Installing a small safe in your caravan is a sensible precaution and here, Tony Brown shows you how easily it can be done
HOW TO…
DO YOU SOMETIMES WONDER where to put passports, credit cards and cash when you decide to visit the campsite pool for a swim or a sunbathe?
Take your valuables with you and you risk some opportunist stealing your bag, but leave them behind and equally, you risk losing them in a burglary.
Caravanners who enjoy wild camping will also have read of break-ins during the night, when wallets and bags have been stolen while the owners sleep.
I used to think there was little point providing a secure place inside the van, because caravans were so easy to tow away, but the advent of high-security hitches and chassis-attaching wheel locks has changed my mind – I now think that it has become a sensible precaution.
Choosing your safe
I am not going to prescribe where to install a safe – every caravan and every owner is different, and you will want to find your own preferred place – but I will run through aspects to take into account before you buy one.
It would be pretty pointless to choose something of a cash box standard, which could be opened by someone using items from your cutlery drawer. So begin by searching online for the smallest, lightest domestic safe with a reasonable lock.
Digital safes avoid the need for a key, but are sometimes criticised for having poor-quality override locks. The highest quality is not necessary, though, because in the unlikely event that you are faced with a very determined thief armed with an angle grinder, nothing will be secure.
My choice was a Cathedral key-locking safe from Ryman, costing just £27.99. Weighing in at under 3kg, it is strong and light (so won’t eat up much payload), with unusual keys, and measuring on
