An elderly guy came back in to the ramp to find some thieving ***** had nicked his trailer at Kuaotunu last weekend.  Not the first time that I have heard this happening.

I don't use a wheel clamp but I have a lock where the trailer hitches to the tow bar. I think I read a thread on here a while back about some one stealing the winch handle off a trailer, It made me check to see if mine came off easily and started caring a spare. 

Yep, keep mine locked although may do same as wide load from now on....wouldnt be hard to break the lock off id say....Poor bugger that had his knicked.

As far as D-shackles go. Got sick of having mine nicked from Holiday Boat storage yard, so bought one of those chain clamps that bolts to your tow bar. Not sure what they are called, but I bought mine from Repco.

I padlock to my car and take the D shackles off. What the heck would you do if your trailer was stolen? It's not like you can just get someone to pick you up and worry about it later. 

Arrived at HMB one day with the wife acting as crew and a guy came running up to me and asked if I would help by loading his boat on my trailer and running it home for him as some barstool had knicked his.  The guy reckoned he was only a couple of K's from the ramp, so I did the Good Samaritan thing. Dropped my boat in the water and left the Mrs. holding it while I loaded the other guy's boat on my trailer and towed it to his place - which turned out to be at least 5 K's away  By the time I had dropped his boat off in his driveway and got back on the road again quite some time had passed and when I got back to HMB all the close-by parking had been taken so had to park quite some distance away.

I had one of those red and yellow pincer type wheel locks. Lost the key. A 12 volt drill took about 10 seconds to sort it. So I went for a more expensive cable type with lock. Drove off with it around the wheels and it snapped like cotton . I now have the most expensive chain and padlock I could find and it seems to be the best option. I reckon you need to make life difficult and put two layers of security on stuff. Would like to put one of those bars over the outboard screws to stop that getting lifted. They had them on a deals site but they sold out. Anyone know where you can get them from?

ponty wrote: I padlock to my car and take the D shackles off. What the heck would you do if your trailer was stolen? It's not like you can just get someone to pick you up and worry about it later.

krow wrote: ponty wrote: I padlock to my car and take the D shackles off. What the heck would you do if your trailer was stolen? It's not like you can just get someone to pick you up and worry about it later.  Fairly dangerous thing to do as the padlock is more than likely quite weak and may not hold in the event of the toe hitch coming off the ball.  I suggest you do a little test and hook the chain up only and drive off. I suspect you'll be amazed at how easly it smashes the lock. Have you obtained a warrant with this setup?

 

Catchelot wrote: krow wrote: ponty wrote: I padlock to my car and take the D shackles off. What the heck would you do if your trailer was stolen? It's not like you can just get someone to pick you up and worry about it later.  Fairly dangerous thing to do as the padlock is more than likely quite weak and may not hold in the event of the toe hitch coming off the ball.  I suggest you do a little test and hook the chain up only and drive off. I suspect you'll be amazed at how easly it smashes the lock. Have you obtained a warrant with this setup?       The Testing Station does not allow padlocks because in the event of an emergency it impedes progress for the Fire Brigade if they have to remove the trailer from the vehicle...   I used to padlock my towing chain on my dinghy to the car until I got told off.

Somehow I think the fire brigade would just cut the chain if they wanted the trailer off in a hurry, they carry big bolt cutters.

PAdlocks are not enough on a safety chain, as above, chains are quickly and easily cut..as well as the obvious of padlocks being weak or smacked off with a hammer.

What I would consider is a bracket that covered the nut on your towball, had a leg going up each side of the towball and coupling and then locked on top of the coupling.
Use one of those round padlocks that have very little lock shaft showing.