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by chasfm11
Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:28 am
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: RV, camper van, site trailer, and work truck carry considerations
Replies: 40
Views: 9288

Re: RV, camper van, site trailer, and work truck carry considerations

Perhaps you should consider an RV type that is not being targeted at the same level as your van type. At some point the insurance companies are likely to pick up on such a high rate of associated crime and start charging more because of it. My RV insurance has always been less per year than my passenger vehicles. While I'm sure that that is due to the insurance company's expectation of the number of miles that I drive it, the comprehensive component to the insurance would be higher if my type was being broken into at a similar rate to yours Like not deliberately going into a bad neighborhood to avoid trouble, having something that attracts less criminal interest might be a better choice in the long run.
by chasfm11
Mon Jan 22, 2018 12:31 pm
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: RV, camper van, site trailer, and work truck carry considerations
Replies: 40
Views: 9288

Re: RV, camper van, site trailer, and work truck carry considerations

The Annoyed Man wrote:Generally speaking, I’m not much of a believer in signs. If you stop to think about it, the only factor in the OP’s scenario that doesn’t apply in my own home is seclusion. OTH, I live in a very quiet suburban neighborhood where people tend to keep to themselves, and there is some distance between the houses. If I thought those kinds of signs - whatever the content - were effective, my house would be festooned with them. It’s not, and for good reason.

“This house defended by Smith & Wesson”, and other signs like that are simply advertising that say “guns available to steal inside this house”. And I don’t believe quoting chapter and verse of the law will matter either. Remember? They are law-breakers. They don’t care about your stinkin’ laws. What’s my first line of defense? Two large dogs who don’t like unaccompanied strangers. Their bark says “anyone who wants to come in here is going to have to face me before they can leave......and once in, they’ll pray they can leave with their dangly parts still attached.” I have a home alarm system, and external surveillance cameras, but that barking is what first alerts me to a possible threat.

I realize that a home security system may not be of practical use for an RV. However, dogs love to travel. Get yourself a good one. They provide companionship as well as perimeter security. He or she will hear or smell bad juju long before you are aware of it, and it will give you time to get to and deploy whatever your chosen firearm happens to be.

A thief who sneaks up on your RV in the middle of the night may not have any qualms about breaking in while you’re there, but he’s going to be mightily discouraged by the sound of a dog that sounds like it’s barking steel bricks. If all goes well, the thief will leave and look for a softer target, and you’ll never even have to confront him.
:iagree: I get it from the OP that having high end electronics visible can change the remote possibility of being a victim in an RV significantly. But we've had our RV since 2004, have over 60K miles on it, driving it all over the country and have never come close to an incident in a "camped" situation. I've tried to query my RV neighbors within that same timeframe and have yet to hear even a secondhand story about an incident while parked.

That said, incidents of RV breakins in storage areas abound and we've had our share of close calls while on the road. I personally believe that truck stops (we have a diesel) pose a much greater risk than campgrounds. We like State Parks and I am concerned that we could inadvertently run afoul of illegal activity in one of the remote ones than I am about us being specifically targeted. We have two small dogs and one of them is very attuned to things that she doesn't like outside. While I've kidded my wife that if she hears "the banjo and the guitar, we're leaving" in a couple of the less well kept campgrounds that we've used, we're really careful about where we stay. We have wheels that continue to roll if we really don't like the looks of a place. I don't have any statistics to back it up, but I'm much more concerned about someone who is high on drugs than I am about the types of criminals who could read and understand any posted sign.

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