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Lock It Up!
Just because your quad is in your garage doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t steal it. We’ve seen garage burglaries from the easy (just opened the garage door) to the elaborate (sawed a quad-sized hole in the side of the garage to remove a machine), so don’t count on your garage to be your one and only defense. Lock up your quad while it’s in the garage, make it hard to get to, and never leave the key in the ignition! We’ve even had one industrious reader tell us about anti-theft system he installed in his garage that consisted of a metal loop cemented into the floor, and the quad was kept safe by attaching a pad lock and chain!
Hide It!
Never leave your quad out in the open for an extended period. If it’s in the back of your truck and you leave your truck parked outside, you’re advertising to thieves that you have a quad and you’re not worried about them taking it! If you have to leave it in the back of your truck or out in the open, take extra steps to ensure that no one can get to it easily. Backing your truck up to a wall/house/garage is safer than just leaving it out in the driveway. Never make your quad easy to take!
Back It Up!
You’re out on a road trip with your quad, you have a trailer packed with your machines, your gear, and all the fun stuff that goes along with a long ride with your buddies. Sounds like fun, right? An overnight stay at a hotel is nice when you’ve been traveling and/or riding all day, but waking up the next morning to missing quads, or even worse a missing trailer, will put your fun on permanent hiatus. Whenever we travel with a trailer and have to stay overnight somewhere, we do one of two things: We back up the trailer so that it’s up against an immovable object (like the hotel itself) right outside the window of the room we’re renting (and we make sure there are video cameras in the parking lot to ensure its safety), or we sleep in the truck/trailer and just use the hotel room for showering!
Insure It!
Your homeowners or other blanket insurance policy won’t cover your quad! You should have a specific insurance policy for your off-road vehicles, especially if you’ve just bought it and are making payments on your machine. Insurance on a quad won’t cover damage like it would on your automobile, but it will cover theft, plus the policies are a lot cheaper and less stressful than having to replace your missing quad. Most insurance companies have off-road vehicle policies, but if yours doesn’t, do a quick search on the internet to find a company that will cover your quad!
Alarm It!
Most dealerships offer programs such as LoJack, which consists of a trackable chip hidden somewhere on your machine that allows it to be traced in case it gets stolen. Now, that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get your quad back, but it might help. Also, you can get an alarm for you quad (we found one online called the Armed Guard ATV Alarm, which retails for about $130 and can be found at www.armedguard.com).