Conference vicki::boats

    If someone is going to take the time to put wheels back on the trailer
    so they can back a truck up to it and drive it off, I would think
    that locks and chains will not deter them. I would remove any
    electronics and stuff that could be carried off the boat. Do not
    lock the boat up tight with no ventilation! I do put a hardened
    pad lock on the hitch of my trailer when it is in the yard but the
    wheels are on then so it is the only thing to slow thieves down.
    
    Relax over the winter, thats what you have insurance for.
    
    Bruce

    there are a few more things you can do to deter theft.
    on covering, do leave space for ventilation, musty smells are
    hard to get rid of. as for deterents, begin by digging a 10ft.
    mote around the trailer, about 50 ft. away. on the inner cirlcle
    plant land mines in various locations. directly on the inside
    bankon of the mote, erect a 15 ft. chain link fence. since
    you could never provide enough power with a portable generator
    run an heavy duty extension down to the sandwich power station
    as them about monthly rates.
    
    all kidding aside, sounds like you've done all you can.
    
    thought i would add a little humor, sometimes reading these
    notes, we get too serious. hope you don't mind.
    
    jim.

    you could unbolt the hitch from the trailer.

    Don't forget to winterize your boat! One neat trick is to put a
    light bulb into the engine compartment to add a little warmth during
    the especially cold periods and this also keeps the moisture out.
    Maybe a really clever thing to do would be to put a sensor in the
    light bulb circuit which sounds an alarm when the circuit is broken.
    That would not only indicate theft, but would also let you know
    if the bulb has blown.
    
    Tally-ho,
    
    Ray

    Re: .0
    
    I had a boat stolen from my back yard one night while I was on
    vacation, during the winter. Fortunately, I had informed the local
    police that I would be gone AND that I had a boat on a trailer parked
    in the yard. They just happened to be cruising up the street at
    10:00pm, and noticed the vehicle, with boat in tow, go by. They
    recognized the boat from previous house checks, so made a quick
    U-turn and pulled the car over. It turned out to be a guest of one
    of my neighbors at a party one night who noticed my boat and heard
    that I was on vacation.
    
    I had a padlock thru the coupler gizmo, but they just took a socket
    wrench, and removed said gizmo, replacing it with one that they
    brought. Do you think they scoped it out in advance??
    
    Anyway, after that I did the following:
    
    1. Removed wheels, leaving trailer on blocks.
    2. Removed entire trailer tongue, from the tilt pivot point. Had
       to block front of trailer at tilt point (no tongue, no winch).
    3. Removed license plate
    4. Drove a ground auger into the ground, and ran a heavy chain and
       lock through the eye and around the trailer frame.
    5. Ran a cable lock through both transom eyes, and around the trailer,
       and through the eye of the auger.               
    6. Ran a cable lock through the bow eye, around the front of the
       trailer, and around a tree that I had positioned the boat near.
                                       
    You may say overkill, but it only took a couple of hours each Fall
    and Spring, which is a lot less time than messing with insurance
    companies, and buying a new boat.
    
    BTW: It was a Glastron Carlson CVX18 with a 175 Mercury Black Max.
    
    Better safe than sorry.
    
    Good luck,    Al

    I would just add that taking off propellors can be quite easy to
    do, as is mine. Needless to say, my "screw" spends the winter indoors
    as does the radio and speaker enclosures. the trailer coupler removal
    trick sounds very worthwhile and, yes, removing the wheels will
    deter almost everyone except the pros.
    
    Mike

< Reply to Note 186.6 by SALEM::M_TAYLOR "Dial 1-900-490-FREAK" >
                   -< Don't let them screw with your screw! >-

I agree with Mike.  I went on vacation this summer and left my boat
sitting in the yard.  When I got back someone had taken my propellor.
I had the trailer hitch locked.  It looked like they went through the
glove box of my car looking for the keys to the lock as I found the
pin for the trailer on the floor of my car.  I had just put the lock
on a couple of weeks earlier because I had heard that trailers were
be stolen from the Fort Pond area because it's just off of RTE 2.
Now, I'm glad that I put the lock on my trailer.  My wife had asked
me to leave a spare key in the glove box of the car but luckily I didn't.

							Rob.

    
    	There sure seem to be a large number of scumballs out
    there that want pieces to *our* boats, huh?
    
    	I always lock my trailer coupling whether it's attached
    to the truck or not. This summer a thought did dawn on me
    though... When the trailer is attached to the truck there 
    is nothing to stop someone from cranking up the trailer,
    pulling the pin on the receiver hitch, sliding the ball
    and bar out of the my truck's receiver then into their's,
    then driving away with my trailer and possibly the boat also.
    
    	Although I haven't purchased one yet, a lockable pin
    does exist for receiver-type hitches which would solve
    this problem.
    
    Rick
    
    	How about just mounting a shotgun under the deck of the boat
    aimed out a hole just under the bow eye. Then run a line from
    the trigger to the ground. Boy would the guy cranking up the trailer
    have one helluva suprise!

