I have a couple dozen traps on order, night latching a large amount of traps at one time seems, tedious. Any tricks to speed it up? Or quit my whining and break out the file?

I always "just break out the file". I'll be following your thread lots of people switch to PIT pans

I'm sure it's a very unpopular opinion, but I'm not a huge fan of the pit pans. I don't like having to mess with the dog to get the pan tension I want. With these traps I'll be sticking with the standard pans.

Night latching In my opinion Is a waste of time.

Take your file and shorten the dog notch to about half of what It is. Then use your file to square up the notch and remove any burs. Then squeeze the dog loop closed to eliminate dog movement. Just enough so the dog will still move up without binding up. Then bend the dog post one way or the other to level the pan.
The other thing that Is even more important Is to add a washer or 2 between the pan post and the pan shank. Normally when you add pan tension your tightening the nut and bolt. But when you do this your bending In only the tops of the posts and that will give a false pan drop. So the washers will give you even pressure on the entire surface of the pan shank when you set your pan tension.

So I shorten the dog notch in the pan, Am i bottoming the dog in the notch then? I have read about adding a washer, I will do that also. Thanks!

Yes the dog Is bottomed out In the pan notch.

The short cut it to buy the correct length PIT stainless dogs.

Another that can be done is to make a jig if all the same trap so they have all the same dog notch.

I prefer a notched dog myself.

Nightlatching is not a waste of time IMO.

What does a night latch do that a short pan notch doesn't do?
Both give you a crisp let off with a minimum of pan drop before the trap fires. But filing notches In the dog seems a lot more difficult than making a few swipes with a file to shorten the dog notch. And of coarse most night latches have a step type notch In the dog notch. So you start out with a full dog notch then you move the pan to the next notch. And you get that neat sounding click. The short notch does the same thing as the 2 step so called night latch.
The thing about shortening the dog notch you can do a little at a time to get what you want.

You have to remember
If Beav don't do it, it's a waste of time
And know one should do it
Because Beav don't do it

It needed said so I said

both work. some people just like the extra effort of both making and setting a nite latch vs short latch. then there are those who just eyeball it when they set it. pulling the pan down so its close to popping. they all work. i just like setting the trap and its done. no eyeballing or trying to find that second notch.

100% preference

Wetdog I don't see where you added anything to this thread.
I stated my thoughts on the night latching thread and the reader can make his or her choice on what to do. That's why we have this forum.

I night latch mine, I suppose I just like having it set the same place every time. To make the night latch the first time, take the pan off the trap, file the dog notch square to start, and then get out a Dremel and make a rough night latch notch. I never could get the night latch notch started with a file, it took too much effort, but it's easy to start it with h a Dremel. Once you have it roughed out with the Dremel, you can hit it with a couple strokes of the file to smooth it out, and you're done. After that, you can always touch it up with the file if needed. I can take pics tonight if needed.

Cysquatch, if you haven’t done much night latching take the pan and put it in a vise. It will help you keep things square. Thats all I got. Good luck

One reason I like to nite latch is that when I put the dog in the first notch its easier for me with cold wet or gloved hands. The pan is higher and gives your fingers more leeway. Then it is a simple matter to nite latch it. I've had problems with setting a short latched trap with the pan having only one low position.

If your trap Is set up right you put the dog In the pan notch and there Is no need to adjust anything.

You could also just buy the PIT dogs that are the right length, and not the pans. It'll still click into position, you'll still have to level and adjust tension like Beav mentioned.

When I was setting and checking in the darkness i night latched with a Dremel tool, that I have been using for years and I’m very familiar with. I notched the pan post, not the dog.
Once I’ve changed to setting during daylight I just eyeball it on the new traps After beveling the dog end and squaring up the Pan post, and did not night latch newer traps.

Nightlatching gets you a cool little click. That is its only benefit over just squaring up the dog and notch and looking at the engagement point when lowering the pan into the position you want. I'd never grind down a pan to a short notch. It forces you to replace pan bolts to eliminate pan slop and get consistent pan tension.

An old video I made on it...

Good post ADC, my thoughts exactly.

I also think it is good for a person to experiment some with their traps to find out what works for them and what dosen't. That's how we learn. The better you know your equipment the better off you are.
With that said I wouldn't change every trap i own until i know for sure it works the way i want it to.

