Camp security

[Salty4Life]

For those of you who base camp, how do you secure your stuff when you leave. My wife and I are currently traveling through southern Utah and are trying to disperse camp. The problem is that we wanna leave and run trails, or go hike and come back. Do you always pack up and set up everyday or are there some tricks for securing your belongings while away from camp? PFA

 

[rtexpeditions]

I think a lot depends on the location. In some places, you can leave everything set up and in some places, you wouldn't.
Put your valuables away.
Most people won't mess with your vehicle and items attached to it. They are more likely to pick up items just laying around.
Think like a potential thief, effort, portability and monetary returns.

From your photo:
I'd put the solar panel away as well as those fancy boxes.
The gazebo can be left out.
The tent, and sleeping gear, would probably be fine in most cases. Most people see that as your personal space and won't enter.

 

[MMc]

I knock down the kitchen, the valuables are out of site, the sleeping bags are rolled up. If there are other campers I'll ask them to keep an eye on my stuff.
I would knock down the easy up or tie it down. Those things do not do well in a good blow.

 

[grubworm]

one idea id do on certain job sites is get a tool tote from hardware store...



drill a hole in the bottom and then get a earth anchor and twist it into the ground with the eyelet sticking up a few inches then open the lid of the tote and place the tote over the anchor with the eyelet coming up thru the hole and padlock thru the eyelet on the inside and then lock the lid. not completely unstoppable, but it is a really good deterrent and not something a person is going to defeat without causing a lot of attention to themselves.

 

[MOAK]

We keep an anally retentive clean and well organized campsite. Everything has it's place and all places have their things. Heavy winds, rainstorm, bears, ravens? No problem, we are already in the habit of putting things away as soon as we are done using them. Thieves? Where we camp? I won't say zero chance, but darn close to zero. However, on the outside chance, our campsite is kept clean and organized already, so the most we might do is fold the chairs up, bungee them together and drive or walk away, sometimes overnight. The trailer has a custom tarp. If a thief really wants to get into it, just take the tarp off and have at it. Of course all the really valuable stuff, camera gear, fridges, fortified brownies, tools, etc etc is in the vehicle, locked up if we leave to go hiking.

 

[mep1811]

I always secure the trailer and lock it up. The tables and chairs I fold up and run a cable through them and to the trailer. Also very helpful if the wind comes up.

 

[Advtres]

I have little in gear and if I am going for a walk, hike or explore around and leaving my gear I put it away…
Out of sight. Crimes of opportunity can be at least avoided…

Any thefts I have heard of on the trail have been from people leaving things on picnic tables or laying around their campsite.
Snatch and grab type of stuff…

 

[MOAK]

I have little in gear and if I am going for a walk, hike or explore around and leaving my gear I put it away…
Out of sight. Crimes of opportunity can be at least avoided…

Any thefts I have heard of on the trail have been from people leaving things on picnic tables or laying around their campsite.
Snatch and grab type of stuff…

Yes and I’ve never met anyone that had anything stolen from their camp.

 

[PCO6]

Hardly fool proof but for trips when I sleep in my Jeep and plan to take off for any length of time, I sometimes bring a small tent and use it as a "garage". I've kept all kinds of things in this little air suspension tent (paddle & fishing equipment, bike, wood, chair, beer(!), etc.). The floor is about 4'x6' and is about 4' high. It gives the impression that my site is occupied or at least that I could return at any time.

 

[John and Mandi]

Beautiful spot!

I mostly do pack all my stuff together, before I leave for out of sight. I did start doing it that way during our transafrica journey and never change that way to handle it. Too back in the safe spot switzerland.

Dont make it so easy for a stranger.

But yes, my camp-setup is too much easier, I dont need more than 5 minutes to store everything back in the car.

We do the same. Once the habit is formed it becomes uncomfortable thinking about any item that is being left out. We sometimes carry a broken chair to be our site placeholder because anytime we need to drive somewhere it looks unoccupied. Long ago we would leave our chairs out but a stray cat sprayed one, now they get stuffed into the front passenger footwell when we call it a night.

We have friends that cable locked their gear to their rig such as stove, propane tank, table, chairs etc… Coolest idea was Swiss friends used a thin really long coated cable to run through all of their outside gear and integrated it with their alarm system when it plugged (locked) into a slot on the rig. It was a bit overkill, especially considering they were in a double cab Scania (11 meters long) and had so much empty compartment space it was easy to stow everything, but it gave the man of the couple something to create and do. He came up with quite a few ideas that were really unique and extremely well thought out. Gotta love the engineers on the road.

 

[OBB]

For those of you who base camp, how do you secure your stuff when you leave. My wife and I are currently traveling through southern Utah and are trying to disperse camp. The problem is that we wanna leave and run trails, or go hike and come back. Do you always pack up and set up everyday or are there some tricks for securing your belongings while away from camp? PFAView attachment 232629

I always move on but I think one way to address it would be a camper trailer as a base camp.

 

[madcratebuilder]

A dead body with a couple of obvious bullet wounds is a great deterrent.

 

[grubworm]

A dead body with a couple of obvious bullet wounds is a great deterrent.

we tried that a while back camping outside of portland...came back and everything was gone, including the corpse's socks and shoes

 

[Ubiety]

we tried that a while back camping outside of portland...came back and everything was gone, including the corpse's socks and shoes

That was a great camp spot!