Welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your host Marc Guido, and on this
episode we're going to talk boondocking security, so stick around!
So one of the biggest fears folks seem to have about boondocking is personal
security out in the wilderness. We get asked all the time, and it seems to be
mostly from folks who have never boondock before or maybe have only done
it only a few times, they worry about the personal safety. They worry about the
security of their gear and their trailer, and I'm here to tell you we don't worry
about it at all. As a matter of fact I get a little more
concerned about stuff disappearing, or things happening -- weird things with other
folks -- if I'm in a campground or an RV park. When I'm out in the in the middle
of nowhere, out in the wilderness, quite frankly I feel extremely secure and I
don't feel that I need to have somebody right next to me to serve as a security
blanket. I'm here to explain to you what steps we take just to keep an eye on our
stuff, and keep an eye on ourselves, so when we leave camp to go explore for the
day stuff like... you know... our chairs and our table, and our outdoor, other outdoor
furniture, we don't do anything with that. It just sits there. Never had anything
walk away under its own power yet, everything is always there when we come
back at the end of a day exploring. Now, a couple of more valuable items we
will put a lock and cable on them just to discourage the casual thief. Things like
our solar panels -- you know, that's four or five hundred dollars we've got in the
solar panels. Things like our generator -- we all know what generators cost, and
it's so easy to drive by in a pickup truck and conveniently throw it in the
bed of the truck and drive away. We'll also do it with our satellite dish but
that's really about it. We'll use, like I said, bicycle cables and
padlocks just to secure it to the trailer to discourage the casual thief.
Now, is that going to stop anybody who's really determined to take it? No, it's not,
but it's going to discourage the person who's looking for a crime of opportunity.
Now as far as personal safety goes, yeah -- sure, we lock the door of the trailer
when we go to sleep at night, but you know, in decades of tent camping I didn't
have a lock on the tent door. There was nothing I could do about that. I've never
had some crazed axe murderer show up in the middle of the night. Personal safety
and our security of our gear, it kind of goes to the fact that a criminal is not
going to wander around the middle of nowhere looking for someone camping to
be an easy mark. They're going to go looking in urban areas where there's a
large concentration of people and a large concentration of stuff, and they'll
commit their criminal acts there. Now one thing I do want to talk to you about is
your trailer key. Yeah, I almost guarantee you have one of these on your
ring of trailer keys. It's called a 751 key, and it's called a 751 key because
printed right on it is CH751. Now I hate to break this to you, but every other RV
owner has a 751 key, so you know that door to your basement where you store
all your stuff? Anybody who has this key can also open yours. That's why we've
replaced our basement door locks with combination locks from a company called
Combi-Cam. You can set your own combination and conveniently open the
door while keeping folks with the CH751 key out. You also don't need to have your
keys on you to be able to unlock or lock the basement doors. They're quick and
easy to install by virtually anyone with a wrench, and we love ours. We'll put a
link in the description down below to these door locks on Amazon if you'd like
to upgrade your basement door locks. So anybody who's been watching our channel
Grand Adventure for a while knows that our preference is for boondocking.
We'll boondock any time we can over staying in an RV park or a campground,
and don't let a fear for your own personal safety keep you from
boondocking. It is wonderful to get out here and have absolutely nobody else
around, and have all the space to enjoy our public lands. If you're not yet a
Grand Adventurer, make sure that you hit that subscribe
down there in the corner and ring that notification bell. If you found this
information helpful or even reassuring to you, if you liked this video give us a
thumbs up down below. Also down below you'll find the comments section -- we'd
love to hear your experiences and your feedback on your personal security while
boondocking. We air new outdoor adventure videos each and every Wednesday, so we'd
be honored if you shared Grand Adventure with your friends and family, as well as
on social media. And until next week please remember... life is nothing but a
Grand Adventure. Get out there and enjoy it! We'll see you next week.