Outboard Lock Recommendations?

[Colorado4Wheeler]

I recently got a Mercury 700 70HP motor and wanted to lock it when stored. Yes, I realize it won't stop everyone, but I'm looking to keep the honest people honest.

I purchased a Trimax lock, but it is way too small to cover the wing nuts on my motor, both the depth of the device as well as the height of it. So that's going back.

My question is: what is good for a large motor like this? Or should I not worry because the chances someone is going to nick a 200lb motor is remote anyway? A 25HP can be carried away easily enough, but this monster will take three guys to lift it off. I considered cinching some hardened chain around the engine and then tight up against the various anchor points on the boat but realize that all they have to do is cut some easy to cut aluminum to free the chain and the motor is theirs.

Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but then again I'm sure everyone is out to get me!

 

[racerone]

I do not believe that motor is 350 lbs.

 

[Colorado4Wheeler]

You are correct, I just looked it up, it's 200. Still a heavy motor .

 

[dwco5051]

They can get the motor and a piece of your transom in minutes with a sawzall. Worry more about where you park you tow vehicle. Your cat convertor is a lot lighter.

Denver police have yet to make an arrest amid nearly 1,000 reports of catalytic converter thefts

According to the Denver Police Department, there have been nearly 1,000 catalytic converter thefts in Denver between January and May of 2021.

www.thedenverchannel.com

 

[mike_i]

While I was searching for the best lock for my e bike I learned one thing. There is no good lock, people are using cordless angle grinders to cut thru any cable, chain or lock.

 

[Chris1956]

Why would someone steal a 40+ year old motor? What's it worth fenced, scrap value maybe? There has got to be something better to steal. Your prop is likely worth as much as the motor.

In the 70's Mercury did make antitheft nuts for the transom bolts. If you can find them on flea bay, the thieves who have the keys to unlock them are all long dead.

 

[Sea Rider]

While I was searching for the best lock for my e bike I learned one thing. There is no good lock, people are using cordless angle grinders to cut thru any cable, chain or lock.

Thieves have been modernized thanks to high technology tools that are not that expensive at all...

Happy Boating​

 

[mirrocraft16]

Why would someone steal a 40+ year old motor? What's it worth fenced, scrap value maybe? There has got to be something better to steal. Your prop is likely worth as much as the motor.

In the 70's Mercury did make antitheft nuts for the transom bolts. If you can find them on flea bay, the thieves who have the keys to unlock them are all long dead.

Around these parts the age of the motor doesn't seem to matter much, most will buy any good running motor if the price is right or simply affordable.
I'd venture to guess that more than half the motors I see out on the water are over 30 years old, many over 40, including my own, a 1979 Johnson 35.
I keep it locked and bolted to the transom with both a clamp lock and special security bolts that prevent it from being removed.

At my last house, a neighbor had someone steal his 1977 225hp Evinrude off his boat that was stored in his back yard in the middle of November in a snow storm. If it weren't for the snow they'd have gotten away with it,they had cut the steering cable, cut the bolts, and cut the wiring and managed to get the thing into the back of an old pickup but got the truck stuck in the snow trying to get off the property and were caught when a passing police car through it odd they were stuck where they were sitting. It turned out they had five stolen outboards in the truck which was overloaded. Only one motor was newer, a small four stroke, the rest were all larger motors that had been cut from their boats, one with a huge chunk of transom still attached.
They caught a guy a number of years ago here selling small outboards at a local fleamarket. He had a truck bed full of 10, 15, and 20hp motors all for sale cheap, even leaving and returning with more twice that day. Suspicious police followed him that evening as he went down to a local marina to get more motors for the following day, they caught him removing motors from small boats docked near the shore.

The bottom line is that theives are liable to steal just about anything they think they can make a buck on. Plus, many may not even know the difference between an old or newer outboard.

 

[Chris1956]

Boy those are some really dumb thieves. How much can they get for a stolen 40 year old motor? They are not smart enough to realize it ain't worth it?

I suppose you need to defend even old stuff from those blitherings..... No one here in NJ would consider buying a 40 year old motor, stolen or not.

 

[Scott Danforth]

get insurance, get a night-vision camera to capture anything, and just go boating.

you cant stop evil, you can only be prepared for it.

when I was much younger, watched a guy at the marina back up to a boat and drive off didnt think anything about it, because the guy looked like anyone hooking up a boat. about 3 minutes later, I watched the marina truck pull up and then a bunch of other people pull up, then the LEO's. yes, someone stole a boat in broad daylight.

if someone wants your old motor, they will get it. and as indicated above, they will damage everything to get to it.

