Our 1998 tourer, Penny, is often at music festivals – in crowded, noisy fields with heavy foot traffic. It’s an environment where petty crime is more likely than at a commercial campsite.
Caravans aren’t the easiest things to keep secure. You can install an alarm, and fit the best caravan hitchlock and best caravan wheel clamp, but there’s always that nagging thought: what if someone still breaks in?
We already do the basics: keep valuables out of sight, lock up when we’re out. But we wanted a little more peace of mind from our caravan security options, so we decided to fit a simple caravan safe.
We weren’t after something for cash, laptops, or anything bulky – just a secure place for our wallets, car keys or passports. Something hidden, and tougher than just stuffing things in a drawer.
Getting started
Milenco has been making a compact safe designed for caravans and motorhomes for years. It’s a lightweight, no-frills option that adds a layer of security without much hassle.
The word ‘safe’ might bring to mind a heavy steel box with a key lock and bolt holes – more Fort Knox than festival field. But that kind of set-up just isn’t practical in a caravan. Anything close to a domestic safe is simply too heavy. When it comes to caravan weights, Penny has a generous payload of around 280kg, but burning 20kg of that on a strongbox makes no sense. Even if you went that route, you’d need to reinforce the floor and risk drilling into areas not designed to take that load.
The Milenco Caravan Safe is a compromise. It’s small, light, and easy to fit without major surgery to the van. It’s not meant to defeat a determined burglar – just to stop the casual tea leaf who might be rifling drawers looking for a quick win. For that, a tough little lockbox is ideal—and that’s what the Milenco delivers.
Out of the box
Inside the box you get the safe, a pair of keys, and a pack of chunky countersunk fixing screws. It’s finished in a durable powder coat. Nothing flashy, but it feels solid.
Before grabbing your caravan tool kit, think carefully about where to fit it. Caravan walls are often thin ply or composite panels –not strong enough for fixings.
You’ll need a solid mounting point, ideally backed by timber, the floor, or somewhere like a seatbox where you can reach both sides for a proper through-bolt.
Think about access, too. It needs to be hidden enough not to advertise ‘valuables here’, but easy enough to get to so you’ll actually use it. Under a seatbase, at the back of a wardrobe, or in the void beneath the bed are all solid choices. The Milenco safe isn’t huge, but you’ll still need room to open the door fully.
One of the bonuses of installing it in a locker or seatbox is you can disguise it further with caravan furniture. Once it’s bolted down, you can pile bedding or storage gear around it. Your average caravan burglar isn’t likely to go digging through your dirty washing looking for a strongbox.
Fixing the caravan safe down
Fitting the safe only needs basic tools. As always, a bit of planning saves a lot of swearing.
The safe is a simple steel box with two open ends and four countersunk mounting holes. You can’t get a drill directly through the holes because the top of the box is in the way.
To work around that, I made a quick template. I grabbed an A4 notepad, placed the safe on top, removed the drawer, and traced around the base. Then I marked the mounting holes and noted the front of the unit on the paper. With the template in hand, we headed to the van to scout a location.
We settled on one of the underseat lockers. When we’re away, it’s typically full of clothes or bedding – easy to access but clear of any cabling, pipes or appliances. We’d considered the space under the centre chest, but the mix of wires, gas pipes, and awkward access quickly ruled it out.
Laying in the template showed we needed to trim back the carpet to tuck the box in properly. Once it was cleaned up, we taped the template down and used a 3mm wood drill to make pilot holes. The fixings themselves aren’t ultra-strong, but we added a dab of adhesive sealant to each screw before lining up the safe and securing it in place.
Screw access was tight, so I rigged up my smallest socket set with a PZ3 tip. The frame only allowed about a third of a turn at a time, so it was slow going. My chubby digits didn’t help. But it went in fine – fiddly but not difficult.
Once the sealant cured, the safe was solidly fixed. The only way to remove it now would be to take out the drawer, so unless someone’s stealing the whole safe, it’s not coming out quietly.
Practicalities and expectations
With the safe installed, we hoovered up the dust (see: the best caravan vacuum cleaner if you need one), tidied the carpet edges, and added the keys to the caravan set.
At a music festival, it gives us a discreet, secure space for wallets, cards, and other small items. It’s simple enough to access in our underseat locker, but easy to hide, too – just toss a soft bag or blanket on top.
Let’s be realistic. A really determined thief could lever it off the floor. We could have gone further and bolted it through the chassis, adding reinforcement plates – but we’re not building Fort Knox. It’s made from pressed steel, not armour plate. A thief with tools might be able to remove it, but cracking it open would probably be harder than just ripping it out. And unless they know it’s there, they’re unlikely to bother.
That’s the point. Most thefts from a caravan are opportunistic. No visible valuables? They’ll likely move on. This safe buys us time, keeps honest people honest, and deters the quick grab. That’s enough for us.
It weighs under 5kg and took about an hour to install. There are no worries about payload or noseweight. For what it offers – peace of mind, protection against casual theft, and just enough resistance to discourage trouble – fitting a caravan safe like this has been absolutely worth the effort.
The Milenco safe isn’t essential, but it’s smart, simple and reassuring. For around £60 and an hour or so of simple DIY, it gives you a proper hiding place for your essentials.
For sure, it won’t stop a determined pro, but it might just avoid a problem. That’s a win in our book.
Future Publishing Limited, the publisher of Practical Caravan, provides the information in this article in good faith and makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions do so at their own risk and must exercise their independent judgement in determining the appropriateness of the advice to their circumstances and skill level. Individuals should take appropriate safety precautions and be aware of the risk of electrocution when dealing with electrical products. To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither Future nor its employees or agents shall have any liability in connection with the use of this information. You should check that any van warranty will not be affected before proceeding with DIY projects.
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