Taximan,by moving the jaw so close to the back of the dog I would think it would be harder to get 3 or 4 lb. pan pressure.I did a lot of messing around with the bridger #2 and the step down paws I trip pans and when first put on I had trouble getting the poundage up because of this.With a good bit of tinkering and welding I got them where I wanted them but it took some work.What`s the pan tension on that?
You are exactly right.That is the flaw in my design.I knew it would happen but wasn't sure how much the tension would go down.Moving the jaw closer to the dog eye,messed up the trigger geometry that Rob designed into it.My purpose in this project was to se how little I could change the 550 and still have more jawspread,so I didn't really want to fabricate any parts.
It needs to have a longer cross and dog so the middle of the dog rests on the jaw.I tweaked it a little by filing the jaw so that the dog only contacts the inside lam.Then I bent the dog up slightly and added the 4 coils.I don't measure pan pressure but it probably goes about 2 1/2 #.That is a little lighter than I usually run but I can work with that.
I converted 6 of these but am going to wait to see what the future brings before converting the rest.We have some of the best traps available to us,today and it seems like companies are still trying to improve.