​What to do with the vehicle parked on a long trip?

[Glenn MacGrady]

When it comes to wilderness gear, older is yet again better than the milksop, cuckolded, trigger-warning-needing, safe-space-cringing, pantywaist stuff of the current Millennial Era.

Here is the 1917 Pierce-Arrow canoe vehicle, which Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson used on his wilderness trips into Russia to deter break-ins by the crazed hordes of Rasputin and other regicidal and genocidal locals.

 

[dogbrain]

We just changed house and car insurance companies last week and I asked about these types of situations. It turns out that I'm covered for the first $1000 of property no matter what it is, boats included. Any car damage is a different story, but I don't think I ever leave anything in the car worth more than that amount. I'm done worrying about it. You might want to check your homeowners insurance, I'm sure those of you with it have similar coverage.

 

[Seeker]

I've only left vehicles unattended for a week at most, locally here in LA's national forests, in the Smokies, and in the Adirondacks. Nobody bothers my slightly beat up 2000 Corolla...or bothered my brother's 2000 pickup when I borrowed it in NY. I pretty much strip everything of value out of it before the trip, leave everything open so "they" can see it's empty (console, glove box), and haven't had a problem. On one trip to the Adirondacks, I rented a canoe from St Regis Outfitters, and they moved my vehicle from the put in on Upper St Regis to the their Floodwood parking lot (my takeout), so it was watched (at least during the day) for those 4 or 5 days.

Locally I know some of the law enforcement guys or rangers, and will ask them to make a special check on my car if I know they're on shift during my trip. I also avoid sketchy areas, preferring to have my wife drop me off vs leaving my car there (only one area like that near me.)

 

[Guest]

Since I was leaving for 1 1/2 months I disconnected the battery just in case there was enough drain to kill it while I was gone. After seeing my car broken into I realized this was a good policy in case someone should leave a door ajar or turn on the interior or headlights while they were fumbling around.

That seems like a very good and simple idea. As much as it sucks to find a vehicle break in, but it would add insult to injury to discover a dead battery from a dome light left on or door ajar.

Could that anti-battery drain be accomplished with a hidden kill switch that would also prevent the outright theft of the vehicle?

This thread has made me better appreciate the added value of a paid shuttle, especially those in which the vehicle is held in a secure area.

Or even without a shuttle. Depending on the where and how long I will gladly pay a local to park on their property and keep an eye on my vehicle.

My favorite is friend Willie’s discovery of a rural dirt road worm farm on the Waccamaw River where $3 gets you parking. The worm farm proprietor is a crusty old country boy ex-Marine , I’ve met him. I wouldn’t mess with him and feel secure leaving my car in his care.

I am sometimes leery of leaving my truck parked on a floodplain for long periods and on one trip returned to find water half way up the wheels. Paddling up until the bow kisses the bumper is novel, but I’d rather not.

The worst “vehicle left at the take out” problem may have been the wash out that left paddler’s vehicles stranded at Mineral Bottom for months.

http://moabtimes.com/view/full_stor...-roads--trails?instance=lead_story_leftcolumn

Does the fine print in that auto policy include renting a car to drive home and flying back out months later to retrieve your stranded vehicle? Uhhhhhh, lemme look. Nope.

 

[Coonoe]

I have had the sliding door and the 2 back seats of my mini van stolen. Fortunately we were close to home so my daughter could come and get my grandsons and the dogs since we had no seat for my grandson to ride in. When we leave the van I always shut the lights right off so there will be no light at night if the doors are open. Saved my CDs once. All they stole was the tie downs and I had lots of rope so I was ok.
So there is something on a Mini Van worth stealing!

 

[ppine]

Yes. For 40 years I left my wallet and spare clothes, some equipment in the truck out of sight. On a trip to Lake Shasta, someone broke the window and stole a bunch of stuff. The nearby town of Redding has a lot of drug problems especially tweakers. Now I only park my vehicles some place they can be watched over in that country.

I used to paddle the North Platte R when I lived in Wyoming. People were so friendly, that I would just drive to the put in and hitchhike back for the truck at the end of the day. No shuttle.
Same thing around the Klamath R in no CA. Sometimes the river would have lower flows than expected and the take out would seem far away. I can still hitch hike with a paddle in that country or just ask for a ride. Know your country. Most places are good about picking up boaters A few are full of criminals.

