I have found that they get the worst damage when they are run over while sprung. Like when it gets too wet and soft for me to drive on the farm lanes and I spring the line off (like right now). I spring them and toss them up on the center hump or edge as far as the chain will allow.

A couple of years ago a farmer used a tractor with front tires in the center (not his regular tractor) to pull a manure wagon out to the fields. My traps were sprung that day.

The smashed pile got a lot bigger!

Interesting about the laminations and base-plating, It makes sense. As I said above; I laminated all my Bridgers last year, have to get new springs on them. Hopefully that will save some jaws.

Send your damaged traps to me Nessie!

You are right Keith.

In my defense: this is a brand new shop, still setting it up. Everything in the old shop was crated up, the building was torn down and this one was built in it's place. I have a crate full of peeners, cross peens, drift punch hammers, club hammers and many more around here somewhere. I guess I should dig them out.

Nice job of showing all the finer details to getting them back and working I have been able to repair some that where run over by various farm equipment . Once the landowner parked a track hoe he had rented for the weekend squarely on my trap . Another time I had 2 sets on a relative's farm that where in his fields He rents quite a bit of land plus what he owns .On that property I had 2 sets and he ran over both of them the same day I figured out the square inches of land he was farming and said he must have good aim to get them both

Bwahahah lol

Modifications sure help with less damage

I don’t have a tractor...to run them ovah ...lol

LOL

awesome post

I agree 100% I had some original Victor 1.75 from the 1980's .I did not like them as a coon of fox trap . I put lams on them . Now they do less damage and have better hold power because of the larger holding surface

About 10 years ago, I had someone find two sets along a powerline outside of town. #2 Bridgers with heavy duty anchors. They couldn't get them out so they went home and brought back a sledgehammer and smashed them flat. They left me a nice little note too. Needless to say I pulled the traps. I did the same thing pulling them apart piece by piece and straightened them out and reassembled. They work perfectly to this day.

Very good. Thanks

I found it isnt the first tire that does the damage it is the second one that rolls over it.

A deeper bed could help some on damage, i like an inch of coal shale under and about an inch above the trap

I think Bob nailed it. The first tire springs them and if the second tire hits them that's when the most damage is done. If they're run over set in the bed the damage is not too bad. If they're hit while sprung they can get mangled pretty bad.

A deep bed helps if just one tire gets them while set. My beds are usually at least three inches deep with a double stake swivel staked in the bottom then filled with peat. The levers and jaws sit on little shelves I pound into the bed for trap stability. They only have a thin layer of peat under them. The trap is covered with one-half to an inch of peat with a depression over the pan (place foot here please).

I've had some run over in the bed and missed by the trailing tire that were barely damaged.

Great thread Lugnut.
I set a lot of sets on farm lanes and logging roads. I have had traps smashed by tractors, trucks and 4 wheelers.
So this year I moved from the straight stretch's to the road corners. I still have snapped traps, but far less damage with only one tire running over them.