm i found this one made by wsd cam and it's made for bicycles and motorcycles but i think it is a great solution for campsite theft prevention the best feature is the remote control which allows you to activate and deactivate while you are safe and secure inside your vehicle my plan is to deploy it inside of a storage bin and as you can hear it is still quite loud from inside the sensor is waterproof so you can put it anywhere but i think keeping it inside something will reduce the false alarms caused by wind rain and critters scavenging your campsite the remote control has a range of 66 feet so you can sound the alarm if you are inside your vehicle and see a campsite intruder who has not yet set off the alarm it does not have a panic button but you can push the locate button and create these sounds which should make a thief run away now that we can see thieves and scare them off we can turn our attention to making the bullseye a difficult target unfortunately i put a big and easy bullseye on my suburban twice and learned some hard lessons the first time my suburban was parked on the street where i live and i made the mistake of leaving camping gear inside and it was easy pickings they smashed a window and unlocked the doors and cleared out most of my gear the second time and i am embarrassed to say there was a second time i got home late and unloaded all the gear stored inside my suburban see i did learn but i was lazy and left my cargo box on top of my suburban locked to the cargo rack and thought it would be okay for one night well i learned the next morning it was the wrong night and a cable lock is no match for bolt cutters and that is when i learned about hexagonal chains which are very hard to cut as you can see i used several hexagonal chains in my theft prevention toolkit these are three foot chains and i will show you how i use those in a bit i also use five foot chains to secure bins to my hitch cargo carrier i wrap one end around and on both sides of the strap holder and then secure it with a padlock and then i will pull it tight across to the other side and lock it down with it wrapped on one side and tight on the other the chain won't slide back and forth i can lift an edge of the lid but i can't access the contents and i can't remove the bin the bins are plastic so they're not going to stand up to a saw or hammer but this method does make them a more difficult target i believe utilizing storage bins makes it easier to implement theft prevention measures because it reduces the number of items you need to secure and the bins can be a relatively secure place for gear for example if you do not want to take the time or do not have enough space to put everything inside the vehicle you can stack the bins and secure them together with cable locks which make it very difficult and awkward to move them add a hexagonal chain and a motion alarm to the mix and that makes it a difficult target but keep in mind the cable lock is a weak link so if you are leaving camp i recommend putting everything inside the vehicle i believe keeping as much gear as possible inside the vehicle keeps your camping gear more out of sight which is the best way to keep it from being a target i like to be prepared for anything and my suburban has plenty of space inside so i carry a lot of gear even with all this gear when i'm solo camping i can easily keep nearly everything inside with my bed set up double camping presents a bigger challenge but i can put three bends and both coolers up front and lock two bends in the hitch cargo carrier and if needed two bins will fit underneath here in the back and i can use cable locks to secure them to the vehicle and putting bins up in the cargo rack and lock to it is another option but i usually carry my cargo box and propane tank up there and here is how they are secured the propane tank is chained and locked to the rack the cargo box latches have small holes for the locks so i use small padlocks you should use shrouded locks whenever possible but i've not been able to locate any that work with these latches i did try commando locks and after some practice figured out how to use them but they are too big for the cargo box latches and they don't work well with hexagonal chains speaking of chains remember my stolen cargo box well here is how i am securing it now i have a chain wrapped and pipe insulation running through the back of the cargo rack and locked on each end to the cargo box it is not a hexagonal chain but given its tight location i don't think that is necessary the fact the security is behind the box probably means it still has a bull's eye on it but i am confident removing it is a very difficult job and now i will show you where i deploy the rest of the three foot hexagonal chains it is a bit extreme but remember my experience with a window being smashed and gear removed via the doors and the rear hatch well you can still break a window but i'm going to make it very difficult for a thief to empty out my suburban by way of the doors and the hatch i found a u-shaped lock that fits around the cargo bar railing and still provides enough room to connect the chain and secure the lock then i use a large hexagonal padlock to secure the chain to the door handle now you can't open the doors for the hatch i found yet another use for my hitch cargo carrier i replaced the pivot point hitch pin with a locking hitch pin so it can't be folded down which means a thief can't open the rear hatch i will deploy this theft prevention method when i leave camp for an extended period and when i park at trailheads which is another place thieves look for easy targets i believe this theft prevention method ratchets the difficulty up to a level where a thief will choose an easier target and if they do get inside i'm working on some surprises for them all these locks mean i have a lot of keys so i put corresponding numbers on the locks and keys to keep them all straight i also have a complete set of spare keys for all the locks and my vehicle safely hidden way out of sight utilizing these key holder boxes this is a very important step so don't skip it i am confident if you deploy some or all of these theft prevention measures your bullseye will be difficult to hit and you will significantly reduce your chances of falling prey to a thief i have a complete list of all my camping gear including all the items in my theft prevention toolkit on the camping gear page at suburbancamping.com please note i utilize the amazon affiliate program to support this youtube channel and my website which means i may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if the affiliate links are utilized to make a purchase if you learned something from this video even one thing and you have not yet subscribed please subscribe thank you very much

Channel: Suburban Camping

Views: 352,350

Keywords: camping in my suburban, outdoor adventures, safe outdoor adventures camping in car, suburban camper

Id: J-JQcmVOZFc

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021