 

[Foxyotter]

I have only had two problems when coming back to my vehicle after a trip. One was a mouse that moved into my vent system and stocked away an amazing amount of seeds in the three days. We left it at the mouth of the Two Hearted river in October. Take out day was a rainy windy day on Lake Superior all 5 of us damp and dirty with all the gear and boats load we jump in the truck drive off. Soon as the windows fog I reach over turn the knob to defrost, crank the heat and max the fan and a shower of seeds were ejected from the vents mixed with little bits of foam. It as rather comical.
The second was after paddling the Manistee River from headwaters to Pine River where I meant some friends to paddle the Pine river after a 12 inch rain storm. Returning 9 days later to my empty parking spot. It was late I was exhausted and my ride was heading past my apartment. The next morning I was able to discover it was towed from that counties dispatch. I found out that they thought it was probably stolen because they could not reach me. When they stopped at my apartment to check on me my neighbor who knew my plans and could have said I was paddling but he was no snitch. He proudly told me how he didn't tell them where I was at or what I was doing. Is that the definition of loyal to a fault?
I worry about leaving my vehicle every time but really have had minimal problems. I think that as the number of people who will see your vehicle is proportional to possibility of theft. In the middle of no where maybe 5-10 people will even know its there. The odds of finding a bad apple in 5-10 people is very low. Tourist spots with lots of travelers is a thefts paradise. The prey feels safe and let guard down. I spent 6 months traveling solo in Central America, Columbia and Ecuador. Being solo my situational awareness was very high. I could pick the thief's out of the crowd. The predators were generally only around with lots of people or tourists. Their mannerisms and eye movements were predatory. Not sure how else to concisely describe it. Not that that helps with leaving ones vehicle. Something I believe and often traveling/ vulnerability make it clear is that the vast majority of people everywhere are good with positive intentions. Some are desperate some have too much testosterone and an underdeveloped frontal lobe therefore make poor decisions but are still probably decent people. The ones that scare me are the psycho paths and just evil people. Luckily there are very few of those. I am an atheist but sometimes blind faith in the greater good of humanity seems better for my mental health then the alternative. "Trust in Allah but tie your camel." or canoe....

 

[Canotrouge]

Up here it is pretty safe, I never had an incident on canoe trips, even on a fly in BIL met a couple at the lake where the plane was picking him up and we were paddling out, the plan was to try and get back to the truck hitchhiking(south canol rd no traffic) so he ask the couple and they agreed to drop the truck on thee way out to our take out location... It was my truck, so when he landed on the lake that afternoon, and he told me that I was WTF.... The truck was parked at the take out when we finished that trip 10 days later!!

My wife on the other end wasn't so lucky one year. She's an outdoor ed teacher and the left a vehicle at the start of a multi day ski trip and an other vehicle at the hot springs where the trip was ending, so did the trip(3 days) get to the end, her chaperones jumped into the car to go retrieve the truck at the other end to find out that said truck on "blocks" wheels all gone!! It was a government truck....

 

[yellowcanoe]

We went from Johnsons Xing to Dawson City and left our car in the Walmart parking lot in Whitehorse.
11 days later we could not find it.
We had parked it pretty much alone in a corner.

It was totally buried in RV's. We had to have someone move their RV to extract it.

 

[ppine]

I really like paddling the Sacramento River in California in the fall. The king salmon are running, the weather cools off and the river always maintains flows over 5,000 cfs. There are plenty of places to camp, no permits and few people except a few salmon fishermen. But finding a place to park vehicles at the put-in and take out requires vigilance. I am willing to pay someone to watch vehicles for 4 days or so. Sad but true.

 

[Black_Fly]

I prefer to leave it with an outfitter if possible. Not always possible. I've thought about getting a beater in appearance only - mechanically sound. Put an old rack on it. But I like comfort on long trips. If I buy a house on the north shore, I can leave a car there. Who knows.

 

[ErktheRed]

After driving an old 93 Wrangler for several years, you learn quick that people will get in through the doors, unzip the windows, pop the rear window flap, cut/rip/tear anything soft. I’ve only had a few people get into my vehicle, luckily with little to no damage. First day I owned it someone had unzipped the driver window, left the door opened and bent my license plate. Maybe I parked like an A-hole.

like many of you, I have plenty of paychecks wrapped up in gear and outerwear. It’s either leave the inside pretty bare, or know the risks of having flashy equipment back there. Get mad and call yourself stupid when it’s taken or shrug your shoulders and cry that your favorite stove is gone. I can recall friends losing rock climbing equipment. Snowboards/skis. Bike parts. Never a canoe or a kayak. Maybe it’s a good thing I choose have a hobby where the main item is large and conspicuous.

one nice thing about old vehicles, is the space in the engine compartment. This might not be the most ideal hiding spot for the most avid of thieves, but it eased my mind. A dirty welded metal box containing valuables, spare key, paperwork, anything small, looks very much like it belongs alongside an engine. Or up on top of a skid plate.

