Stupid question but what about tent security?

[beanandspud]

We are about to take DS away camping for the first time and just wondered what people do about keeping their tents secure.

We would probably go out and about during the day, obviously we're not planning to leave anything valuable but do people lock their tents in any way?

What about at night?

Apologies if this is me worrying over nothing but I'm curious to know what others do.

Mostly just rely on other campers' honesty and the fact that they are unlikely to want to steal my dirty clothes.

if we are leaving the campsite for a day then i would take valuables with me - camera, money, phones etc.

We never stay on site during the day so are always leaving our tents.

Take valuables with you (so don't take anything you don't want to carry round all day). Otherwise, just remember that every other camper is in the same boat as you. Tents are, by their very nature, insecure so you have to trust that everyone else is of the 'do as you would be done by' frame of mind.

At night? Well sound travels unbelievably clearly so the whole campsite is going to know if anything untoward is going on. I keep a very bright torch under my pillow. Just remember that you need to make sure you can get out of your tent easily if you need to, so don't 'lock' yourselves in.

I've pondered about this before but I've camped on hundreds of sites and there really does seem to be an unwritten rule. I've never heard of any tent being burgled in the 30+ years I've been camping.

I used to ponder it every year. It all seems so different when you're sitting in your nice secure solid house. As soon as I arrive at the campsite my whole outlook seems to change.

Thanks all, that's what I was hoping to hear .

I just couldn't imagine padlocking ourselves into a tent at night. Just so very different from home which is why we can't wait to do it.

For festival camping we used airbeds which had attached pillows with a hollow compartment underneath. Think they were made by Camping gaz. Dh used to put his phone, sat nav and wallet in there.

The only person I know who had anything stolen had left his £1500 bike outside the tent overnight. Admittedly chained up, but nothing a pair of bolt cutters couldn't manage.

I was at a festival once where stuff was getting nicked from tents, I emptied all of my stuff out of my bag so that no one would grab the whole bag and run off with it. I figured that none of my stuff would be worth stealing if they could see what it was. It worked cos one time I came back and my tent was open but nothing was missing.

Another thing with a tent is that it is hard to tell if anyone is sleeping inside and if so who. Someone who might steal from an empty tent given the chance may be put off by the possibility that a heavyweight boxer and his two pet rottweilers are sleeping inside.

Is there a way to padlock tents when you go out for the day?

Why would you padlock a tent?
If someone wants to break In to a tent they will jyst use a knife to slash it - its faster than a zip probably and quieter I would imagine.

I suspect festivals are a different matter, but on ordinary campsites, what are people going to nick? A sleeping bag, or what?

I keep my Icey tek in the porch out of the sun anyway, but we don't usually move the stove, chairs etc into the tent when we leave for the day. Maybe chairs if it is going to be v windy or there is rain.

We go to quite wild camp fire sorts of places, never heard of anything being nicked.

And absolutely no pin in padlocking a tent - a pair of nail scissors would let anyone in.

Proper valuables can go in the car. But we don't tend to take any, anyway.

Maybe an obvious point, but while I wouldn't worry about people nicking stuff, wildlife are a very different matter. Make sure food is in a sealed container, nothing nice smelling that will attract foxes/dogs/etc. (I learnt this one the hard way - the tent was never the same again afterwards!)

Good point!

I know someone who woke up to find a badger trying to drag her bag from under the flysheet!

And I once returned from a trip to the chip shop, unzipped our tent and found a 2 year old child happily rummaging through our stuff!

Lock valuables in your car or take it with you when you go out for the day.

We walked through one of the New Forest campsites once and saw a horse (well, pony) inside a tent.