Overland Vehicle Security: 5 Common-Sense Tips to Reduce Your Theft Risk

Let me start with a quick story. Back in 2007, our friends were camping in their rooftop tent on a beach in Mozambique when their Land Cruiser was broken into. Sometime during the night, a team of enterprising thieves quietly went about cutting through the seals around one of the Land Cruiser’s rear cargo windows so that they could remove the glass (protected by 12mm security film) and make off with a load of clothes, camping equipment, and other gear. All-the-while, our friends were fast asleep, unaware of the robbery in progress just beneath their bed.

This is a pretty brazen example, which illustrates a simple point. Traveling in an overland vehicle – be it a motorcycle, expedition 4WD, bicycle, van, or whatever - requires a measure of vigilance to keep your gear safe.

To that end, I thought it might be useful to share our approach for overland vehicle security. What follows are 5 simple tips to help reduce your risk of a break-in. It’s a common sense approach, which we’ve used for years, that emphasizes prevention over vehicle fortification.

Note, to keep the post short, the tips that follow apply mainly to overland vehicles of the four-wheeled variety. In a future post, we'll try to write up something similar for motorcycles and bicycles.

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How to Reduce Your Theft Risk

1) Park in a Safe Place

This is so obvious and yet it's so easily forgotten. Many of the overland break-ins we’ve heard about could have been avoided by parking in a safe place. And in fact, the only time we were broken into (see photo below), was when we ignored this rule back in 2007. Parking in a safe place is arguably the most effective vehicle theft prevention tip.

 

Our approach is simple, if not always easy. If we're not confident we're parking in a safe place, we don't leave the car. If, for example, we’re running errands and we’re unsure about security, one of us stays with the vehicle. No exceptions. It goes without saying, but this is one of the advantages of traveling with another person.

In larger towns and cities, we rarely park on the street or leave our vehicles unattended. Rather, if we’re going into town, we often prefer to park in a secure place - our hotel or a campsite, for example - and get around on foot, by taxi, or by public transport. This has the added benefit of cutting down on the stress and accident risk associated with driving in big traffic-clogged cities.

Bottom line: This is priority #1 in our effort to avoid break-ins. The trick is sticking with it as it’s so easy to just park and go vs. endure the time-consuming hassles of finding a safe parking spot. Unless you're confident about your surroundings, think twice before leaving your vehicle unattended.

2) Out of Sight, Out of Mind

The simple idea here is pretty clear. Don’t tempt someone into robbing you by advertising that your vehicle is full of expensive gear (Your foreign registration plates make you conspicuous enough).

In our Land Cruiser, we aim to conceal everything. Stuff that’s often mounted outside on overland vehicles - like recovery equipment, water cans, and extra fuel - is largely invisible, either stored in internal tanks, covered, or tucked away as best as possible. And inside, all gear stows away in compartments so that nothing is visible when you look through the windows.

To that end, we installed 15% window tent (vs. darker 5% limo tent). 15% tent is effective for general privacy; however, if someone is close enough to the truck, they can still see inside. We view this as a positive. If someone’s curious enough to get close and have a look, what they’ll see inside is absolutely nothing to steal.

This system isn’t perfect - it's still obvious we’re traveling. But at least our valuables are out of view, which we believe reduces the risk of theft.

3) Establish a Security Routine

Every time we start a new trip, we establish a quick and simple security routine. The idea is to make sure we take the necessary steps to protect our vehicle and ourselves each and every time we set out. The goal is to take the steps without having to think about it.

Establishing such routines is important. To illustrate my point, part of our overland vehicle security routine involves locking our doors every time we get into our Land Cruiser. We established this as part of our routine back in 2006 and have used it ever since. It’s a simple step that requires no thought. Close doors, lock, turn key, go.

I highlight this because I’m convinced it saved our lives in 2007. We were in Northern Namibia when we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we got in our Land Cruiser to leave – close doors, lock, turn key, go. Moments later, as we tried to leave the parking lot, we were involved in an attempted car-jacking. It happened in a split second. A car blocked our path as a mob ran at us from all sides - pounding the windows (reinforced by security film) and trying to open all the doors at once. It was terrifying, but we managed to jump a curb and get away before the mob got inside. It was a close call. Importantly, we came out of it unscathed because our doors were locked, and our windows were protected by security film, which I'm convinced gave us that extra bit of time to react.

4) Simple, Easy to Deploy, Layered Security

A determined thief is going to get in. That said, our goal isn’t to fortify our vehicles. Rather, our goal is to integrate layers of tamper-resistant security that’s quick and easy to deploy, reliable (i.e. no electronic immobilizers to fail, etc.) and effective at repelling a snatch and grab, while slowing / limiting the sting of a more determined thief.

We view the security features on our vehicles as one aspect of a holistic solution. A last line of defense in case parking in 'parking in a safe place' and "out of sight, out of mind" doesn’t work. Our goal is simply to have a system that’s easy enough to use so that we don’t mind using it every day.

I won’t go into detail on how our Land Cruiser’s security system works as it’s beyond the scope of this post. Rather, here’s a brief overview of the layered security features integrated into our Land Cruiser, which illustrates our layered approach.

• All windows are reinforced with security film.
• Dual rear wheel carriers lock together with a weather-resistant lock, which prevents the rear cargo doors from opening, even if the doors are unlocked.
• Otto Cinch Lock for locking gear shift in reverse. (we have found several different uses for this lock. It's become one of our favorite pieces of kit).
• Tuffy Console between front seats for quick access to secure storage of passports, vehicle docs, camera, etc. (we've installed a Tuffy Console in all three of our Land Cruisers as it's an easy to install option, which offers a secure place to stash valuables between the front seats).
• Inside, all six cargo windows have secondary protection via retractable 6mm aluminum bars (side windows) and stainless-steel mesh (rear windows).
• Access to cargo area is further limited by a drop-down, lockable cargo barrier behind front seats.
• All gear stows in lockable storage compartments.
• Hidden compartments throughout the vehicle to stow important items.
• Alarm system
• Fuel cutoff switch
• Battery cutoff switch

Our security solutions are but some of the many options available. Many overlanders opt for various other means including popular theft prevention devices like the Club Steering Wheel Lock. Whatever tools you choose, the goal is to make your vehicle an unattractive target for thieves, without making it so difficult to secure the vehicle that you drive yourself crazy trying to lock everything up.

5) Pack Light

It goes without saying but carrying less equals less to look after and less to be stolen. This is particularly important when traveling on motorcycles and bicycles as less is definitely best – both in terms of keeping items out of sight and carrying valuables with us when we leave the bikes, etc. And of course, going light has many advantages that extend beyond vehicle / gear security, but that's a topic for a separate post.

So that’s pretty much it. It’s a simple system but it’s worked well for us. Knock on wood, we’ll continue to have good luck on the road ahead.

Do you have any tips for overland vehicle security while traveling? If so, we’d love to get your thoughts in the comments section below!

 

 

Click the links below to read more posts on Overlanding:

 

• Land Cruiser Troopy Camper Conversion: Part 4 of 4

 

• Overland Gear Guide: 12 Overland Essentials

 

• By Any Means: 5 Reasons to Travel Overland

 

• Drive The World: Southern Africa

 

Wander Libre is written and created by Jim and Sheri O’Neal who aren’t experts, just travelers who share their travel stories, experience, and advice.  The advice offered is not error proof – additional research is always advised and Wander Libre cannot be held responsible for your personal safety and / or decisions. The information found herein is simply a planning resource to be used as a point of inspiration in conjunction with your own due diligence. Should you choose to follow our advice or inspiration, you do so at your own risk.

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