    Rick,
    
    The same thoughty of someone just pulling the pin on the reciever
    of the hitch while the boat and or trailer were attached to my
    truck occurred to me.  Where did you see these lockable pins??
    
    Is it just a lock that goes thru the hole in the pin,  if it is
    it does not seem like the shackle would be very big and therefore
    easy to cut.  But any kind of lock will deter most thieves,  and
    a pro is going to get your boat no matter what you do if he/she
    really wants it.
    
    
    Mike Smith
    
    PS
      Sorry I missed you guys yesterday,  my "one hour" meeting did
    not get finished until quarter of four.  Hope you had good water.
    
    

    
    Re: Mike,
    
    	I saw the lockable pins at U-Haul, although I really
    don't remember the design, I seem to remember that they
    were quite different from the standard pin.
    
    Rick

    Drill out the hole where the pin gets installed to the size of a
    padlock bolt and re-use your old pin. You should have enough room
    to do that on most pins. Good idea even if you don't have a trailer
    hooked up to it if you're not a
    regular-ball_mount-remover-when-not-in-use. I try not to keep mine
    on when not being used.
    
    Mike

On one of my older boat trailers, a Sno-Line I think, was a tilt trailer.
The part of the tongue that didn't tilt -- in other words, the part with
the trailer hitch -- was actually easily removable at the pivot point
where it was designed to tilt. Like, would you believe *one* bolt?

Removing that meant that I had to block the main trailer chassis at four
points (which you'll do anyway if you remove your wheels) but made it
HIGHLY unlikely that anyone was going to haul it away.

I'll look at my small COX over the weekend to see if that is still
possible.

Art

    Regarding the receiver hitch pin.  I have seen two styles:
    one is like a standard pin, but with a larger hole -- you
    use a pad lock with this; the second is a rod with an
    integral lock.   In cross section, the second style looks
    like:

    	|---------|                             |---------|
    	|          -----------------------------          |
    	|                                                 | <- Keyway
    	|          -----------------------------          |
    	|---------|                             |---------|

    When it's locked, there isn't much to pry on, and to cut it,
    you have to go through the entire pin.

    	- Lee

    
    	Ahhh, too bad you figured out the chink in your armor Rick,
    just as I was getting to REALLY LIKE your boat too:-^)   Check out
    the locking hitch pin on the back of my 'burb sometime, its a regular
    hardened steel bent pin, but instead of having a small hole for
    a cotter pin its cut and chamfered to fit into a padlock body, I
    don't think a hacksaw or bolt cutter could get in there, probably
    have to be ground or burned off, would you believe  
    "Wild Bill Hitch_Lock"  for a product name ?   I got it a couple
    of years ago at the trailer place in Marlborough, the guy's sell
    line was that kids will hang around trailer parks and boat ramps
    looking for pins to pull,  "Just for grins",  not theft.
    I also have a padlock on the coupler too, it serves as another safety
    pin when I'm towing.
    
    	Reg
    
    

	   Thank God for MASTERLOCK.

   A couple weeks ago I took my boat down to the lake to make room for some 
construction work at home, but did not launch it.  I had it in the driveway
of my cottage sitting on the trailer.  Last weekend all was fine, but this
weekend I find the hitch all beat to hell.  Some ##$$%%$#'s tried to steal
my boat.  My hitch has the lock mechanism such that the SHANK OF THE LOCK
will not allow the ball clip (for lack of a better term) to slide back.
They bent the lever which normally moves the clip over almost double.  Next
weekend the boat will be in the water for the summer.  I'm real nervous about
leaving it there now.

   It does not appear that they tried to get into the boat or tear up the
electronics or anything, but they sure messed up the hitch....

    Any more suggestions about how to secure a boat which is tied to a dock??

Al

    I make a habit of locking the hitch on my trailer, but I didn't do the
    same for my motor and had a propellor stolen from my 105 Chrylser
    outboard last year when we were on vacation.  Since the old Chyrsler was 
    so hard to get repaired, I replaced it with a 1985 90 hp Mercury.  Does 
    anyone know where I can get a lock for the propellor in the Leominster 
    area, and how much one would run?  Tri City Marina wanted $35 for one, 
    and that sounded alittle steep. It's pretty bad, when you got to lock up
    everything on your boat, especially when it's sitting in your own yard.
    
    								Rob.

<    ...Does anyone know where I can get a lock for the propellor in the
<    Leominster area, and how much one would run?  Tri City Marina wanted $35
<    and that sounded alittle steep. It's pretty bad, when you got to
<    lock up everything on your boat, especially when it's sitting in your
<    own yard. 

    Bass Pro Shops has a prop lock for $23 plus S&H..  page 407 1988 catalog
	1-800-BASS-PRO

Al

    Try A-1 Marine, they just opened up this year. They are in Lunenburg
    just over the line from Fitchburg, on RT2-A. I know they have good
    
    prices.