Several of the exterior components on the trailer were not locked on any way. To prevent the theft of the spare tire, propane bottles, and batteries I had to devise a decent locking mechanism. I came up with the idea of using cables. I looked and the commercial cables with nice vinyl covering were too long for what I needed. After looking around for a bit I found that I can buy cable in bulk and get fittings to hold it in place.

A fabricated cable is above a roll of cable and the fittings. It was a matter of cutting the cable to length with a cut off blade then slipping the fitting and bringing a loop back around. The length was determined by its application. I used a piece of heavy rope to get the lengths I needed then added the length needed for the looped ends. Once the cable is looped back into the fitting, I used a wide cold chisel to swedge the fitting to the cable.

Here is an example of the cable. I threaded the cable through the holes in the base of the propane tank. When the tank is in position on the trailer one end of the cable passes through a holes in the bottom of the mounting bracket. The other end comes back around the outside. Both tanks have this cable and the looped ends come together so only one padlock is needed.