Menu

Securing your caravan

According to the website Out and About Live there is a greater chance of your caravan being stolen from the driveway of your own home than from practically anywhere else.

Just when you were thinking that you and your caravan were home and dry, therefore, there is always the risk of it being stolen, broken into or otherwise damaged. Here at Cover4Caravans we are able to help with providing the insurance cover, but what precautions might you also be taking for securing your caravan?

Storage

  • it is likely to be at its most vulnerable when laid up for the winter, so why not consider finding secure storage facilities such as provided by members of the Caravan Storage Site Owners’ Association (CaSSOA) – and earn yourself a reduction in insurance premiums into the bargain;
  • there are more than 500 registered sites around the country so there is every chance there is one near you and each is graded according to the level of security provided – in terms of perimeter fencing, CCTV coverage, secured and manned entry points and so on;

Choosing your campsite

  • when you are on holiday with your trailer, you might want to remember that some caravan parks are more secure than others and that some are specifically approved by the police and given “Secured by Designed” recognition;
  • as the Thames Valley police suggest, you might find out which sites have earned such a stamp of approval by contacting the local crime prevention police unit;

Touring

  • when you are out and about touring with your caravan, some insurers expect you to take a few simple precautions to help you stop someone making off with it – wheel clamps and wheel locks, for instance, are easily fitted whether you have stopped with your car still hooked up to the caravan or whenever it is left unattended;

Securing it

  • there are also straight forward precautions you might take just as if your caravan was your own home;
  • ensuring that doors and windows are locked when you are not inside are actions you are likely to take as second nature;
  • you might also want to invest in padlocks and chains to secure each corner of your caravan whilst it is onsite or in storage;
  • clearly, chains need to be fairly heavy-duty and the shorter the shackles the less opportunity to give to thieves bent on cutting through them;

Motion detectors

  • just as you might fit burglar alarms in your home, alarms may also help ward off unwelcome attentions to your caravan;
  • following a recent spate of caravans being broken into even whilst their owners slept inside, you might also want to consider fitting motion detectors;
  • each summer it seems, there are gangs operating (mainly in Europe) using forms of sleeping gas to incapacitate occupants whilst the caravan is ransacked;
  • one of the latest such attacks was described in an story published in the Mirror newspaper last summer (July 2014). However, even as the victim admits, pitching up at a secure caravan or camp site is a lot safer than simply parking in a service station area, as they had done.

Securing your caravan, therefore, does not need to involve overly elaborate measures, but rather the kind of common sense precautions designed to minimise the risk of opportunistic thieves and intruders.