Don't Leave Your Car to Chance: How Mara Protected Her Jeep on a Cross-Country Tow
Moving cross-country with a car on a trailer means one extra thing that can go wrong overnight. Here is how to make sure it doesn't.
By Emilia Grey
Car secured on a U-Haul auto trailer for a cross-country move
Mara had owned her Wrangler for a decade. It had gotten her through a Colorado winter with bald tires, three road trips she probably should not have taken alone, and one genuinely terrifying detour through a flash flood in New Mexico. The Jeep had earned its dents. So when she found out she would be towing it from Denver to Savannah on a U-Haul auto trailer, she did not lose sleep over the logistics. She lost sleep over the overnight stops.
The math of a cross-country move with two vehicles usually works out to one driver per vehicle, with a rental truck out of the picture entirely. Mara's situation was the other version: her boyfriend was driving the truck and trailer, she was driving her own car, and the Wrangler was the one riding on the trailer because it had higher mileage and worse fuel economy for a 1,800-mile haul.
That decision made sense on paper. It made less sense at 11pm when they pulled into a truck stop in Oklahoma City and Mara stood in the parking lot looking at her Jeep sitting exposed on a trailer in a sea of other trucks, thinking about how easy it would look to anyone paying attention.
Why Car-on-Trailer Theft Is a Real Concern
Vehicles on auto trailers are more vulnerable than parked cars for a few reasons. They cannot be moved without the tow vehicle, which creates a natural deterrent, but they also cannot be locked in the usual sense: the doors and ignition locks are irrelevant to someone who wants to roll the car off the trailer and onto their own. The trailer itself can also be unhitched if the connection is not secured.
The good news is that most car theft is opportunistic, not targeted. Layering visible deterrents, even imperfect ones, meaningfully reduces risk by making your vehicle the harder choice compared to the next one in the lot.
The Security Stack Mara Built
Mara spent two evenings before the trip researching this and came up with a layered approach that cost her about $80 total and gave her actual peace of mind instead of just the feeling of it.
Layer 1: Steering Wheel Club Lock
A Club-style steering wheel lock does not prevent someone from hotwiring the car, but it makes the car undrivable once it is off the trailer, which eliminates the casual joyrider. It also signals effort to anyone who glances at the vehicle. A car that will require tools and time to actually drive is skipped in favor of an easier target. Mara bought a standard Club for $35.
Layer 2: Wheel Chock and Trailer Chain Lock
U-Haul's auto trailers come with built-in tie-down straps that secure the tires. Those are not theft deterrents, they are just load straps. What Mara added was a case-hardened padlock through the coupler latch on the trailer hitch itself. This is the connection between the trailer and the truck ball mount. If someone wanted to unhitch the trailer and hook it to another vehicle, the padlock made that impossible without cutting equipment. U-Haul's auto transport trailer page notes the included tie-down equipment but does not cover aftermarket security additions — a coupler padlock is your own addition. A good quality padlock here runs $15 to $25.
Layer 3: AirTags
Mara placed two AirTags: one in the Jeep's center console and one tucked behind the spare tire on the trailer. AirTags do not prevent theft, but they are genuinely useful for recovery and create a psychological layer that mattered to her. If the Jeep ended up somewhere it should not be, she would know where within a few hours.
Layer 4: The Disconnect
This one was specific to the Jeep being an older model. Mara removed the fuse for the fuel pump before each overnight stop. Without it, the engine would crank but not start. Reinserting a fuse takes about 90 seconds, but no one casing a truck stop parking lot is going to diagnose a no-start condition and locate a fuse box on a car they just rolled off a trailer at 2am. This costs nothing and leaves no trace on the vehicle.
The $80 Security Stack
- Steering wheel Club lock: $35
- Case-hardened padlock for trailer coupler: $20
- AirTags x2: $59 (or use ones you already have)
- Fuel pump fuse removal: $0
Total with AirTags: about $114. Without, about $55. U-Haul policy note: do not remove the truck's battery or modify any rental equipment. The fuse removal is on your own vehicle only.
Overnight Parking Strategy
The security stack matters less if you park badly. Mara learned a few things on the drive that changed how she thought about overnight stops.
The best overnight option for a truck-and-trailer combo is a 24-hour truck stop with active lighting and other trucks present. Trucker Path is a free app used by commercial drivers to find overnight truck stops with fuel, lighting, and security — it works just as well for a rented truck-and-trailer combo. Walmart parking lots are frequently used for this and are generally safe, but the lighting varies and you can end up isolated in a corner that felt fine when you pulled in and feels less fine at 3am.
What Mara actually found most effective was backing the trailer end of the rig as close to a wall or curb as space allowed. Not necessarily right against it, but close enough that unhitching the trailer and backing another vehicle up to it would be awkward and visible. You cannot always do this with a long rig, but when you can, it costs nothing.
She also made a habit of taking a photo of the Jeep and the trailer coupler area each time they stopped. If something had gone wrong, she would have had a timestamped record of the vehicle's state at each stop.
Overnight Parking Priority Order
- 24-hour truck stops with active foot traffic and lighting
- Well-lit Walmart or rest area lots near other vehicles
- Hotel parking lots (ask about truck/trailer spots at check-in)
Avoid: dark corner lots, highway shoulders, and anything that puts the trailer end facing outward into an empty lane
What Is Not Worth Doing
Mara had found a forum thread suggesting she remove the Jeep's battery entirely each night. She decided against it. Reconnecting a car battery in a parking lot is not complicated, but it is time-consuming, it risks terminal corrosion over multiple connections, and it did not offer meaningfully more protection than the fuse removal did. The fuse is the cleaner version of the same idea.
She also saw suggestions to wrap the trailer wheels with additional chains and padlocks. For a cross-country move with multiple overnight stops, this becomes a 20-minute process each evening and morning. The incremental security gain over a coupler padlock is small.
The principle she ended up with: make your vehicle visibly harder than average, make the trailer mechanically harder to detach, and know where the car is at all times. Anything beyond that is anxiety management, not actual security.
The Drive
They made it from Denver to Savannah in four days. Three overnight stops, all at truck stops, all uneventful. The Jeep arrived with every dent it left with.
Mara said the preparation was worth it not just for the security but for the mental clarity. She had done what she could do, and that let her actually enjoy the drive instead of spending it calculating what she would do if she walked out to the parking lot and the trailer was empty.
The Wrangler is in Savannah now, earning new dents on roads it has never seen before.
Planning your move budget? Our cost of living calculator can show you exactly what your new city will cost before you commit.
