secret compartment ideas

bike4mee

bike4mee

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Messages
169
Location
Durango Colorado
Hey
Sometimes camping in not so nice places, I think about having a secret hiding compartment for like laptop, money, ect. anybody have any ideas? It would be nice if it locked. Maybe mexican police proof?
 
I'd say maybe a fake bottom on one of the storage areas? I have side dinette and the storage under seat is pretty deep. Not real convenient but that would be an easy solution.
 
One thing to be aware of. Because of the drug trade many states have passed a secret compartment law. You can go to prison for having a secret compartment in your vehicle. They are supposed to prove it was used for concealing drugs. But there are always abuses.
 
Here's an idea I tried but ran out of time. The top above the refrigerator has some space in it. You could build a compartment under that top and hinge it or just lift it out. In mine, there's probably 4-6" of space. The issue may be that if you have the refrigerator on, it may get warm in there. I never did it as I wanted to hinge it and the screws on the sides above the top, got in the way for a tight fit. I'm sure there's a lot of easy ways to do it though. I couldn't hinge it the direction I wanted to do it.
 
Stalking Light said:
I don't have a secret compartment, but if I did I probably wouldn't share the location on the Internet. :giggle:
Click to expand...
Awe it's just us...
But in all seriousness the North/South arrangement in our Hallmark has a compartment under where our head would be that unless you know about it could easily be overlooked. It could easily hold a long gun or other such things.
 
I have to agree with Stalking Light. Who would want to publicize what they do in a public environment? Having said that, I will say that I do several things because I was planning trips outside of the country:

  • I have a secret place to hide a spare key outside
  • I have a steel, locked secret place that is extremely hard to detect, to lock a credit card and cash.
  • I have a steel safe inside my truck cab for cameras, etc. (not the same place as above)
All attempts to secure things only slow people down. Any eager thief can get stuff. I am not afraid. Just trying to slow down some folks from easy thieft. There is a great book called "Two Wheels Through Terror" by Glan Geggstad. It is about this guy who motorcycles all through Central America and South America, get caught by bandits, released, and continues on. He talks about how he hides things, and has duplicate copies of documents. Even old expired credit cards to fake out phony police outside USA. Pretty interesting.

I got ideas from his book. Frankly though, I hope to not have to do what he did. I also hope our country doesn't get like those of other countries where cops are checking people's papers every ten miles down the road. I only say this because you talk about traveling abroad. In many other countries, you will be stopped repeatedly to show ID, and other papers. You might have to hide the "originals".

Chris
 
Yukon said:
"Two Wheels Through Terror" by Glan Geggstad. It is about this guy who motorcycles all through Central America and South America, get caught by bandits, released, and continues on. He talks about how he hides things, and has duplicate copies of documents. Even old expired credit cards to fake out phony police outside USA. Pretty interesting.
Click to expand...
Yukon, I think autocorrect changed your spelling. Glen Heggstad (The Striking Viking). Great book! I have a copy and I have used some of his techniques. I carry a spare fake wallet with expired credit cards and a small amount of cash in it, in case I get robbed. Thieves won't take the time to check the expiration dates on your credit cards. They will quickly take the wallet with joy. If you tell them you don't have any money, you are inviting a pat down.

It's been about 15 years since I read that book. I should read it again. I'm not a a big reader of books and I really enjoyed it.
 
I hope no one on this site robs me, now that they know where my secret compartments are! I'm sure this is a popular site for crooks! The next time I see a FWC, I'll type into google, secret compartments in FWC? :)

Just typed "FWC secret compartments" into Google, your all in trouble. Good Luck
 
For those of us on the lower left coast: http://law.onecle.com/california/health/11366.8.html
Note that the prosecution would have to prove intent to "to store, conceal, smuggle, or transport a controlled substance within the false compartment" The downside of having a full time legislature is laws like this one.

I agree with some others posts, if I had a secret compartment I wouldn't mention it in public and I wouldn't say where it is or how I did it. That said, I can tell you that there are significant void volumes in most vehicles. You just need to be creative about locating them and figuring out an access method that doesn't give away the location. No need to "make" anything.
 
In my previous camper I actual built in a small safe and bolted it thru the wall of the camper. It was just big enough to hold a laptop, DSLR camera and extra lens, wallets, cash and passports etc. I found it to be great for peace of mind while at the beach or other locations where valuables could not be carried. It would certainly help for your typical smash and grab type of situation.

It was an older model, but very similar in size to this (about 1.0-1.2 cu. ft.):
p_1000722794.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads - WTW

J
Circuit Protection in Typical Camper Power Systems
Jon R
J
bajaphile
Keeping Camper Centered
Atlin
A
A
A new approach to Flatbeds and FWCs
Herbie
H
S
Snow Broke my FWC Hawk Roof
2
ckent323
C
J
Initial questions- New (old) Fleet on the way!
BBZ
B

New posts - WTW

Back
Top Bottom