Trapping Info
This page was last updated: April 5, 2009
For Education ~ Not For Profit
Trap Modifications
By: Josh Wrightsman
When most people buy a new trap they think "The trap is perfect" Don't get me wrong, a few traps are perfect right from the factory. But you can always make an improvement somewhere. It might be something to expand the life of the trap, strengthen or just make a little tweak here and there. Here are some modifications you can do to strengthen, improve performance and to expand the life of your traps.
Base Plates & "D-Rings"               
Base Plates add a great amount of strength to the frame of the trap. Most of the force applied to a trap by the animal is put on the frame. A stronger animal such as a coyote can bend the frame of a weak trap, this will let the jaws come out and letting the animal get away. Buy adding a baseplate and D-ring this also allows the trap chain to be fastened to the center of the trap, this lets the animal pull inline with the chain, not from the side which had previously allowed the foot to slide sideways in the trap which can cause a lot of foot damage to the animal.
There are several different kinds of baseplates to choose from as pictured below.
Base Plates are made from flat metal to match the width of the trap jaws it is made for. You can also get them made from round metal. The ones made from round metal are mostly used for smaller traps like the 1.5 coil spring trap but can be made for larger traps. Flat Base Plates use what is called a steel "D-ring". Round base plates use a single link of chain instead of the D-Ring. Below is a picture of the flat base plate with steel D-ring.
Jaw Laminations
Jaw Laminations add a great deal of strength to the traps jaws and add more contact area to the jaws. Giving a greater holding area on the animal. A large coyote can bend the jaws of a week trap. By laminating your traps you will keep the jaws from bending.  A lot of trappers laminate there traps jaws if they add four coiling kits to their traps because the help spread out the added pressure. Reducing the foot damage to the animal. You can get them in several different styles and materials such as inside laminate, outside laminate, round metal or flat metal. Shown in the picture below is a set of flat metal jaw laminations.
Trap Modifications Step by Step
In the step by step trap modification process we will be demonstrating a Duke #2 coil spring trap trap.
There are some tools you will need and a certain amount of skill to perform the job. It's not hard to do but some trappers would just prefer to have it done for them. You will need a welding machine to complete the modifications. A stick welder or wire welder will work fine. On this trap a TIG welder was used. A small clamp is also needed to clamp the parts in place and a metal work bench is preferred.  Be very careful when welding on a trap,stay clear of the springs. One little touch on the spring and it will break.Make sure nobody is looking at the arc when welding, it can damage your eyes real quick. Be sure to wear the proper gloves and welding mask before welding.
1.Adding the Baseplate D-ring
Slip the D-ring onto the baseplate, it's not very fun when you weld the plate on and notice you forgot to put the d-ring on the plate. With the trap upside down, position the base plate on the trap. Next line up the sides and the ends and clamp it to the trap to keep it from moving. Tack weld it on the ends first. Now make sure it's where you want it before you weld it. Next weld across both ends and around the corners. Now weld where the base plate starts to bend out for the d-ring. Weld on both sides as shown in the picture below.
Stay clear of the springs. If you think it is getting too hot stop and let it cool off. To much heat will weaken the springs. You should be able to handle it with gloves, if you can't it's too hot. If you are using a round metal base plate do the same as above only center the plate in the middle of the frame.
