When we bought our place 26 years ago I put in a pipe gate to block the ne'er do wells from access to our property. Over he years I've added a couple cable gates at other access points ( I didn't have any cable when I built the pipe gate or I would have made a cable gate instead). We made new base poles, lock box, and concreted them in last Tuesday. They are in the ground about 4.5', they stick out about 3.5'. Tonight we installed the cable. The old pipe gate has taken a lot of abuse over the years, I've found broken chains, broken straps, and broken pieces of tail lights. . There is a pretty good bend in it from the attempts folks have made to remove it. I'll pull the old base pipe out with the excavator next time I'm down there. Thanks.

Bryan

Bryan, How does the "lock box" work?

djstauder,

The lock box protects the lock and makes it harder to cut the locking pin. The box is something like 3" x 5" rectangular material I had laying around, just large enough to manipulate the lock inside. I gave it a lot of thought and felt most people would try to cut the lock off, this thwarts that type of attack as they can't get a bolt cutter to the lock. The second thing it does is make it hard to cut the lock pin. It would be a pain to work on cutting the lock pin in the notch directly above the cable. Most people would try to (there have been attempts) cut the lock pin head off. This could be done but it wouldn't allow the cable to be removed since there isn't enough room to push the pin into the box, it hits the far edge before it clears the cable notch. If it were me I'd just work on cutting the cable but no one has tried that yet, if I recall correctly it's 1" diameter cable. Hopefully the picture below makes it clear. Thanks.

Bryan

yes, thanks... Can somebody cut the cable with bolt or wire cutters? or is a torch needed? I guess if they had a torch, they could cut anything they wanted

The best about cable gates is that more people do not see them until their hood is crumpled up or front grill is gone.

djstauder,

Most regular bolt cutters I see or have don't open up to 1"+ to get around the cable. Torch would be the easiest but that takes some serious motivation for someone to go that far. Thanks.

Bryan

I reckon if someone wants in bad enough, they will get in. And I think that holds true in most circumstances. If I wanted through that gate, 20 seconds with my Milwaukee fuel cordless angle grinder equipped with a cut off blade, and I'm in.

I don't think it's possible to prevent it. But like you, I still try to make it as difficult as possible.

True sprkplug, not too many places like this I can't get in if I want to. The real risk is if/when you get caught. On more than one occasion the people I've caught have been relieved when the cops show up after I have caught them. Seems like the legal repercussions are better than what has been demonstrated or expressed by an irate property owner. It took me a few years to realize but this is an instance where a reputation is very good. Thanks.

Bryan

I hear you Brian. Most gates like what are shown in your photos are in place on absentee property. Fortunately, 99% of the folks intended to be kept out by such gates are not the brightest of the bunch, and are easily dissuaded by one means or another. It's the one percent who we need to be the most concerned with. They are not weekend thrillseekers, rednecks, partyers, or opportunistic thieves. The one percenters have made a plan in advance.

My opinion and I've spent a lot of time and $ looking for an answer for non resident pond owners like me. I believe that when a druggies veins start itching nothing short of a shotgun will work.