generator security need?

Lock it to the bumper or other hard point when not in use. On the side away from the road. Throw a camo tarp over it so the bright colored thing is not so obvious to anyone cruising the campground looking for easy pickings. Hides the shape, size and color. A couple yards of camo cloth from Walmart fabric department will do it. Won't fool anyone who actually walks up to it, but makes it harder to spot from wandering eyes on the road.

Also record the serial number. If it is stolen the officer taking the report can put it in the computer in case it shows up years later.

When I had a different trailer with an eu3000, the trailer had a platform for the genny and I used this lock system: http://lowprolockdown.com/shop/complete-lowpro-lockdown-system-for-honda-eu3000is-redblack/
Worked great I assume since it was never stolen!

Now have an Onan4000 factory mounted.

I grew up in an area where we locked things up. I've spent most of my adult life in areas where its not needed. On one of my outings last year with the trailer, I left my kindle outside when I went in the trailer for something, as I stepped outside I noticed someone in the woods just off the road had just turned back onto the roadway. I wondered if he was headed for my kindle? Paranoia or just being aware?? Don't know, but I'm more careful what I leave outside now when I step away!

At the first State Park campground I visited with my TT, I heard that a couple of weeks prior someone went through during the wee hours with a bolt cutter and stole over a dozen of them.

When I parked at a place called 'Ludlow' in California, which is just a gas station and a truck parking lot, someone came in the middle of the night and stole my battery right off of my hitch. I had both generators running to operate my air conditioner, so I guess they figured (correctly) that I would come boiling out loaded for bear if the AC went off.

This made me pretty paranoid. I wound up buying a motion sensor alarm. This thing is pretty cool. It covers a wedge-shaped area about thirty feet long at an angle of about 40 degrees. Anything larger than a rabbit will set it off.

I heard from a friend that he has a better one. Instead of setting of an ear-splitting alarm, it sends a signal to another unit that alerts the owner.

The only drawback is that on windy nights, I need to put a weight on the unit, which is about the size of a couple of packs of cards, otherwise it gets buffeted by the wind and goes off.

I bought both my daughters Honda 2000's for Christmas a few years ago and I found this lock.

It secures a metal handle over the Honda plastic handle (which people saw through), allowing you to loop a cable through it.

I don't lock up my generator. Any thief that's determined enough to spend a couple of hours disconnecting and dropping the Onan 4KY, and able to do so and make off with it (all ca. 175 pounds of it) without detection will earn both my admiration and my ire in equal measure.

If I had a generator along the lines of a Honda inverter generator, I likely would keep it secured.

Most of the time we deploy our generators it's at football tailgate weekends. Things are generally safe. During the time we'd be most vulnerable, during game time when everyone is gone, the lot is usually manned by airport personnel, or we have an occasional drive through by campus police.

But we all will either chain or cable all our generators and extended run fuel tanks to the RV chassis, or the fence/fence post.

Depends on where you are. If other things of comparable or even lesser value are regularly stolen, then yes, a portable generator is a good target.

I know places where folks leave their barns and storage sheds open for years and not lose anything, others where tires are removed from parked cars, A/C compressors carried away at night from occupied buildings. Nearest big city is having to replace all the wiring for the street lights in along one parkway because someone stripped out the copper.

There are campgrounds that are secure, some secure but not necessarily safe, and others open to the public around the clock. If non-campers are coming through checking out stuff, then anything of value should be locked up or tied down.

I never said to not lock it up. A thief will find a way to do it and do it quickly. Campground rules usually state that they are not responsible for lost or stolen items. They put that there for a reason. We lock our hitch and even put a chain around our electric post, surge protector and the electric cable. Still, a determined thief can still make off with it. I'm just saying...

Mr. Camper wrote:
Many years ago my wise grandfather taught me that "locks only keep honest people honest." If a person wants to steal something they'll find a way to get it done.

That is true, however the goal isn't to make it impossible to steal, only more difficult to steal than one that belongs to someone who didn't take precautions. The usual way thieves 'get it done' is quick and easy.