2. Attaching the chain
You will need some  swivels and some good chain to attach to your newly added d-ring. I prefer #2 or #3 machine chain. I prefer the chain to be about 12" long total length with swivels and stake rings. Some trappers prefer long chains and some prefer short chains. A short chain keeps animal from lunging hard but you must make sure the trap is staked real good. A long chain will let the animal move around more and will keep him from pulling the stake when he is jumping. Take a swivel and with a pair of channel lock pliers close one of the j-hooks around the D-ring. Now close the other j-hook around the end link in your chain. On the other end of your chain install another swivel. Some trappers like three swivels in the chain and I think it is a good idea have as much swiveling as possible to reduce in animal damage  and pull outs but for this application two should be fine. Now find some chain that is big enough to let a rebar stake go through one of the links. Cut a section that is 3 links long and attach the middle link to the end of your chain. This will allow you to use 2 stakes in a cross stake position as shown in the pictures below.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture # 1 shows the view of the whole chain assembly. It is a good idea to weld the j-hooks closed to keep them from opening up like the picture above shoves in picture # 2
3. Adding the Jaw Laminations
On this trap I'm using the flat metal laminations. I feel that these give more contact area than the round metal laminations but this is only personal preference. With the trap right side up, lay both lamination strips on top of the jaws. Line up the sides with the outside edge of the jaws. Line up the ends of the lamination strips to each other and make sure the traps levers wont hit the ends. If you are inside laminating do the same, only turn the trap upside down to make it easier to work with. lamp one of the laminations to the jaw and remove the other. Tack weld the ends of the lamination to the outside edge of the jaw. Remove the clamp. Now take the other lamination and set it on top of the other jaw, pushing up against the other lamination, clamp it in place and tack weld it on the ends just like the first one. Now weld three or four beads on the outside edge of the lamination strips. To weld the ends you must set the trap or remove the jaws from the trap. Weld both ends of the lamination strips but be sure not to get any weld on the inside of the jaws. If you do file or grind it off. Notice in the pictures below how the levers of the trap are close to the ends of the laminations.
You must be careful choosing the kind of laminations you need. If you set one of the traps you want to laminate you will notice there isn't a lot of room between the jaw and the dog attachment point. Measure this area and you will be able to decide on the thickness of lamination you need.
4. Welding the jaw ends
Welding the ends of the jaws keeps them from coming out of the frame. It is important where you weld them. If you weld a bump on the underside of  jaw tips when you go to set the trap the beads will hit each other and make the trap bind. So do not weld under the jaw tips. All you need to do is put a little bead on the outside edge of the tip, large enough that it won't fit through the hole in the frame. Another good thing to do is to bend the jaw tips up at a 45 degree angle to make more of a hook, instead of an elbow like most traps come from the factory. Please look at the picture below to get a better idea.
5. Reinforcing the dog
A coyote can bend the dog of a trap so bad that it will fall right off the trap never to be found again. So I weld the dog shut so it can't come off the frame. When welding the dog shut be sure not to get any weld on the inside of the dog hole and that it will still be able to move freely when finished.You must be very careful doing this as you can burn the thin material into nothing real quick. Below is a picture the dog welded closed.
6. Reinforcing the pan
A coyote can also bend the pan right off of your trap. The factory welds on a pan are not the greatest in my opinion so I prefer to put a few tack welds on it also.
7. Pan Wobble
In the picture below you can see on the pan bolt that needs a washer between the pan shank and the frame attachment. Installing a washer will make the pan wobble less side to side and will also make the pan tension more consistent which is very important when land trapping. To install the washer just unscrew the bolt and remove it from the frame.  While you are at this stage you can also file any burs of the inside of the frame where the pan seats into and also file any burs off of the pan shank itself. Then install the pan, washer, pan screw and bolt. now you can proceed with leveling the trap pan.
8. Leveling the Pan
To level the on a trap means to adjust the angle of the pan in relation to the jaws on the trap. The picture below  is a trap pan that has not been adjusted. You can see that it sticks up at an angle, way above the jaws making it very hard to cover the trap. This also lets the trap fire when the animals foot is not inside far enough into the traps catch area.
To adjust the pan down level with the jaws of the trap is simple. Use a pair of channel lock pliers and bend the dog post towards the center of the trap. The dog post is the part of the frame where the dog is looped round and through the square hole. What is happening when you bend this post is, the dog moves closer to the pan letting the pan pivot downwards. Only bend a little bit at a time as a small amount will move the pan a lot. Set the trap and see how it looks, if it is still up, bend some more. If it is down to far bend the post back some. Repeat these steps till the pan is level or slightly below level. Be careful not to set the pan in so low of a position that it doesn't have enough travel to fire the trap. If this happens bend the post out a little. our leveled trap should look like the picture below.
9. Night Latching the Pan
When setting your traps you might find yourself trying to set it on a "Hair Trigger". This is sometimes hard to accomplish without a way of knowing exactly when the trap will fire. Nightlatching will solve this problem and give you a consistent hair trigger every time you set the trap. Nightlatching makes a trap fire faster, set easier and reduce pan travel. Pan travel is the amount of movement the pan has to make before the trap fires. Excessive pan travel will let the animal know that what he is standing on is moving,sometimes enough that the animal will pull his foot back out before the trap fires or even dig the trap out of it's bed. 
