Any idea what kind of bolt this is? It's on the outside of a food trailer. I've gone to all the hardware stores and can't find one. Some sort of security bolt maybe? Thanks.

Yeah, security torx.

Northern Tool carries bit sets, as does harbor freight and I'm sure several box stores.

Hate 'em

I've never seen security/tamper resistant fasteners or tools at the box stores. As others have said HF and NT will have the tools.

They're going to lose their utility as it gets easier to get the tools to remove them.

Need to find a specialty fastener shop to buy the hardware.

If you need the fastener, you may have to try a specialty shop like Ace bolt and screw.

Other than the tamper proof part, they are nothing special and any bolt would work in its place.

The use on trailer door hinges is to help prevent someone unbolting them to get at your stuff. Won't help against a cutting torch or a grinder tho.

Home Depot used Security the entire said but they stopped a few years ago. Easy to order online

jt2hunt said:

---

Home Depot used Security the entire said but they stopped a few years ago. Easy to order online

---

My problem is figuring out what freakin size I need! I ordered some online and they were way too small. The diameter of the head of the screw is about 3/4" and the length is about 1.5". No clue what that translates to in screw size. I ordered some on amazon that were #10 5/8" and I got a bunch of tiny screws that were 5/8" long... Wish I could just get one at the local Ace! They make it hard.

You could take it in to ace and find the nut that fits it. That would be easy.

2nd option is check McMaster.com for the screw and check different sizes and find which head size matches the screw you have. You can even filter by head size once you get to security torx. Those are made to a spec, so should be consistent.

Size of the head can vary but is rarely how you'll want to search for a screw and rarely actually matters to the application. What you need is diameter of the threads, pitch of the threads, and length below the head. Most of the time, a given diameter comes in only a few pitches with 1 or 2 being by far the most common. You can count the number of threads per inch of length to get that number. Length is easy enough, just don't count the height of the head in the measurement. Diameter takes a little guessing unless you have a micrometer or gauge.

Once you're sure of the measurements, visit the McMaster Carr website as suggested above. It's without a doubt the best way to find what you need, even if it's not the cheapest.

Edit for clarity: screws are named by their measurements. So a 3/8"-16 x 2" screw has threads of 3/8" with a pitch of 16 threads per inch of length. The next measurement is the length below the head.

aggie_wes said:

---

You could take it in to ace and find the nut that fits it. That would be easy.

2nd option is check McMaster.com for the screw and check different sizes and find which head size matches the screw you have. You can even filter by head size once you get to security torx. Those are made to a spec, so should be consistent.

---

I'm an idiot with this stuff. So you're saying I could take one of these off the trailer and take it to ACE and replace this really rare weird screw with something else? And do it easily/quickly? That would be amazing.

agcrock2005 said:

---

aggie_wes said:

---

You could take it in to ace and find the nut that fits it. That would be easy.

2nd option is check McMaster.com for the screw and check different sizes and find which head size matches the screw you have. You can even filter by head size once you get to security torx. Those are made to a spec, so should be consistent.

---

I'm an idiot with this stuff. So you're saying I could take one of these off the trailer and take it to ACE and replace this really rare weird screw with something else? And do it easily/quickly? That would be amazing.

---

You absolutely can. Any Ace employee worth a damn can help you find something to fit. Just make sure it matches the three measurements I wrote about: thread diameter, thread pitch, and length. As mentioned above, just guess on a nut that looks like it'll fit until you find one that does. That's your guy. Then get a bolt in that thread size that matches the length of your current one.

It may also be important for the screw to be fully threaded (or it may not be). Also, I'm not sure the legitimate definitions but all bolts are screws while not all screws are bolts. So if someone or some website says screw, it may actually mean bolt.

agcrock2005 said:

---

aggie_wes said:

---

You could take it in to ace and find the nut that fits it. That would be easy.

2nd option is check McMaster.com for the screw and check different sizes and find which head size matches the screw you have. You can even filter by head size once you get to security torx. Those are made to a spec, so should be consistent.

---

I'm an idiot with this stuff. So you're saying I could take one of these off the trailer and take it to ACE and replace this really rare weird screw with something else? And do it easily/quickly? That would be amazing.

---

take it to lowes or home depot and use their thread checker board to figure out what size it is. THey have a board with metric and SAE with most sizes, and the different thread pitches.