Keeping Truck Gear Safe in Colorado

[MuleyFever]

One thing I hate about most new trucks is no manual tailgate lock. You can't secure the tailgate. You can get a nice metal cover and all someone has to do is break the window and hit the unlock button to unlock the tailgate.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

The best way to keep your gear safe, is limit the amount you leave in your truck. If they want in, there is no way to stop them. That's the sad truth.

 

[LongWayAround]

The "lock" for my shell was really just for show. You could easily just twist it open while locked.

 

[Marble]

Just looking for options, not a debate.

I'm not sure you need to do more than install a truck cap. We have been parking at four different trail heads for 22 years and have never had a break in.

I have several trucks with several thousand dollars of products in the back of them, overnight at hotels, every week throughout northern CA. We never have issues.

Be diligent and prudent. Lock the back, cover expensive things, and maybe put more expensive stuff in the cab.

I'm not unaware of the risk you take by leaving your truck. 22 years in LE has taught me there really is nothing that can deter a highly motivated thief. But those are few and far between. Most are opportunistic, lazy and dumb.

Enjoy the hunt and stop worrying!

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[Marble]

Thanks, I lived in Colorado for over a decade and before I left there was a big problem with trucks getting broken into in the front range and it was starting to spread deeper into the mountains. Doing a google search on news seems this is becoming more common around the state. I sometimes have several valuables of a very high dollar amount in the truck so I want my chance of occurrence to be very minimal.

The decked system doesn’t seem to be a very efficient use of space so I’d rather not go that route so wondering if I could use something else or just use the shell.

Ill add just for other context. In all my years glassing with other people. Running into hunters, guides and homes on the trails going in and out of the mountains, has someone told me their car was broken into. So it happens, just not often.

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[rogerdoger]

One thing I hate about most new trucks is no manual tailgate lock. You can't secure the tailgate. You can get a nice metal cover and all someone has to do is break the window and hit the unlock button to unlock the tailgate.

I had a z71 and the tailgate was like that, if it was too cold the latch wouldn’t open.

 

[CHIEF CRNA]

Im unfortunately having to move back to Colorado after 6 years and one thing I remember from back when I lived there is I had to worry about people breaking into my truck at trail heads.

Is a truck cap enough to deter this or do I need something like a decked system?

Why would you say it is unfortunate? There are plenty of other states that you are welcomed to move to. Just my .02 cents.

 

[Balderdash]

I built a set of sliding, locking, ful lbed length drawers that sits between the wheel wells. It's very handy. I built it to accommodate traveling with dog crates, which otherwise takes up all the prime gear real estate and then its a mess to access anything.

Also, it is a very secure way to transport guns and valuables. The drawers back up to the tailgate, which locks with the rest of the truck off the key fob. The assembly is secured down, and the top is 3/4" plywood. Conceivably, someone could access it in there, but it's going to take some time. Only thing more secure would be an actual metal safe like unit.

FWIW, I had some gas can and a day pack stolen from the back of my truckbed with a topper last time I was hunting in CO. My brother lives there, so going to keep visiting and hunting CO, but it's changed a ton in the 25 years I've been going there regularly.

 

[Decker]

So I have had someone eye balling inside my truck before. Not Colorado, but back home. That was a fun conversation. Now my entire truck windows are blacked out. You have to try real hard to see inside my topper or my truck. While it doesn’t keep ppl from break in it does help keep ppl honest. I also run a decked system inside my bed. So anything that is valuable gets locked in cab or in decked box.

But while in Colorado Iv never had issues with ppl stealing things. I see guys leave their bed loaded down wide open and take off for few days without anything being touched.

I am personally more scared of my shit getting broken into while hunting in Michigan then I am any western state.

 

[displacedtexan]

As you're making all these storage plans and worrying...

Remember that we're in the age of good cordless tools AND blades.

Someone who wanted in could simply cut in.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

Out of sight out of mind. If they can’t see it they likely won’t break in just to look. Also don’t advertise with stickers of every expensive brand item you have.

the past couple years I have just put a blanket over things in my back seat or on the floor to keep them covered. Say I have a nice chainsaw with me. Move it to the cab and pile the blanket over it so it just looks like a pile of blankets.

I don’t worry about someone stealing my small hand tools out of the bed if they break the topper open. Would it suck yes but it’s pretty minor.

If someone wanted to be a real jack wagon they would steel your rims and tires. Pretty easy to jack up a truck and take the tires off.