You will need a small file called a needle file or pocket file. These come in many shapes. I find the best one for nightlatching is the half-round style. There are several different ways to nightlatch a trap. This is how I learned and found it to work good. First you must file the dog at a slight angle or perfectly square. Dogs that come from the factory are usually rounded a bit on the end. Now with the flat side of your file, file a very small step in the notch of the pan (where the dog goes) . Try to keep the step very small and at the edge of the notch. Don't file too much, remember you can always file more later but if you file off too much you can't go back. Please use the picture below as a reference.
Now you have what looks like stair steps in the notch of your pan. Take your file and file the end of the pan notch square so that when the dog comes out of the notch it doesn't roll off, it drops of a sharp edge causing the trap to fire crisp.You are ready to set the trap now. Set the trap just like normal but put the dog all the way in to the bottom of the pan notch. Once it is set take the loose jaw and turn it over on top of e fixed jaw to allow you to get in to the pan without fear of getting snapped. Hold a little bit of pressure on the springs with your fit for safety and lightly push the pan down to it's hair trigger notch in the pan. When it reaches this point you will hear a "click" this is the dog falling off the step you filed in the notch. At this point the trap should be on what you like as the hair trigger. f it is to hairy file the notch a little deeper towards the center of the trap. If it's not as touchy as you would like file the end of the notch to shorten up the step. After you are done you will know you have a consistent way of setting your traps on a hair trigger every time. This may seem hard to do but after you do this to a few traps it will get easier so try a few and see if you like it.
10. Adjusting Pan Tension
Pan tension is the amount of pressure it takes to move the pan when the trap is set. It is adjusted by the nut and bolt holding the pan to the trap. Different animals require different pan tension. For muskrat, mink and other light weight animals the pan tension is usually set at zero. This means it should take little effort to move the pan when the trap is set. For Raccoons and other animals of this size I like to have about a half a pound of pan tension. One reason that pan tension is needed is because if the animal isn't applying any downward pressure on the pan the trap will catch lower on the foot sometimes on the t of the animal. Having the proper pan tension will require the animal to put some of it's body weight on the pan. This will let the trap catch further up on the pad of the foot resulting in a much better hold. For coyotes I like to use about 3 pounds of pension on my traps.
Here is a quick, inexpensive and safe way to set the pan tension on your traps. This will be the setting for my coyote traps. You need a  scale that measures up to about 10 pounds. Find a 2x4 board about 24 inches long, you will need two of these. Put one of the boards on the scale, it should read about 3 pounds. Now weigh the other board it should weigh the same. On one of the boards cut about 6 inches off the end and reweigh it. If it is 2.5 pounds it is good. The board you just cut will be called your "no snap board". The board that weighs 3 pounds is called your "snap board". You should write these names on the boards to keep from mixing them up.Now set your trap and gently stand the "no snap" board on the pan, the pan should support the weight of this board as shown in the picture below
Now remove the "no snap" board and gently place the "snap board"on the pan, it should snap the trap onto the board without supporting the weight of the board. Never use a piece of steel or any hard material to snap a trap, this will bend or break the traps jaws. If the trap fires with the "no snap" board on the pan, tighten the pan bolt just a little  try again. If the trap doe not fire with the "snap board" the bolt is to tight and needs to be loosened up a little. at you are doing is setting the pan tension so the trap fires between 2.5 and 3 pounds. Remember this example is used for coyotes any other species will need different pan tension and different weight boards. There are several other ways to do this and there is also a tool made just for doing this. The way I showed this is inexpensive fast and safe.
The Finished Trap
The end results of all this work will give you a trap that will have a longer life span, better performance, better holding power, cause less damage to the animal and be more reliable than when it came from the factory. There are a ton more modification than what is here so this is not all that can be done. Like I said above, some prefer this , some prefer that. These are some of the modifications I like and use. This is also enjoyable for me as I know I'm going to have a better performing trap in the end.
Thank You,
Josh Wrightsman
YoungTrappers.com
12266 Puffer Rd
Fife Lake, Mi 49633
231-879-3820