Pan slop Is do to not having even pressure against the pan shank. With most taps out of the box when you tighten up the tension screw the posts are bent Inwards and only tighten up at the top edge of the pan shank. When you put a washer or 2 between the posts and the shank you get even pressure against the whole side of the pan shank. When doing this It eliminates that so called pan slop.

That's not the what I call pan slop. That may help the pan tipping side to side and help get more consistent pan tension though.

Slop is the room around the hole in the pan and the pan bolt as well as the holes in the sides of the frame the bolt goes through. Here's a couple exaggerated drawings from years ago as well to explain it...

You see where the bolt is before and after pulling the pan down into position, that is removing the slop from the pan. Pulling down the pan into position is what eliminates it. You can't do that with a short notch so you'll need to drill out the holes and replace them with a bolt that fits perfectly if you want the job done right.

The OP didn't say what kind of traps he's using, or the pan tension he likes.

Beav I didn't add to the subject because the OP doesn't like PIT PANS.
And they are the cats meow, if you ask me. Lol
But I know, you don't use them so they are worthless to The Beav
I stand by my first post

victor #3, I like around 2lbs of pan tension. On my mb550's it was a hassle to get to 2lbs.

Unless you have so much the target animal will not fire the trap or so little the dirt you cover it with sets it off, pan tension doesn’t matter much.

Where did I say I didn't use or care for PIT pans?? I have a ton of them on my rat traps. And my 550s and my 650s have them.

And wetdog what valuable information have you brought to this thread??

Now I understand why you don't like PITpans at 2# tension they probably self set or very close to it.
And on the traps I do nite latch, I latch the dog. Just seams easier to touch up the dog than the pan notch in the field on a muddy mess remake. If it's needed that is.

I personally dont night latch my traps. I squeeze the dog loop so there is less movement and the adjust my trap so the pan sits level. I set the trap and drop the pan to the position I like to have them. I dont want to file on the pan because with my luck I would eventually need to buy new pans because I would screw something up.

When The beav recommended that I file the dog notch, thats the first thing that came to mind. I'm going to try it out on a couple of these and see how I like it.

Where did you find Pit Pans for a Duke 1.5 with weakened springs?

So with this in mind, I went on a quest to find washers like this that would work. The problem being the thickness of most flat washers is far wider than the gap left between the pan shank and pan post, which on the traps I have that needed it, I measured to be .025". Most flat washers are .04 to .05"....twice too thick. This was the best I could find.....

https://www.mcmaster.com/92916A335/

These were for #8 screws. Problem being as shipped, ID will not slip over the screws.....but will if you drill them out to 3/16". Larger #10 washers have bigger ID, but thickness gets up there. But once installed, it does smooth out the pan tension......almost enough without fiddling with the screw much. At least when new and installed on the bench. But give it a season in the ground and ?????? Got to wondering if this is a bit like trying to pick fly crap out of the pepper?

Also occurred to me that part of the misfit might be due to some of these being made in Asia with metric screws and some in US with SAE. Off just enough to mess things up.

Hayday I found thin brass washers at Ace Hardware that works perfect.

In that case, Ace will be my next stop, since one group of traps I'm fiddling with also came with steel screws, and those have already started to rust. Can get the brass screws, nuts and washers all in the same place.

Hey 316.

I had them made by a friend The only thing I don't have is the dog with the bump on It. And that dude from Wild River pans makes a type of a pit pan. At least there Isn't a dog notch so I consider those to be a type of a PIT pan.

Check out Minnesota trapline prod. website, click on hardware then modifications. They have the #10 brass bolts, nuts, and washers you need at very reasonable prices. Also they sell the correct drill bit for the bolts of you don't have one of your own.

I got bulk,thin brass washers on Ebay.All small hardware is more expensive at hardware stores.The trapping suppliers have way better prices.It is a good idea to replace pan screws on Dukes.I also file any burrs off the pan shank and the inside,bearing surfaces of the pan post.This will make things pivot much more smoothly and helps give a more repeatable pan tension.

If you choose to do what turtleDale said and just break out the file, then angle the dog end, so when it clears pan post, it does not drag.
We adjust pan tension with the screw and engage the dog bout 1/32" in pan post.

And here is the brass washer and bolt set up to eliminate side play.

I do it the same Yukon John. Probably no right or wrong but it's what I'm used to. Doesn't take me long at all.