Tent security - what do you leave in your tent when you are out?

[Dozeynoo]

When you go camping do you lock your tent? If so what with? Also what would you leave in your tent whilst you are off site?

We have just bought a 5 man family tent and are planning to use it for the first time withing the next couple of weeks.

Leave valubles in your car or take them with you. Dont lock your tent imo as that implies there is something inside worth having.If they really wanted to they could cut the tent anyway.

i leave things in the tent ie cooker etc. i take my camera etc with me, although i did go out last time forgeting i had my video camera in the tent- lucky it was in in the inner pod under everything else and was still there when we got back from our day out

maybe we have been just luky, because we have been camping at many differant sites and left all our stuff except wallets, cameras and purses and have never had or heard of people stealing anything. I think its cos we are all in the same boat!

sorry, i meant lucky

I agree we've never had an issue with security - that's why it's always worth making friends with your next door neighbours!

We take wallets, cameras etc with us, but we've left dd's ds in the tent and it's been fine - in fcat we left the whole side entrance to our tent open last week all afternoon twas a mix up with dh and myself - all good.

It might depend on the site though - I was much more careful last year at --hell- Trevornick in Cornwall. We put valuables in the roofbox or locked out of sight in the car.

We lock valuables in the car, and never leave stuff outside the tent at night or when it is unattended. At night anything of any value is in the sleeping pod with us, in a fairly inaccessible place. I have never had a problem on proper campsites with thieves, but I used to do a lot of canoe slaloms which usually involved a weekend camping in a field next to the river. More than once I remember other people losing gear that had been left out to dry overnight. (I think it was local youths looking for wetsuits etc. to sell on to windsurfers.)

We leave pretty much everything in the tent. I would leave my handbag if I was going off to the beach, I regularly leave cameras, etc.

I suppose it depends on the type of site you're on and how easy it is to get to for non-campers.

i didn't even realise you could lock tents!! is that only possible from the outside or is it possible to lock them from the inside too? (worried about ds escaping in the night)

As far as I am aware "locking a tent" means putting a padlock through the zip pull and fastening it to something else so it cannot be opened. I wouldn't do this at night as it would prevent you escaping in the event of a fire.

i have left everything except wallet camera ipod etc

so all clothes rucksacs gear

never had any thefts

never locked either i think that would be quite ineffectual as you just lift and cut inside

we have had bikes locked together and to vehicle and i think we did use a alptop alarm for them on one holiday

We leave everything in and by the tent except purse/wallet, cameras and ipods etc, which which we lock in the car if we're going off-site.

At night all that stuff and the car keys too are tucked in with us in the sleeping area.

You can't lock a tent. But then you have to assume that everybody else on a campsite is in a similar boat, and to hope that other people will be keeping an eye out on who's around, just as you are yourself. Mutual trust in other words.

A really shut up tent screams out "people have gone out for the whole day" so it might be safer just to leave it looking as if you'd just popped to the loo and were on your way back imminently.

In short, don't bother to lock a tent.

We leave our things in the tent, but always take valuables with us- camera etc. Camped all my life and never had a theft from a tent.

Only bad things that I know about are thefts at festivals from tents, which is not like normal camping anyway, though a friend did get his tent set on fire by someone whilst he was in it, but this was at the big municipal site at Avignon, which sides onto a road and it was again during the festival. Fortunately, he got away with nasty burns to his arms,but it could have been much worse.

Agree with all above - take valuables with you/lock in roofbox, or leave them at home, and there's no point padlocking a tent.

We did camp at a site in France where the previous night thieves had slashed the sides of certain models of tent where they knew there'd be an interior pocket (at night, while people were asleep).

I don't leave anything valuable in those pockets now - I used to put my watch etc in them as it was easy to find it in the morning.

But I haven't heard of anything like this any other time, or in this country.

I think you sometimes get these things in France because they are often at the municipal sites, and sites are rarely so near to city centres in this country. It's still pretty rare in France, I think.