Just the thought of somebody breaking into or vandalizing my boat makes my stomach turn. It’s a major extension of my office and without it, I’d be unable to perform my job effectively. With all of that aside, however, I worked hard to buy it and everything inside of it—just like every boat owner reading this review. So if there’s an affordable product out there that’s designed to protect my investment, I want to know about it.
I’ve been using the T-H Marine Banshee Trailer Alarm Lock for quite some time and it has proven to be a cost-effective way to protect my boat from “unwanted visitors”. If you’re interested in a quick, easy way to arm your boat, I believe it’s worth careful consideration.
After testing it, there are a few things I believe you should know.
- Easy to use
- Loud
- Extra keys
- Affordable
Simple and Quick to use Tackle Lock
This review might be a bit shorter than many of my others and that’s not a bad thing—T-H Marine designed this product with simplicty in mind, so there’s not too much I need to explain. In its basic form, it’s a padlock with a really loud alarm on it. But there’s a little bit more to it than that.
The Banshee Trailer Alarm attaches to your trailer coupler, exactly where your standard padlock would go. You have the option of deactivating it for trailering purposes or, of course, activating it when you’re away from your boat.
To activate the alarm, simply turn the key to the right, press down the shackle until you heard a loud “beep” and it’s armed and ready to alert you at the slightest vibration of your boat. There have been a few times when I’ve forgotten that it’s armed and jumped into my boat late at night to grab something and trust me—it’s very sensitive. But it’s not so sensitive that something silly like a strong wind will make it go off.
In situations when you’d rather use it without the alarm, all you have to do is insert the shackle into the lock hole slightly and it operates just like a traditional padlock. That’s about as simple as it gets, in my opinion.
It may be a bit difficult to tell from the photos, but the sturdiness of this lock is certainly worth mentioning. It’s not dainty, lightweight or made cheaply. It’s actually a bit heavier than most padlocks I’ve used.
Loudest Marine Lock
I don’t know much about decibels—they don’t have much of a place in the fishing world. The Banshee Trailer Alarm is said to ring out at 110 decibels and before I started using it, it didn’t really register with me. But after accidently settting it off a few times, I have a newfound “respect”, if you will, for 110 decibels. It’s freakin’ loud.
I can be anywhere in my house and easily hear when the alarm starts ringing. I actually had my girlfriend activate it outside just so I could know what to expect if it were a real life situation and sure enough, I heard it without any problems at all.
More importantly, it would scare the insides out of a potential thief. Imagine trying to illegaly sneak into someone’s boat late at night. Everything is quiet and you’re trying to be a scumbag without anyone knowing. Then you vibrate the trailer a bit and the Banshee starts raising all sorts of commotion. After you clean your britches, I’m willing to bet you’d tuck tail and run far, far away.
Extra Keys for Trailer Lock
There are some days that I’d lose my head if it weren’t attached. So the fact that this alarm lock comes with 3 keys is a big deal to me. I can’t imagine being all pumped up to go fishing one morning and having a screaming padlock stuck to my coupler. Talk about a buzz kill.
To avoid all of that, I have my keys in three separate locations so I’m totally covered if I lose one. Also worth mentioning are the unique key shapes that T-H Marine provides you with. There isn’t a hardware store in the world that would be able to duplicate ’em.
Affordable Tackle Security Lock
The Banshee Trailer Alarm Lock is priced at $29.99 which might seem steep for a padlock. But consider what you’re protecting with it. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a cheap insurance policy that gives me major peace of mind. Not to mention, you could also use it on any storage buildings or garage man caves in which you store a lot of your expensive fishing equipment.
The T-H Marine Banshee Trailer Alarm Lock is available at TackleWarehouse.com and all T-H Marine Gear can be found at THMARINEGEAR.COM.
