Altor ICON Trailer Lock Review

Have you ever noticed that there are some products that have had so much thought put into the design that there really doesn’t seem to be any way it will ever be topped? These types of products are often built up to be as close to overbuilt as possible. The durability is there and the quality of construction and components is there, too, making for one beast of a product. That is what the Altor ICON is when it comes to trailer locks. You almost want someone to try to steal your trailer, just to have the satisfaction of knowing they are going to leave frustrated and exhausted. The ICON just may be the ultimate trailer lock. It’s that good.

Puny Locks

I needed a trailer lock. I was headed off on a camping and fishing trip and needed a way to secure the boat and trailer when I wasn’t around. I ran to the local big-box chain store and bought what was the best one they had available. It got me through the trip ok, so when a family member was talking about how to secure his wood splitter back where he was cutting firewood, I offered it to him. He was happy to have it and used it to secure the trailer hitch on his splitter and he left it there overnight. That lock consisted of a chrome-steel locking arch and a die-cast bar with a hitch ball and the lock mechanism. He went back the next day to find someone had hammered the cast part of the lock. It broke and all that was left of his splitter was the lock, now broken into 4 pieces. 

This event got me into looking for new and more secure ways to lock a trailer hitch securely. I tried several that seemed ok, but when I got to testing them, I could usually find ways that thieves could work around the lock. If I could find it, so could the thieves. It was a little discouraging.

The ICON

It was suggested to me to look at the Altor ICON, and even from the pictures, I knew I had found what I was searching for. This is a true beast of a trailer lock. In fact, if a would-be thief came prowling around, the look of it attached to your trailer alone would be enough to scare most away from even thinking about it. Once you start looking into how this lock is made, you’ll be as impressed as I am.

Forget Power Tools

Altor has patented the power tool resistance this lock has built in. This isn’t something a thief will be able to bust off with a sawzall, or a hefty drill. I’m pretty sure that it would even give cutting torches a run for the money. In other words, it’s not going to be an easy lock to disable, and that is a HUGE part of the theft deterrent. No one will be able to just back a truck up, smash the lock and take off with your trailer. 

The design of the ICON deters reciprocating saws, angle grinder blades, and drill bits. Altor designed it to be big, and it is being constructed with a massive 22 pounds of premium cast steel! That steel has been hardened to approximately 450 Brinell, or around 48 on the Rockwell C scale for steel hardness. That means it has 238,000 PSI tensile strength. Good luck breaking through that. Altor said that during testing, the ICON withstood over 90 minutes of vigorous attempts to break it. And this is with folks that know how to break a trailer lock.

Fins

One of the keys to the design are the radial fins Altor designed into the steel frame. These fins spread out impacts, meaning brute strength alone isn’t going to get through it. A thief can pound on it all day with a sledge hammer and not make any progress. 

The fins also add to the surface area, making the ICON look bigger. Imagine you’re a nefarious person, looking to make an easy score on someone’s trailer. How inclined would you be to try and steal a trailer that has a massive beehive-looking steel lock on the hitch? Even just looking past the defensive measure built into the ICON, looks alone are likely going to be a major, if not the deterrent that will keep your trailer safe. 

Here’s What I Really Like

I am quite fond of specialized things. If something is too universal, it isn’t going to perform the absolute best on everything. I have a lot of money wrapped up in my boat and trailer, as well as my trailer I use to haul the ATVs. The ICON isn’t some universal trailer lock. It has specifics that you select from in order to get a lock that fits your trailer exactly. There is less slop in how it fits and therefore, less opportunity for a thief to relieve me of the ownership of my property. 

The Altor ICON is available for 2-inch and 2-5/16 inch hitch ball sizes. From there, you select your coupler style from another drop down list. There are seven different options. The two trailers I want secured both have the same ball size and coupler type. If you want to lock multiple trailers with ICONs, if you order them together, you will automatically get them keyed alike unless you specify you don’t want that. 

How I Use Mine

Set up is easy and the ICON goes on in a snap. Just be aware that this is not a lightweight product. Don’t drop one on your toes. I’m not saying I did that, but I’m also not not saying I did. 

About the only downfall to an ICON is they aren’t the cheapest lock out there. You pay a bit extra for quality, and the Altor ICON is the peak of quality. On the plus side, I’ll be sending my insurance agent a picture of the lock on the boat trailer and a link to the Altor website in hopes this will lead to a lower insurance rate. Not saying that will always be the case, depending upon your insurance company, but it’s certainly worth looking into.

I also suggest getting a way to carry the lock with you. They make a nice carry bag and I put the ICON in the back of my truck whenever I haul the trailer anywhere. Imagine hauling your boat down the road and you blow out a trailer tire and don’t have a usable spare handy. You get to be that guy that leaves the trailer on the side of the highway while you get a spare somewhere. I don’t know about you, but I don’t relish the idea of leaving my boat just sitting there where a thief could pull up, slap on a spare tire and roll away with my boat or other trailer. 

I, like you, work hard for the things I have and I’m not just going to easily give up something to a thief. That’s what I love about the Altor ICON trailer lock. They have the same philosophy of going the extra mile to ensure that their product makes it as hard as humanly possible for a thief to win and be able to roll away with your trailer. If you want the ultimate peace of mind for you when it comes to your property, I’m not sure you can do any better than the ICON.