Device to stop livestock trailer theft?

[aj]

It has probably been gone over but is there a device to clamp on a gooseneck trailer deal to make it more difficult to latch on and drive away?

 

[Turkey Creek Ranch]

http://www.google.com/products?q=Gooseneck+Lock&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=com.google:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

There is a TON of them. We have never used one, so I couldn't tell you which one is the best.

 

[afhm]

There is one that goes around the hitch that is useless unless you get the one that goes over the bolts holding the hitch sleeve on to the trailer and use both of them.  The one that just goes over the hitch is useless because all you have to have is a wrench and another hitch and the trailer is still easy to steal.

 

[justintime]

Over the years there have been many trailers stolen. The last time I took cattle to Denver, the trailer that was parked next to mine, was stolen. IT was a new 24 ft aluminum trailer owned by a firm from ILL, and the trip to Denver was the first trip it had made. A few years later I was in the yards in Denver helping load a bull I had purchased, when I heard a guy yelling. I looked to see him running down the street after a truck and trailer. Apparently he had loaded a couple of head into his trailer and had gone back to his pen to get some other cattle. He was just about back when he saw his truck and trailer leaving. Someone had stolen the truck, trailer and cattle. I heard later that the truck and trailer were found a couple hundred miles from Denver but no cattle were found. I never heard  if they were ever found or not.

 

[linnettejane]

you know....that is really pathetic.....what kind of low life would steal someones cattle?  do you think the "thieves" are show cattle people? 

weren't there some shorthorns stolen in Louisville last year?  wonder what ever became of that? 

 

[farmboy]

i think they found them.... i think they went to a sale barn in indy and a slaughter house

 

[DLD]

On my last two trailers, there was a loop welded on the stem for the safety chains - I just bought one of those cable locks that's adjustable to lock at any length, put an extra ball inside the coupler, latch it closed, run the cable through the latch and up through the loop and back, pull it snug and lock it. This locks the latch and doesn't allow the coupler to drop down far enough to remove it from the stem. It could be cut off with the right tool, I guess, but I figure it makes mine more trouble than 80% of the other trailers in the lots - either it works, or nobody wants my trailers anyway...  :-\

I've also seen home-made ones with a piece of pipe big enough in diameter to cover the coupler, capped on the bottom, and a piece of chain welded to the top and locked to a short chain or loop welded to the trailer above it.

My current trailer doesn't have the same loop on the stem however, so I'm contemplating buying one of the coupler lock/ setscrew lock combo's EZTL50 / EZTL51 here;
http://www.redneck-trailer.com/2006/K/K12-K13.pdf

 

[Jive Turkey]

Some kind of GPS tracking chip would work.

You would get your trailer back and then have the added joy of the people actually getting caught.

They have these for bicycles so I don't know why they wouldn't have them to put on trailers.

 

[DLD]

Along those same lines, you can paint your name or some other kind of unique id on the roof of your trailer, big enough to be read from the air. Chances are very good that theives won't realize it's there when they take it, and if you mention it when you report it stolen, it makes it much easier for law enforcement to find it.