 

[GunsAreFun]

How much gear are you needing to secure?

 

[Balderdash]

Out of sight out of mind. If they can’t see it they likely won’t break in just to look. Also don’t advertise with stickers of every expensive brand item you have.

the past couple years I have just put a blanket over things in my back seat or on the floor to keep them covered. Say I have a nice chainsaw with me. Move it to the cab and pile the blanket over it so it just looks like a pile of blankets.

I don’t worry about someone stealing my small hand tools out of the bed if they break the topper open. Would it suck yes but it’s pretty minor.

If someone wanted to be a real jack wagon they would steel your rims and tires. Pretty easy to jack up a truck and take the tires off.

The next level thing about the blanket-over chainsaw--in-the-cab-of-your-truck approach is that after doing it often enough, the blanket/floor/seats of your truck will be sufficiently soaked in bar and 2 stroke oil that it's unlikely someone will try to steal the truck itself!

 

[TaperPin]

Look to what is used on construction trucks. It doesn’t have to perfect, just better than the next vehicle.

Job boxes can be broken into, but they are pound for pound the best protection. For a long time I used two four footers end to end down one side of the bed.

Shells are quite soft protection unless getting a heavy duty model.

Schitt heads will break a window for the smallest items.

 

[snowymtnwolf]

Back to the OPs question

Unless you get a metal work cap like some construction companies that is about as break in proof as the cab of the truck.

Possibly decked or equivalent would work would be slicker.

Or pickup those metal job boxes they use @ construction sites to stick in bed in of truck (see attached photo). More portable but only allows so much space and are fairly heavy.

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[Phaseolus]

I’ve never been broken into at a trailhead in Western Colorado in the many years i’ve spent here. Yet. I don’t leave valuables in my vehicles though. I had a topper with a raised bed that had a 4” foam pad on it and I always left one of my old sleeping bags in it. I was archery hunting in the West Elk Wilderness one time and we had a terrible early storm that lasted two days. I weathered it hunkered down in my tent a few miles back in and bailed as soon as the weather turned decent. When I got back to the trailhead there was a note in the topper from a guy who got soaked through and was hypothermic. He was ultralight backpacking had been dropped off by Blue Mesa Reservoir and hiked to the north side. He was a day early because once he got wet he kept hiking and his ride wasn’t due til the next day. He crawled into my unlocked topper, used the sleeping bag and said it may have saved his life. He left $20 and his phone number and we chatted afterwards.

 

[Pikespeak]

Back to the OPs question

Unless you get a metal work cap like some construction companies that is about as break in proof as the cab of the truck.

Possibly decked or equivalent would work would be slicker.

Or pickup those metal job boxes they use @ construction sites to stick in bed in of truck (see attached photo). More portable but only allows so much space and are fairly heavy.

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Thanks, yea it’s looking like I may be forced into the decked route so I have something lockable and reasonably secure without going full commercial.

 

[Pikespeak]

I’ve never been broken into at a trailhead in Western Colorado in the many years i’ve spent here. Yet. I don’t leave valuables in my vehicles though. I had a topper with a raised bed that had a 4” foam pad on it and I always left one of my old sleeping bags in it. I was archery hunting in the West Elk Wilderness one time and we had a terrible early storm that lasted two days. I weathered it hunkered down in my tent a few miles back in and bailed as soon as the weather turned decent. When I got back to the trailhead there was a note in the topper from a guy who got soaked through and was hypothermic. He was ultralight backpacking had been dropped off by Blue Mesa Reservoir and hiked to the north side. He was a day early because once he got wet he kept hiking and his ride wasn’t due til the next day. He crawled into my unlocked topper, used the sleeping bag and said it may have saved his life. He left $20 and his phone number and we chatted afterwards.

I’d be less worried in Western Colorado.

 

[Pikespeak]

Look to what is used on construction trucks. It doesn’t have to perfect, just better than the next vehicle.

Job boxes can be broken into, but they are pound for pound the best protection. For a long time I used two four footers end to end down one side of the bed.

Shells are quite soft protection unless getting a heavy duty model.

Schitt heads will break a window for the smallest items.

Are you taking about those swing out containers toward the back of the cab?

 

[Pikespeak]

How much gear are you needing to secure?

Sometimes it’s a lot…I could be running around with guns, Starlink, optics binos/ spotter, and a laptop in a worse case.