Yep, they are extremely easy to break into. Stupid easy, and many different ways. Locks only keep honest people out. Steering wheel locks are kind of a joke because of what you said, they will just cut the wheel. You can do your own ignition disable. No such thing as a lock that can't be picked/circumvented, some are harder than others though. Get a 2-way alarm, and some sort of vehicle tracking for once it is stolen.

Then again, some things are a deterrent, and others just say "hey my owner really wanted to secure this van, maybe you should check out what is inside that is so valuable".

The only thing that I have come up with is using eye bolts and locks in the rear and side doors and then the eye bolts with a chain across the front two doors allowing just enough room to allow your arm in to unlock the padlock that secures the chain to the door. You can see my eye bolts HERE.

Edit: Oh and those door hinge pins are a PITA to remove, They are not a security issue at all IMO.

 

The only thing that I have come up with is using eye bolts and locks in the rear and side doors and then the eye bolts with a chain across the front two doors allowing just enough room to allow your arm in to unlock the padlock that secures the chain to the door. You can see my eye bolts HERE.

Edit: Oh and those door hinge pins are a PITA to remove, They are not a security issue at all IMO.

Thanks, Will, you gave me an idea to work on with the chains. Also, thanks for comment on hinges.

I referred to two different types of steering wheel locks. The standard one is a bar that has U-hooks on either end and expands outward so the hooks surround the steering wheel perimeter.

There is another that I had never seen before. It goes right over the entire steering wheel and turns without turning the steering wheel. Again, the lock may be pick-able.

https://www.amazon.com/Disklok-Security-Device-Steering-Thatcham/dp/B06XSLHBN9

 

If your van has signs on it telling the world you have tools they will break in to get your tools, years ago i bought my first Astro for a DJ business I owned. I put magnet signs on it and drove it empty all the time at first so people could look in and see no equipment just cause i didn't trust anyone I kept my equipment in my spare bedroom. Later I was told by another DJ to just have the signs on when I am not working and black out the rear and the side windows so people can't see inside. Most people won't break into a vehicle unless they have a reason to believe there is something of value. I did what he said and put a curtain behind my front seats . I started leaving my equipment in my van in the summer months and never had a break in. Magnet signs are cheap and easy to deal with. Just an option. Or you can have a Cage built inside so they would have to get through two doors instead of one and most people take the easy way out

 

Just had my rear door lock wrenched open and some contents stolen. Looked amazingly easy to do, which I suspected it might. It's a helpless feeling knowing that anyone can break into your van, or any car, at any time so easily. I get the feeling also that we van owners are resigned to the inevitable and that there's nothing we can do.

Not much you can do... if they really want "IN".

'cept Move or park in a safer locale. I am lucky to have a garage.
And I wish we all had one.
Or an Armored Car/Truck

...full of money

In the Big Garage.
In case they Get In The House.

Of course,
You know how Big Locks look like there's "sumpin' in 'er".

Mike

 

You could always do this..

 

Yep, they are extremely easy to break into. Stupid easy, and many different ways. Locks only keep honest people out.
Edit: Oh and those door hinge pins are a PITA to remove, They are not a security issue at all IMO.

Yup, locks only keep honest people honest. Thieves don't care. They'll look for the easiest way in, including breaking a window.
Those hinge pins aren't going anywhere short of a cutting tool or a torch to remove them. Ideally you want something that says "stay out", yet still allows access by you without having to do a bunch of stuff to get in.
Honestly, short of an armored car, there isn't anything 100% secure.

 

There is a 2k Astro van listed on Craigslist.org now with bullet proof windows. $4k obo Arlington tx 140,000 miles Was used for cash deliveries. Might have other security tactics. Starts for a while then dies.

 

I wonder where it is now

 

If your van has signs on it telling the world you have tools they will break in to get your tools...

Sorry for delay on reply all. Got in a traffic incident in which I was in the middle of a line of cars, on a decent uphill slope, waiting for a left turn signal to go green. As it went green, the car in front began to roll back. I thought he'd catch the roll and stop and i was a bit late with the horn.

