Locking up yak on roadtrip
 

Thinking about doing a road trip in June to Lees Ferry. Leaving late afternoon and doing a stop at a casino in Mesquite for a night and continuing on next day. Going to have 3 yaks in bed of an open/tailgate down F150. Seeing what any of you do to lock up yaks so no one steals them.

Thought valet, but I will have one yak about 3' beyond end of tailgate. Hate to have some drunk or kid valet run into it and smash it. Doubt we could check it at some sorta luggage hold...guess I could ask, but we have one 12'+ yak and two 9' yaks.

Any ideas? Cable and lock to tie-downs on truck through scupper holes? Thanks for any ideas or what you have done in the past.

Call the Casino and ask if kayaks would be "safe" in valet parking.

I would also lock them with a cable for extra security.

This past summer my family did a road trip to mammoth and as we arrived to the condo the neighbor came outside to find all of his gear stolen out of the back of his truck, asked the SnowCreek office if this was common and they said very much so. Needless to say that was disconcerting. So we went to the store and found bike locks that are 1/2" cable by 6' long, and strung a few of those together through scuppers and when we could through U-bolts welded that were conveniently already welded to my truck. didn't have an issue and had another last resort incase I had a strap fail like i have had before. If you are bringing multiple yaks, i personally recommend stringing them together so they are too big and bulky for Scumbag steve and his friend to pick up in their drunken shenanigans (The trip aforementioned we had 4 kayaks locked together, easily breaking 400 lbs because or pro anglers and gear stuffed inside the middle two), but attaching them to the truck goes a long way too.
my $0.02

i need to find pictures of these trips i cram 4-6 kayaks in the bed of my truck without a rack :D

I have two Revos and will be traveling a lot with them this summer. They go on my roof rack. I'm looking into some of the cable locks that have an alarm on them. The thing is supposed to go off if the cable or lock is tampered with, tilted, or moved. Sounds like it should work. I can hide the cable between the two yaks.

That certainly won't stop the ethically impaired from trying to grab em, but it may slow them down.

You don't even need to secure then to anything. Just run multiple separate cable locks through as many scuppers as possible.

I live in an apt and have to lock up my kayak to my truck all the time. I usually keep at my buddy's, but when I'm fishing it stays with me. I have a good thick cable lock. I just secure it through the scupper hole into one of my tie down bolted to the bottom of my Mark Lt before I got rid of it. I do the same on my F150....

Cable and link can both be cut, but make it as hard as possible to steal. Run the largest link you can through the scuppers, then with the largest padlock you can afford lock it to the closed end tie downs in the bed of the truck. If you don't have the closed tied downs, mount a hefty U bolt in the bed, then mangle up the threads, or it you have a welder, throw a few tack welds on it. Double lock it, seperate chains, seperate locking positions. Over night a thief can come back multipe times to get the right tools to cut it, just make it take as long as possible. Years ago up at Big Bear we got our snow boards stolen in the parking lot of Burger king. My board was the only one that did not get stolen. The leash had fallen into the door,and with the door shut and locked, they left it hanging, guess they didn't have a knife or cutting tool, but maybe that few seconds it would have taken to cut made the risk too great. I had a motorcycle stolen that had a fat cable lock on it, I think they took a vice to the lock and crushed it. I load my PA the night before I head out, it's parked on the street, double linked lock, through the scuppers and the factory rails on my jeep, nice large link chain for all to see. You can sleep at ease knowing it will still be there in the morning, enjoy your trip and rip some lips.

A few companies make straps that have a steel cable in them that can't be cut with bolt cutters because they just move within the cable from side to side. try that

In addition to running chain through a scupper, I lay pair of these window alarms in the hull and leave the hatch open. If some one does manage to get past the chain and unload the kayak, the alarm will slide around and go off. Just don't forget to remove them before you drive away.

clever!

I have a few of those. I don't get the "leave the hatch open" part? You just lay these inside, with the magnet near the alarm? so if the kayak is moved, the pieces will move apart and alarm, right? You don't fix it to the kayak and your rack or car or chain? Am I overthinking this? Thanks for the tip.

I drove from SD to north carolina with my kayak on the roof formy car. I ran cable through the scuppers and around the rack bar and secired it with a krypton look. No trouble. Mike

Here is my $0.02.

I found a pipe that is about the same size as the scuper holes.
Went to Home Depot.
Found the wire that had the plastic coating and the crimps for each size.
started making loops as small as I could with still fitting the lock through with the largest wire first and then keep downsizing the wire until I found a wire, crimp, and loop combination that would fit throught the scuper holes. Bought enough cable and crimps to make a cable for each kayak and then one more to run though all of them again. make the cables long enough to run around your tow hitch of the frame under the truck.

Use high grade locks, one for each cable.
The more locks and cables means more noise and longer to get away.

Trap it while storing it, to keep it our of sight out of mind.

Back into the space and try to find a wall.

Remember, locks only keep the honest person honest.

Make sure to get the cable with the plastic coating or over time the cable will just cut a grove into your yak.

Exactly how it works. I leave the hatch open because with it closed the alarm is muffled. Having the hatch open makes a big difference. Putting two inside acts as a back up incase one falls out or if the thief decides to go looking for it. Just backing out of my driveway is,enough to set it off. Although I think leaving my hatches open has let the O-ring/gasket/seal/whatever, on my twist and stow, dry out making it hard to close. So far a coat of armor all has re-conditioned it.

I've been meaning to Velcro the alarm to the hull and just let the magnet slide away, but just haven't got to it yet.

oh duhhh... that makes sense. I love it. I have several of these tiny, but super loud, contact alarms for my pool doors.

Such awesome internet knowledge sharing.. how did we ever survive before?? :cheers1:

Wow, thanks for all the advice! Definitely doing the cable through scupper holes many times over (at least 2 or 3 cables) and the pool alarm...excellent idea!

This is similar to what I have.. the alarms I have are really small.

$14
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GKp1czQ0L.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Doberman-SE-01...doberman+alarm

You can find smaller and cheaper ones if you search.

Good luck.