Living in the Roadtrek - Security Part II

This is the second in a two part article on securing the contents of the Roadtrek from potential crime. Part I was last week's article.

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We needed a way to close off the view from the front of the van. The first thing we tried was a mylar sunscreen sold at most auto stores and box store auto departments. It unrolls and holds into the windshield under the visors to keep the sun out while parked. This worked, but was a pain the neck to put up every time we stopped. We saw a large Class A RV in a parking lot that had curtains inside the driver's cab that went all around the windshield and the windows. We could not find anything like that made for the Roadtrek. Of course, as I said in Part I, the Roadtrek comes with curtains that cover the windows in the front doors and windshield, but closing them takes a bit of effort, as does securing them back again for traveling. No, we wanted something just as easy as the back curtain that we made. Actually, Meryl made. (She is not only a great embroiderer, but sews exceptionally as well - she is a prize winning doll maker.)

It was back to Walmart for another flat sheet in black. My first idea was a curtain that went up over the windshield - and we actually did make one. There is little metal in the front at the ceiling for magnets. We used the metal arms at the top corner of the visors. It did not hold well. It was easy to get up and take down - but so easy that it had a tendency to come down on its own. Plus with this design the door windows were uncovered and there was a clear view inside of the cabinets. No, the curtain had to be positioned so that while the front cab was visible nothing behind it would be. Seeing the inside of the cab is not a problem - it is a van after all and that is all you would be able to see.

The curtain we designed is made to hook on the front of the sliding drawer that we have in our Roadtrek over the front cab. This drawer is an option and well worth the cost. It adds storage space in a place that has no use otherwise.

The hooks are from the Scotch company and are from the Command line - these can be removed if you want to and will not damage the finish where the adhesive stuck - or so they claim (I have not removed one so I don't know). When in place the curtain still let a small view in from the front passenger window so Meryl added a small piece of Velcro to the right side and the matching velcro to the Roadtrek curtain for the Roadtrek entrance door window. When it is fastened and that entrance door curtain is closed (easy to slide and snap in place), there nothing is visible in the Roadtrek area.

In this photo you can see the curtain in place at the front of the Roadtrek looking at it from the middle. You can see the drawer there at the top going across. This drawer pulls toward the back of the Roadtrek and the door pulls down on a long hinge to access the inside storage. The fabric is hemmed all around and there are plastic rings sewn in to hook it in place

Opening and closing this curtain is easy. When not in use it hangs behind the driver's seat from the left hook. The photo on the left shows the curtain being put away for travel - the part hanging over the seat is just for you to see what has to be tucked back. It all does hang completely behind the seat and is not in the way. At night the curtain comes down when we are using the front seats to lounge in.

Below you see what it looks like with the curtain in place from the outside and what it looks like with no curtain.

I mentioned the curtain on the side entrance door. This door is behind the passenger door. It is the main entrance to the living section of the Roadtrek and that door has a window. The curtain on that window is very easy. Here is a photo of that curtain when closed.

This photo also gives you a good view of how the window curtains snap closed. They slide on a track at the top and bottom of the window.

With the back and front "security" curtains that we made closed, no one can see anything inside but a van. Of course, there are things that you may want to hide in the front section where the driver and passenger sit. The GPS does come out of the dash and can be hidden. A jacket thrown casually over anything is a good cover up - and looks like nothing more than a sloppy van.

I said in part one that I would get back to personal security in the Roadtrek. This is my advice. If you are staying overnight in a parking lot, a forest, a rest area, or any place that is not a populated campground, keep your van keys nearby while you are inside or if you are in bed asleep. If you hear anything that you feel is someone trying to break in, get in the drivers seat and drive away. Look out the window, but never open the door. Drive away. If you are in a campground and hooked up, lean on the horn and keep blowing it. Someone will wake up and come to yell at you and at the same time the crook will run away. Your key remote has a panic button that honks the horn. You can use this if you can't get to the steering wheel. Then call the police.

I know that some carry guns - there are different gun laws in every state. Some carry mace or pepper spray. Some states have laws about this too. If you are going to use either of these that means you are face to face with an attacker and you never really want to be in that position. It is not like it is in the movies. I am not going to get into detail about this. Avoid it.It is the best course of action.

Some Roadtrek owners get alarms and the one most talked about is the Viper Alarm. This will protect the van when you are out or in. There is a remote that will sound the alarm from inside if you need help. The alarm is wired into the electric system of the Roadtrek and the van. I have been told that Best Buy will install this in a Roadtrek. As I am in an area where no one has ever seen a Roadtrek, I am not sure I want the kid who installs stereos at Best Buy rewiring my Roadtrek. The alarm is not a bad idea - and if I knew the installation would be done correctly I would put one in.

