Tested: Kovix alarmed lock

My wife came from the country, where no-one locks their doors, people leave their doors open and everyone feeds their neighbour’s cat.

I come from a big city, where serial bad news and alarming advertising advised us to suspect everyone. You lock your doors as a matter of course and it’s often illegal to leave your keys in your car.

Caravanning, particularly free-camping, is an interesting meeting point of these ingrained ideas. In an organised caravan park, everyone is aware that they live in ‘glass’ houses.

You may know your neighbours are close and it’s rude to stare, but if you see a stranger taking their possessions you would certainly notice. So, it’s pretty safe to leave your caravan unlocked and portable ‘trophies’ like a generator, Weber and general camping gear lying about.

The water gets muddier in National Parks, which while inhabited by generally nice people, are often located in remote areas and can be deserted at daytime when everyone is out exploring. The final frontier of trust is free-camping, when you really don’t know who will be dropping in and what their morals are.

As we free-camp and National Park a lot with our caravan and travel with tempting ‘portables’ like our generator, portable BBQ, lithium battery-powered chainsaw and portable fridge-freezer, I worry about these things when I leave them out while away from camp and I also wonder if our caravan itself will be there when we return.

Unfortunately, the advent of lithium battery-powered portable grinders means most locks, whether securing you van, camper or accessories, are less secure than in the old bolt-cuter days.

True, any lock is a deterrent to an honest thief, who hopefully will move on to the next, easier target, but add a built-in, attention-grabbing 120db alarm system and it’s going to take a pretty persistent or hearing impaired person to carry on nicking your stuff.

That’s the theory behind the range of Kovix alarmed locks that come in different forms to secure caravans, campers, boat trailers and other camping items such as generators, chain saws, portable fridges and BBQs.

So, we trialled them on a recent summer trip to Inskip Point, which is a popular beach camping area just below Fraser Island on Queensland’s Cooloola coast.

To make it a comprehensive test, we tried two main types: the Kovix KTR-18 Alarmed Trailer Lock and KBL-12 Alarmed Bolt Lock and reinforced KCB12-250 conventional Security Cable.

Made from heavy-duty 304 stainless steel, the Kovix trailer lock looks impressively secure, with its central ‘ball’ slotting into the hitch in place of a conventional 50mm tow ball when your trailer is decoupled.

We had a DO-35 off-road hitch on our caravan, however with the ball removed (by undoing a simple Allen key screw), the Kovix 18mm central steel pin also fits where the pin would usually slot in on this and also Trig-type block couplings, which makes it handy if you have different trailers.

In this way it functions similarly to the lockable pin that Vehicle Components sell for its DO-35, with the Kovix’s advantage being that it is larger and looks meatier, so it may be more of a deterrent to a potential thief.

However, the lock’s special feature is its very audible alarm, powered by a long-life lithium battery, which can be switched on or off at will via its locking key. And in case you asked, the lock’s electronics are weatherproof.

If there’s no-one around, the alarm will probably cause more attention from your neighbours than a small grinder, so it ticks several deterrent boxes.

It’s not cheap at a RRP of $199.95, not light at 1.7kg, but it’s available through a range of suppliers in all states.

Keeping our other ‘toys’ safe while in the beach camp was a task we entrusted to Kovix’s KBL-12 Alarmed Bolt Lock (RRP $99.95) and reinforced KCB12-250 conventional Security Cable (RRP $39.95). There’s also an alarmed version – the KWL24-110 at a RRP of $79.95.

Although much smaller, the KBL-12 is also made of strong stainless steel, albeit with a 12mm locking pin and has an on-off 120db alarm that is triggered by movement or tampering.

You can link several items together with the aid of the cable (as we did), both if you want to keep your generator as far away from your camp as possible, then you might need to purchase two or more of these units.

Both of review alarmed locks were supplied by Sunseeker, but other stockists can be located by visiting Kovix’s website.