You might well be right and in a way, I hope you are...

But, a replacement for even an old, ugly '74 pickup is still $200 or more, plus the hassle factor of finding a good, straight, dent-free one, painting it to match, etc.

The older it gets over time, eventually replacements may well be even harder to find and more expensive.

I may well go with the hose-clamp form of security, but just wondered if there were any other better options.

I may not have space inside the gated portion of my property to park this truck, so it might be parked down the street, out of sight on a regular basis.