Living in the Roadtrek - Security Part I

I may have misnamed this article, as I am not really sure how to put a title on what we do to keep the Roadtrek secure from break in when we are away from it while it is parked. As far as personal security in the Roadtrek - you are as safe inside as you would be in your car, truck, or van. When inside lock your doors and it will take a bold criminal to come in while anyone is inside. That is not to say that it cannot happen - and I don't want to go off on a tangent here, but I will come back to this before the end of the article.

Anyway - when we got the Roadtrek it seemed to me - as we live in one of those parts of the country where you do not leave your house door open at night or your car unlocked when you are not inside of it - that there was a lot inside the Roadtrek to attract someone with wrong intent to break in. We often hear about GPS units being stolen from cars. In the Roadtrek you have a flat screen TV, positioned where it can be easily seen through the rear and side windows. It is also very obvious when looking through the windows to the inside that this is an RV and that there are people's belongings inside. All very and much too tempting...

Roadtrek's do come with curtains on all of the windows including for the windshield and the windows on the driver's door and the passenger's door. We closed the side windows - on the sides of the bed area and leave them closed. The curtains for the front doors and the windshield are two curtains that pull from the sides and go all around on a track and velcro closed where they meet which is just about under the rear view mirror. This is fine to do at night for privacy, but a pain to do every time you come and go. There are curtains on the rear cargo door windows, but it is necessary to have both doors open to close these windows from the outside. It is possible to close them from the inside easily, but this requires being on the bed, if the bed is made up, and when we are traveling we keep the bed made up all of the time. If you have read my article about making the bed in our Roadtrek, you will understand why. To open the right cargo door is no problem. Open the door and there is the window curtain - pull it across on the tracks that it is on and lock it in place with a button snap. The curtain on the left door works the same way, but to open that door requires dropping the arm that the spare tire sits on, as this blocks this door from opening. The spare tire and holder is very heavy. It is not something that you want to do every time you stop and park - and certainly this will call attention to what you are doing and your Roadtrek. We looked at all types of ways to reach the curtain and pull it over. Nothing that we thought of really would work. We looked at blinds and shades for the windows that might be easier to pull down with just one door open - but these would swing and make noise when driving and that did not seem like a solution. After examining the door frame, we came up with a design for a curtain that would reach across the entire back of the Roadtrek behind the bed that could be pulled up easily from the one open door, secured into place, and be done in just a few seconds. I know that many just keep their rear window curtains closed all of the time. I am not certain of the legalities of that where I live - I am sure it is fine in some places to have the rear windows blocked but with the limited visibility in the back of the Roadtrek while driving, I want the windows open to be able to see what little one is able to see through them. For me, a little can go along way when need be.

The curtain we designed is made from a flat sheet - black - from Walmart (the less expensive sheets that they sell that are not in sets). The cloth is dense enough to not allow any view inside even with light coming in from the windshield to the back and costs less than similar fabric purchased in a fabric store. In the photo to the left you can see the curtain through the open right door. All of the edges are hemmed. The top hem is larger to hold two small, button rare earth magnets at the end in each corner of the top. The magnets have to be stitched into little sections so that they do not lock together (tough to get apart) and so that they sit on the metal door frame at the top corners. The open space at the top is not visible when the door is closed and if there is any space at all there that can be seen nothing is recognizable behind it. The magnets need to be positioned just right inside the corners to make sure that the curtain hangs just as you want it as to hide what it needs to hide. Now, you ask - you still can't get to the curtain on the left - so how is this different. When you release this curtain from the right side, and leave the left side in place on the magnets, the fabric drops down and out of the way of seeing out the left rear window. To make certain of this, I carry a dowel that I can use to push the curtain where it meets the bottom of the window to the side and behind the Roadtrek's open curtain. The magnets are strong and they will not come down unless you really give a tug. To put this curtain up, I open the right door, grab the top corner of the curtain which is usually sitting at the floor right at the side of the left door, and put it in place with the magnets. Close the door and go! With the doors closed, because of the way the windows are tinted (not full tint unfortunately), all you see is black. It is so black that when I tried to take a photo of it all you could see was the reflection of what was behind the Roadtrek outside. This hid the most obvious things that needed to be hidden. And with the curtain in place, from the rear it looks like any other parked van. This was the first thing that we did to secure the Roadtrek, and we thought at first that we did not need to any more. It is not easy to see inside through the windshield and the front side windows. One night getting out of the Roadtrek in a parking lot with bright lights all around, I realized that I could see quite clearly inside and through the windshield I could see all of the cabinets - and the TV. We had more to do.

End of Part I - next week Security Part II.