He bumped into me and claimed I rear-ended him. He was driving a clutch operated car on a slope and he rolled back. Which is more likely, that I rear-ended him, or he was distracted and figured he was on flat ground, taking his foot off the brake.

Next thing I am expecting is a whiplash claim. There was zero damage to either bumper.

Anyway, MM, there are no signs on my van and it is a cargo van with no side or rear windows.

 

Not much you can do... if they really want "IN". Mike

Mike...agreed. I only want to make it real tough for amateurs.

 

Very much unusual for someone to break into a vehicle they can't see in unless they seen your van at a job site?
Many years ago i had a 67 firebird I was attempting to build but I was yet a teen with zero knowledge and dads tools. Anyway someone cut through my backyard and seen the car and decided to see whats inside. I scared the kid away when I came out with my dog. I decided to figure out a way to keep it from happening again so I took a piece of junk sheet metal laid it on the ground then i ran a cord from the house through a window and split the wire bared the ends put one end to the sheet metal then the other to the car and hooked the opposite end to a car battery in the house. never knew if it worked cause my dad found it and unhooked it and told me to stop trying to cause fires lol :rofl:

 

You could always do this..

MP...saw one of those locks picked in a few seconds. They do present an issue to the placement of one of the picking levers but a bit of ingenuity licked it in no time.

There is an ethical question as to whether lock picking should be shown on the Net. I rationalize it as an educational tool, to inform people as to how useless a lock can be. No one should ever assume that a standard lock cannot be easily picked. It's living in false security.

Having seen this video, people should write to the lock manufacturers and harass them about it. The key here (no pun intended) is that your insurance is null and void if you cannot show a damaged lock or a broken window. How can you convince an insurance company your lock was picked? They would likely blame you for failing to lock your vehicle.

I just found out that nearly every wireless home security alarm signal can be jammed or intercepted just because the manufacturers are too cheap to use encryption on the signal between the door/window contacts and controller. A snotty-nosed, punk thief can gain access to most home wireless system using a $30 hand-held jammer.

Laptops became vulnerable years ago when the WEP encryption on the signal between the laptop and the router, through the air, was hacked. Freeware became available on the Net for anyone to use. Someone could sit outside your house, or down the block, intercept your signal, and get onto the Net to do any illegal activity they liked through your laptop internet connection.

The new encryption, WPA-2, cannot be hacked. So, check your laptop wifi encryption to make sure it is at least WPA. On my Windows 7, I click on the wifi icon on the status bar (bottom right-hand corner of screen), move the mouse up to the highlighted connection, right-click it and select 'Status". Then I select the Wireless Properties box, then the Security tab. It tells me my encryption type is WPA2 and that the encryption type is AES.

Unhackable unless you can spare a hundred years on a fast computer. If your internet provider does not supply WPA2, get another provider who does.

The only solution is to replace standard locks with locks that have a tamper-proof design. The lock barrel can be designed so the lock cannot be picked as shown in the video.

The steering wheel bar lock I use on my old bar has a key with 4 different standard key surfaces on it at 90 degree intervals. It could not be picked as shown so why are other locks not designed like that? The newer one I bought, because I lost my car keys, and don't know where, has only a standard key on it.

Another solution is to use a design for locks like on Greenlee tool boxes. The lock connects through brackets attached to the lid that are in an enclosed space when the lid is down. You have to reach up into the space to hook the lock through the bracket hole. To make the lock less pickable, the bottom of the access hole is slanted upward and inward so it would be mighty hard to fit the picking tools into the access area.

Never underestimated the ingenuity of some thieves. In software circles, many companies have offered software that alters the protected software so it cannot be reversed engineered.

Theoretically!!!

There has been a lot of bragging by those companies that no one can RE their protection schemes and thus far I have not seen one anti-piracy software app that has not been cracked or bypassed.