Now I have a Subaru, again, I’ve locked it once and barely got back in. So I never lock it now. Sometimes I cringe with the amount of tree climbing gear/chainsaw, or other back there. It’s a mild heartache for the first few minutes. Then it comes back. I use my subie as a truck until I can afford one. It has wood chips, dirt stains, old tie down straps, rope, visible rust, new tires/but brake debris stains. I like to think it represents someone who doesn’t have much to offer. Which, on occasion, if they dug through may find something nice.

Until then, I think keeping it simple is best. A change of clothes, some small loose cash under a carpet flap, and a jug of water

 

[DanOver]

Yep. You want to “devalue” the vehicle in a thief’s eyes. If I leave the Subaru at a trail head, I will leave old janky jumper cables and an empty bottle of transmission fluid on the passenger floor in plain view. That eliminates it as a great vehicle to steal. It’s usually dusty and grimy by the time I arrive anyway. If I leave anything in it, it’s an old army blanket and beat up jacket that a homeless person would turn down.

 

[PeteStaehling]

Back in the day, I usually drove pretty clunky vehicles on most shuttles and I think that helped. I also didn't leave much of value in the car. I have left vehicles for long periods on bike tours and backpacking trips with never an issue. On whitewater day trips I have had a vandalism or theft problem from time to time. Once I had three tires slashed (Shavers Fork). Once on driving into the lot on Tohickon Creek I noticed that the passenger side mirror was missing on a VW bus in the lot. After the run the passenger side mirror was gone on mine. We used to just leave the windows open in Millville when doing the Shenandoah Staircase at a point when the break ins were constant.

Once I even left a mountain bike unlocked on the roof rack of my Scion XB for a week unattended in Yosemite Valley. I intended to put it inside before heading out on my backpacking trip, but in a rush to get on the trail had a brain fart. I realized my mistake when I was far enough to not be willing to go back and was already planning to buy a new bike, but it was still there when I got back.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've left vehicles full of valuable things, often unlocked, all over the country and only had a problem once which was in remote Northern Sask. on a long canoe trip. They broke a side window and took about everything in the vehicle, which thankfully wasn't much. Some cheap hand tools, the bag I had a clean change of clothes in (but thankfully left the clothes), a couple Zav paddles, 5 gallons of gas on the roof rack, and my passport. There was a lawnmower key in my center console and it was in the ignition switch so apparently they would have been happy to drive off with the whole thing.

What they didn't find was my wallet with a few hundred dollars hidden under the carpet.

On the occasions I do lock the doors I often wonder if I'd be better off leaving them unlocked. In a populated area I can see some benefit to locking doors but out in the middle of nowhere, where it's not likely anyone is going to suddenly walk around the corner, the time (and noise) from breaking a window would, I think, be pretty meaningless to a thief.

Another thing I started doing was leaving the battery disconnected so that if someone did break in and then leave a door open at least I wouldn't have a dead battery too.

Alan

 

[billconner]

Interesting read. I've left various cars, most often a RAV40, at BWCA entry points for a week or two and no problems. I may have to rethink in Adirondacks.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Interesting read. I've left various cars, most often a RAV40, at BWCA entry points for a week or two and no problems. I may have to rethink in Adirondacks.

It's rare but not unheard of. Last year was not good though with all the people good and bad wanting to get out there. This year will be the same.
https://adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=27832

 

[billconner]

It's rare but not unheard of. Last year was not good though with all the people good and bad wanting to get out there. This year will be the same.
https://adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=27832

More shuttles I guess, or whatever the ADK name for them is.

 

[PeteStaehling]

What they didn't find was my wallet with a few hundred dollars hidden under the carpet.

That reminds me of the time I found a couple twenty dollar bills rolled around the batteries in an old flashlight that used to live in a vehicle of mine years previously. Apparently I or someone on one of my camping trips had hidden them there and forgotten them. My friend Dan was know to do stuff like that so I am betting on him. The sad thing was that they were hidden and forgotten at a time when we were all dirt poor and $40 was a lot of money to lose and discovered again when it was much less of a windfall. It was doubly stupid since if someone had broken in and ransacked the car they might have taken and used the flashlight. Also knowing Dan he probably forgot and was broke before the trip was over. We all did dumb stuff in those days (not that we stopped).

 

[dogbrain]

Alan getting his passport stolen reminded me of a canoe trip to Canada a few years ago with my brother. After the trip, before we got back to the border, we pulled over to look for passports. After an hour, looking through everything 3 times, I told him that mine in here somewhere, I just can't remember where, but it's in a really good spot. At that point we completely unloaded the car and went through every possible thing. After another hour went by, we got to the mostly empty box of extra food which was full of spent zip-locks and garbage. There, inside a half empty box of hot chocolate packets and a few oatmeal packets, neatly filed between them was my passport. When he pulled it out I remembered thinking at the time that nobody would look there. "I was right again", I told him.

Mark