 

[Grub54891]

Yup, At my friends lake someone went out at night and took 4-5 motors right off the boats. They untied them from the docks and took them out in the lake and did their work. One was cut through the transom with a chainsaw, nobody heard a thing. The chainsaw one was sunk.

 

[slowleak]

When I lived on a lake in the 90's, my buddy had an expensive bass boat with a new Suzuki four stroke on it, his last boat had been stolen and stripped. He got a pair of retired security dogs, two large Rottweilers and put their run in reach of the boat and dock behind his house.
Someone tried to get to his boat once, but all he found was a bloody trail on the dock leading to the water, and the dog had a huge piece of someone's shorts in the dog house as a souvenir. They likely came up by water, didn't know about the dogs, got half way down the dock before the dogs got them then dove to escape. No one heard anything but the result was obvious the next day.

When it comes to locks, remember that nothing will stop a determined thief but most aren't that smart and most aren't that determined.
Locking bolts, clamp locks, prop locks, locking bolt heads on the lower unit,
(bolts that need a special key to remove), A good chain connecting the motor to something substantial other than the transom in or off the boat also helps.
If all you do is lock the motor onto the transom, they only have to cut around the motor to steal it.

I remember reading about one case years ago where thieves on some lake or river had stolen a handful of boats, then drove or towed them to a nearby overpass where they used a tow truck to hoist the motors up off the boats floating below. Once the motors were removed, either by bolts or saw, they pulled the drain plugs, and set them adrift down stream to be found elsewhere. They got caught selling one of the motors which belonged to someone important, at that point one of them described the whole thing to the police. I'm not sure if it was in the paper, on TV or online but I remember the story well because at the lake where I lived, we would have to go to an overpass like that to fuel up our boats since there was no fuel on the lake. A fuel truck would meet boaters twice a week at the bridge to fuel up, and it was cheaper and easier than lugging 6 gallon cans to fill a 60 gal. tank.
Then someone stole the guy's fuel truck one night to fill their boat for free and the practice ended for good.

 

[JimS123]

Surely your motor is bolted on. McGuard makes theft-proof bolts that will deter a thief.

However......if the thief really wants it he (she) will use a sawzall and cut the transom. Then you not only lost the motor, but the boat is ruined as well.

Forgetaboutit. Buy good insurance and park the boat in the most secure location you can.

 

[slowleak]

When they came out with rechargeable Sawzalls and angle grinders it really made most locks worthless. they're nothing but a deterrent to keep honest folks honest.
Now they have lithium ion powered chainsaws too, so they can quietly cut a motor free of the boat.

I trailer my boat, I don't leave it in the water unattended, EVER. They are either parked inside when at home or under the car port behind a locked 6ft fence. If they get past my gate, my dogs, then they have to deal with me and I would no doubt make them wish the dogs had gotten them instead.

 

[poconojoe]

During the summer I keep my boat in my driveway.

There were some cars stolen last year across town. Some newer ones and some classic ones.

That situation made me paranoid, so for the rest of the summer I parked my truck in front of the boat and across the driveway, blocking access to the boat. My neighbors were asking why I parked my truck across the driveway.

This year I figured why bother myself by being paranoid, I have insurance. Plus I thread a heavy chain through one mag wheel and around the axle. Maybe that will slow them down and attract attention with one tire skidding.

Bottom line, I'd rather have something stolen once than have to worry about it constantly, day and night. That's what insurance is for. Granted, an insurance pay-off probably wouldn't get me a new boat, but why get sick worrying about it?

 

[reelfishin]

When my boat is in my driveway, its locked to the truck and the wheels are chained. The motor clamps are locked, the bolts are covered and I use key locking bolts. I also chain the motor bracket to the trailer frame when I'm not going to be around for a while. If I go away, I pull the motor and put it inside, I park the boat in the back yard next to a huge tree. I chain the trailer and wheels to the tree, tying two boat trailers, together around the tree. I cable lock the boat eye to the trailer and both are parked in view of my security cameras outback. I then leave my work truck parked just inside the gate preventing anything from being wheeled in or out.
Years ago a buddy of my fathers had a customized 55 Ford, he rigged a transformer from an oil furnace to the car in the garage, if anyone touched the car without knowing how to turn it off, they got hit with the full charge of the coil. His wife hated it because the washer and dryer were next to where he parked that car and she would constantly get shocked just brushing past it carrying the laundry. We all laughed one weekend when she came home with one of those flashlights with a built in stun gun, She zapped him with it while we were sitting around drinking beer one weekend after we all laughed at her getting zapped by the car. Everyone but the guy flailing around on the floor moaning in pain thought her revenge was funny. The shock from the car was no more than getting hit by an electric fence, that stun gun she bought was something else though. If only I could find a way to put one on my truck and boat when I was away. Maybe it would deter the neighbors cat from calling me boat home too.