maxingout
Adventurer
I sailed around the world on my sailboat on an eleven year voyage, and I never had anything stolen off the yacht, and I never had anythings stolen during land trips. Expeditionary land travel is different because there are realtively few places to hide/secure high value items in a vehicle. A boat has a thousand nooks and crannies, and it is difficult for hit and run thieves to make off with your expensive gear, plus they have to get stolen stuff from your boat to the shore.
On a vehicle, you can't stop a dedicated and highly motivated thief with a drill and an angle grinder. If they have the time, and if your car is parked in a lonely place unattended, they can strip your vehicle quickly. With all the battery powered tools these days, they don't even need an extension chord for them to do the dastardly deed.
You can't stop a thief, but you can slow him down and make it really hard to steal your stuff.
Fortunately, most larcenous individuals are opportunists, and if you make it difficult for a thief, he will probably move on to an easier target.
We shoot lots of photos, and we need relatively secure storage for our cameras. Then we can walk away from our cameras in a parking lot, and most likely they will still be there when we return.
The hardest thing about secure storage is getting it to fit inside your vehicle. You want something that is heavy enough to be tough, but not so heavy that it weighs down the vehicle. It needs to fit somewhere in the vehicle, and it needs to be accessible so that you actually use it. It is nice if you can put an unobtrusive cover over the storage so that nobody knows that it is present.
For my Land Rover, I chose a Tuffy Security console that is 12 1/2 inches wide, 24 inches long, and eighteen and 1/2 inches tall. http://www.tuffyproducts.com/p-88-016-series-ii-security-console-12-12-wide.aspx
This particular console has only one compartment rather than two. I wanted only one compartment to have more flexibility because of the larger interior volume. Some of the other Tuffy Consoles are split into two compartments.
My Land Rover has 60/40 rear seats, and I decided to remove the 40% rear seat. That achieved two purposes. It created a space for my ARB refrigerator freezer, and at the same time created a place where I could place my Tuffy secure storage.
The console is bolted through the floor, and there is also a bolt to the vertical plywood bulkhead under the fridge. The console is an exact fit without a millimeter to spare. I had to precisely place the console so that the 60% rear seat would still fold forward, and I could also close the door. It was a perfect fit.
View of the security console on the floor in front of where the 40% seat was formerly located.
Closer view of the Tuffy security console where I will place photographic gear.
Tuffy Security console with the lid open.
This console will be hidden from view by a cover so that it is not immediately obvious. It also serves as a flat surface on which I can set items that I am putting in and out of the ARB refrigerator freezer.
The Tuffy Consule is not bullet proof, but it is a step in the right direction. Although it isn't 100% safe, it is probably 98% secure. And that's about as good as it gets when you are doing expeditionary travel.
On a vehicle, you can't stop a dedicated and highly motivated thief with a drill and an angle grinder. If they have the time, and if your car is parked in a lonely place unattended, they can strip your vehicle quickly. With all the battery powered tools these days, they don't even need an extension chord for them to do the dastardly deed.
You can't stop a thief, but you can slow him down and make it really hard to steal your stuff.
Fortunately, most larcenous individuals are opportunists, and if you make it difficult for a thief, he will probably move on to an easier target.
We shoot lots of photos, and we need relatively secure storage for our cameras. Then we can walk away from our cameras in a parking lot, and most likely they will still be there when we return.
The hardest thing about secure storage is getting it to fit inside your vehicle. You want something that is heavy enough to be tough, but not so heavy that it weighs down the vehicle. It needs to fit somewhere in the vehicle, and it needs to be accessible so that you actually use it. It is nice if you can put an unobtrusive cover over the storage so that nobody knows that it is present.
For my Land Rover, I chose a Tuffy Security console that is 12 1/2 inches wide, 24 inches long, and eighteen and 1/2 inches tall. http://www.tuffyproducts.com/p-88-016-series-ii-security-console-12-12-wide.aspx
This particular console has only one compartment rather than two. I wanted only one compartment to have more flexibility because of the larger interior volume. Some of the other Tuffy Consoles are split into two compartments.
My Land Rover has 60/40 rear seats, and I decided to remove the 40% rear seat. That achieved two purposes. It created a space for my ARB refrigerator freezer, and at the same time created a place where I could place my Tuffy secure storage.
The console is bolted through the floor, and there is also a bolt to the vertical plywood bulkhead under the fridge. The console is an exact fit without a millimeter to spare. I had to precisely place the console so that the 60% rear seat would still fold forward, and I could also close the door. It was a perfect fit.
View of the security console on the floor in front of where the 40% seat was formerly located.
Closer view of the Tuffy security console where I will place photographic gear.
Tuffy Security console with the lid open.
This console will be hidden from view by a cover so that it is not immediately obvious. It also serves as a flat surface on which I can set items that I am putting in and out of the ARB refrigerator freezer.
The Tuffy Consule is not bullet proof, but it is a step in the right direction. Although it isn't 100% safe, it is probably 98% secure. And that's about as good as it gets when you are doing expeditionary travel.
