Sporting goods, gear, and athletic equipment.
Storing valuables in your vehicle always involves risk. And if you own a Jeep like I do, it’s almost impossible to keep it secure. The main reason people own Jeeps is to drive with the tops off. I first began looking at small, under seat safes or lock boxes but quickly realized they weren’t anywhere near the size I needed. It didn’t take long to come across the Smittybuilt Security Storage Vault – Rear Lockable Storage Box, or The Vault as Brittany and I call it.
As always, I had a very specific idea of what I was looking for, or at least specific features I needed. Most importantly was security of course. It needs to be very difficult to break in to, which then leads to the next requirement, durability. Not only did I want it to be hard to break open but the fact it will be riding around in the back of an off-road vehicle full of gear meant it needed to be tough and high quality in regards to the slides and locking mechanism. The Smittybuilt Security Storage Vault – Rear Lockable Storage Box fit the bill perfectly.
The Security storage vault measures roughly 35″x28″x13″ and was a perfect fit for my 2010 Wrangler JK. The 16 gauge cold rolled steel makes the vault both strong and keeps it from rattling. I had a feeling the gear stored inside the vault could possible rattle and make noise so I added a couple pieces of gym flooring, cut to size, to the bottom of the drawer. It truly doesn’t make a sound, not even off-road.
Another great feature is the 4 ratchet strap tiedown anchor points. This allows additional gear to be securely stored on top of the Smittybuilt Security Storage Vault – Rear Lockable Storage Box using owner supplied ratchet straps. I use them to secure our cooler. Even though the vault comes with a durable signature series two stage black powder coat, to prevent scratching the top of the vault when the cooler is in place, I again used the BalanceFrom foam tile gym flooring. For the price, you just can’t beat it.
The drawer opens and closes extremely smooth due to the high grade steel sliders and you can actually feel the durability in the drawer and slides. You can pack a whopping 350 pounds in to the vault without any problems not even counting what you can put on top. However, I’m currently only running with about 150 pounds on a daily basis. The locking mechanism is also top notch, high quality, with a weather resistant dust cap making it a very secure storage box. For additional security, I mounted the vault about one inch from the rear gate. Anyone trying to break in to the the vault would need to open the rear gate to even have a chance.
When it came to picking the secure storage for the JK, this was a no brainer. It fit perfect, was made of high quality, durable parts, looks good, and is very secure. I feel 100 percent confident leaving the tops off while I’m away from the vehicle with this vault in the back of the Jeep. Normally I can come up with a few cons on everything I use, but this one is the exception.