Safely Sleep In Your Car During A Road Trip With This Seatbelt Hack
You've taken the time to plan the perfect road trip route across the U.S., and you are steering clear of reckless mistakes on the road, but you still can't shake the feeling that you could be doing something more to be safe when car camping. To ease your anxiety, consider using this trucker secret to help make sure you're safe. All you need to do is loop your seatbelts around your car's armrests or door handles and buckle them up before you sleep.
Solo camping trips and nights on the road can be some of the most exciting adventures, but they should also be safe. With this trick, even if someone went so far as to smash your window to get into the car, the door won't open. You can sleep soundly knowing that in the unlikely event someone does try to break in, your car door will stay shut tight.
How to secure your door using the seatbelt
This trick is a favorite of truckers parking overnight in potentially unsafe areas. In a truck or any vehicle with an interior door pull, stretch out your seatbelt, wrap it around the handle a few times, and buckle it in. Now, even when the car is unlocked, the door can't be opened from the outside because the strap is holding it closed. To open it from the inside, simply unstrap the strap and unwrap the belt, and you're good to go.
However, some people don't use this hack because they are concerned about the extra time unlooping the belt adds to getting out of your vehicle quickly. While this trick doesn't take very much time in ordinary situations, those seconds could be vital in an emergency, like a fire. If you're going to give this tip a try, make sure that you have a seatbelt cutter (or even a large pair of scissors) accessible so that, in an emergency, you can cut through the belt and get out right away.
How to upgrade this technique
As an alternative to using your seatbelts, you can run a tie-down strap across your car, door to door. This secures both doors in the front seat at once. If you're going to tie them with a secure knot, however, you should definitely keep scissors available for emergencies (and, as a bonus, you won't have to replace the seatbelt if you ever do need to cut it). For added security, some truckers even attach an airhorn to the seatbelt or tie down strap with a paracord, so when someone tries to open the door, it will make a loud noise that startles the intruder and alerts the sleeping driver.
You can also use a strategy that some drivers employ to keep their doors shut when their locks break or freeze: a bungee cord. Hook a bungee cord onto the driver's side door and secure it under the passenger seat, and vice versa. If you need to get out quickly, all you have to do is unhook the cords, and the doors will open. While this hack isn't free, unlike the seatbelt trick, you can buy a single bungee cord for as low as $6, so this extra safety measure won't break the bank either.