John,
I've never seen anyone who could unhitch or climb into/onto a trailer
without tipping it a little. A simple mecury switch should be enough to
close a circuit and set off the most annoying, ear splitting siren you can
find. A siren inside the trailer will drive them out and sirens and
flashing lights (strobes are neat!) outside will let everyone know which
trailer is being fiddled with. With the power supply someplace inside an
enclosed trailer or hooked up to the race vehicles battery (which is gonna
be tough to access on a trailer, especially in the dark) it'd be pretty
tough to defeat.
What you want to avoid is the same old alarm sirens that we've all heard
over and over. (Beep, beep, beep, beep...woo, woo, woo, woo, woo... Honk,
honk, honk, honk, etc.)
Everyone tunes those out like an old top 40 song, especially in larger
cities. Something unique and especially annoying will get peoples
attention. Pyrotechnic devices would be easy to hook up to a really
thorough system. A quick stop to see Chico at "South of the Border" and you
could have some deafening flash-bangs and roman candles announcing that
someone had tried to move your rig. If it didn't bring police in a hurry
it'd sure bring the fire department!
Simple stuff like good locks on the trailer tongues and even safety
chains and reciever will also help keep honest people honest. My county
uses big armored boots on their trailers when they're parked on the
roadside. I'll see if I can contact them and see where they get these, or
make some drawings so I can make my own.
Of course, there's always the recognition issue. One white box looks
pretty much like every other to the local lawman, but a brightly colored
roadster or other race vehicle is likely to get noticed. If something seems
fishy (the lights don't work because you wired them to match your rig only,
one tire is flat or missing, the electric brakes are locked, the license tag
is missing and has a big "stolen from..." tag in it's place, or it's
dragging both ramps after hitting the first bump becsuse you "forgot" to
secure them) there's a much better chance of frustrating the thieves and
making recovery and prosecution easier.
My personal favorite sign for the plain white box trailer..."CAUTION:
These monkey's scratch and bite and may cause serious injury!!"
Chuck Rothfuss
LSR #510
Pole Cat Hollow, NC
At 09:37 AM 9/5/2000 -0400, John Beckett wrote:
>Joe
>
>If you come up with a good alarm system let us know. I'm like you I would
>like to advertise our success. Now if we all travel in a caravan we could
>post a sentry.
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