How To Secure And Lock Tanks In Your Garage? Rack?

[walkonmars]

Now that I have a lot of scuba tanks, I'm starting to get worried about someone breaking into the garage and taking my tanks.
Tanks are heavy and bulky and somebody has got to be stupid to try that with my two neighbors that are home and well armed. If the neighbors are out walking their dogs or taking a nap, a thief may get lucky. Since I'm starting to collect several steel tanks losing them would be a heck of a loss.
I already lock my welding and expensive stuff in a construction box but there is no more room for more inside it. The garage in general is pretty full so I need to figure out a space saving way of storage. I would like to have it near my mixing panel and supply of larger 200 cu ft cylinders of oxygen.
I see shops do it by laying them on a shelf that is in slots against a wall. A bar in front that does not allow the tank to be pulled out of the slot is locked but pulled away to allow tanks out. Nice but I don't have the room. I would rather find a way to secure them standing up. I have a heavy welding table but no more wall space left.
Any ideas?

 

[KevinNM]

Bring them into the house and stick them in a closet?

 

[walkonmars]

Bring them into the house and stick them in a closet?

No room for that. I have thirteen tanks for scuba plus six more large 200 and 300 cu ft tanks.
Folks blending gas mixes have lots of tanks.

 

[WarrenZ]

Just lock the garage and insure the little buggers is what I do. I keep all my tanks on a rolling cart so that I dont have to carry them as far but I only have 6 tanks including the 02 Bottle. The theif can just roll them out to the truck.

 

[DiverDownD3]

Since I'm assuming you are a welder, have you thought of building a cage around the tanks and bolt that cage to the slab? You can have the cage where the roof of the cage is on hinges and that way it's not too big of a PITA to get the tanks in and out. You can secure the roof with either a pad lock or you can get fancy and have a door handle with keypad entry. This idea doesn't really take up any more room in your garage since that footprint is already taken up. Just a thought.

But in all honesty, if someone is going to take the risk and effort to get past your garage door (assuming it can be locked) and their sole intention is to steal your tanks, I don't think there's much you can do to stop them. Then again, says you live in LA. I'm sure you have a different mentality than I do since I'm from a small town with a low crime rate.

 

[TravisD]

Put a ring around the neck (when the valve is removed) and thread a steel cable thru the ring?

 

[CuzzA]

Perhaps two pelican racks. One upside down on top of the bottom rack. Throw a couple locks on where the two meet.

 

[rhwestfall]

I use the rings mentioned above, especially when shore diving as they are locked to the bed of the truck. the other choice is to just get a length of chain, secure one end to something, and loop it around each neck, securing each tank with a lock to complete the neck loop. That way you can remove each independently.

Keep in mind, this, like door locks, just makes it inconvenient (as we commonly say: "stops honest thieves").

 

[Stoo]

The only people who are going to bother stealing tanks are other divers I suspect... they're too heavy and not worth enough to warrant the effort.

Decades ago, I had my place in Tobermory burglarized. We lost dive gear and cameras, but the tanks were all left behind.

It turned out is was a dive student of mine. He had been at my place during our OW dives. Oddly, they caught him about 10 years later with an entire container full of stolen stuff. Seems he was a bit of a klepto!

On the upside, I got all of my stuff back!

If you want to secure your tanks, cable and neck rings are the way to go, but they're only going to keep the honest people honest as they say....

 

[Bob DBF]

I'm of the secure the garage and insure the gear crowd. Also, I don't brag about what gear I have and how much it is worth, which is easy for me since I just have old crap, not even vintage.

To secure the garage, disconnect the automatic opener and use (they may need to be installed) the manual bolts that lock the door in place. Although an alarm company might be good, and lower your insurance, just a loud alarm that would get your neighbors out with pitchforks would work. Also put in a panel, or panels, that shield the equipment from view when the garage is open will shield you from persons casing the neighborhood.

Oh Yeah, get rid of the SCUBA bumper stickers etc..


Bob