This may be an odd one. I have a 1978 bumper pull travel trailer that I park in my driveway. I do not keep food in it, but it is a 1978 trailer, so obviously many meals have been prepared inside it. I live in an area where many people come to camp--at almost 11,000 feet at the base of the Continental Divide in central Colorado. My house is very near the Pike/San Isabel National Forest.I bought my camper a year ago, and last year I had no troubles. However, this year, a bear decided he wanted to check out the inside of my camper--and tore the door off in the process. This happened about 5 days before I was supposed to leave on a week-long camping trip. I got if fixed and went on the trip, but then about 2 months later....he did it again: I can't afford to replace the door several times per year, but I also can't really afford off-site storage. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to dissuade a bear from trying to enter an unoccupied camper?

Try keeping a bowl of bleach outside and inside the door. Used coffee grounds around the camper.

Leave the door unlocked....:W....Dennis

I've seen wilderness cabins where the doormat is a sheet of plywood with dozens of nails sticking up.

Have you contacted fish and game? It sounds like you might have a problem bear which could cause a lot more problems then tearing up your camper. Other then that a well place bit of lead will take care of the problem.

Any ideas for keeping bears out? | Good Sam Community

58 Replies

Yukoners
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
You describe a very dangerous situation. That particular bear needs to be deterred. Our game branch will often use rubber bullets to good effect. That bear is habituated to finding food sources in trailers and the like. At the same time do a detailed inspection of your property and deal with or remove all bear attractants. Game branch can advise you with that also.http://www.bearsmart.com/becoming-bear-smart/home/managing-attractants

There is something in your trailer that is drawing that bear.
Please don't become another tragic story:
bear enters house kills woman
MrWizard
Moderator
Dec 02, 2014
try thinking think like an ambidextrous bear.. a Left paw swiping to the right
will peel that door open..they are extremely strong

yes they like to stand and pull down with both paws ..when they can
..good way to open car doors
DiskDoctr
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
Be careful. A bear that enters a living space is a danger.

As soon as Spring comes and his desperate hunger pangs hit, guess where is the first place he is going to go...

Coexisting is good and what we do here. But a wise person knows where the line is and does not yield.

What happens when someone is IN the camper next time? What if it is someone else's and you had the chance to intervene here and didn't?

Things to think about.
CANAMKID
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
I think I would be making a nice fur coat or blanket out of him:B
JaxDad
Explorer III
Dec 02, 2014
SouthParkSteve wrote:
Thanks to all for your input so far. I have heard about the ammonia, and I am considering that idea--or possibly the electric wire. I have also thought about a motion sensor alarm, but I don't want to wake up the whole neighborhood at 3am.....

For those of you who doubt this is a bear--I can definitely assure you it was. I did not post interior photos, as the damage there was mostly cosmetic (he tore a cabinet door off, etc.), so not really as much of a concern--it could have been a LOT worse. I know it was a bear because of the puncture marks on the bottles of RV anti-freeze that I had stored inside that he dumped all over, as well as the bite marks on my salt and pepper shakers, etc.

There were also patches of bear fur scraped off in a few places inside, and big bear paw prints along the wall from where he looked in the windows before deciding to pull back the corner of the door.

Not SURE if this is the same guy, but this one visited the front deck of my house about 6 weeks before the first break in (these photos were taken through my dining room window with no telephoto lens.....):

He is my prime suspect at the moment......

As I stated previously, I'm not saying you didn't have a bear in the trailer, but, that door was NOT opened by a bear. It's not physically possible unless somebody was dangling it by it's hind legs.

Bears can't rotate their paws to a 'palm up' position, nor can lift something without biting it and lifting their head. Bears almost always, as stated by prior posters, open things like doors by peeling it from the top down. They have tremendous power in this position. They do sometimes merely force their way in by a 'shoving' style move against something till it buckles and gives way.

Bears forage far more than they hunt, and they're omnivores so they'll eat pretty much anything they come across, even ants and grubs in rotten logs. An already opened trailer would be an open invitation to go in and poke around.
PA12DRVR
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
Both the plywood with nails and the electric fences work up in AK....presuming of course that the building/structure/trailer does not contain too powerful an attractant. Bears hardly go anywhere without leading with their nose and a zap that delicate area tends to be discouraging.....but it won't overcome rotting fish guts or fresh meat in the open.
austinjenna
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
I saw a show once of a guy having a cabin our in bear country and what he did so they would not come in is he took a sheet of plywood, maybe not the entire sheet and pounded nails through it and layed it in front of the door nails side up. The bears couldnt get through the door without stepping on those nails.
Muddydogs
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
Caveman Charlie wrote:
Heish wrote:
I had electric fences for years to contain horses. I've never killed a horse yet.:-) These fences are not like an electric chair...they don't kill. I've touched one many times, got a jolt, but lived to tell the story. Dogs, kids, deer and I'm sure other critters have run into them...they live. In an open field if they are not seen, an animal could tear up the fence...never seen one with the wire snapped. Around a small trailer it sure would surprise Mr. Bear. Keeps horses and most cows contained. Never heard of a death or law suit from an electric fence.

Yes, I live on the farm and a electric fence does not kill a animal it's just a deterrent. It simply puts a high voltage but, small amp and wattage currant through the wire on regular intervals. Zip, Zip, Zip, Snap, Snap, Snap. In the old days they were quite primitive and if one was shorted out to ground you could hear it on the AM radio and then you knew it was time to go find the short so that it would keep working. These days they are so efficient that a small solar panel will keep them working.

If a robber or kid touches it all that happens is there would be swearing or tears depending on the age of the person that touched it.

You think an electric livestock fence is going to deter a bear? I kinda think not.
pkunk
Explorer
Dec 02, 2014
Unless the bear touches an electric fence wire with his nose,he wouldn't ever feel it. I had electric horse fence here for years and the bears would tear it up on a regular basis. The neighbors' honey farm was a major attractant and F&G finally set up a charged wire mat around the honey house but the bears just became more belligerent. F&G trapped many of them for relocation but the problem remained until divorce closed their operation. Those bears would go through a metal garage door like it wasn't there, tear siding off the building, go through windows, and once inside rip the tops off of 55 gal drums to get the honey. They are incredibly strong and smart, with good memories.
Get it relocated or buy stock in RV doors.
down_home
Explorer II
Dec 02, 2014
Bears are smart and sturdy. Thick fur may be the reason but they will after learning just tear on through, only sometimes perhaps.
I haven't seen a lot of bears but Relatives tell of them. They were rare from first, of century til recently thanks to Yanques.
Don't kill them unless you have to. Your life and safety comes first. If I see one, of the seldom trips through here I hope to see it wild. Son saw a large light colored one two years ago a half mile away, perhaps. Everyone else seeems to have seen some and big cats too.
There was a town, sometime, in Pa that had Black Bears living under porches and around home as a common thing. It has been a long while since I read about it, so I don't know when or the town's name.
Wild animals don't like to be petted or denied food.
The electric cables around the RV sounds like the most plausible, if there is little, to no, likely hood, for some person, to touch them. They don't like it either.