HI

I might sit down and try to make some stabilizers for holding 160s for dry land WI coon trapping.

How many inches would you suggest?

(Just doing this for something to do.) I already have some H stands that do the job and they are - 5" at the bottom bar.

bend the springs down. So they are setting on the walking surface.That will give you the right hight.Stableise with sticks. I dont carry anything I can find in the feild.

Take a regular H stand cut off the legs to about 5". Then get some 1/4" rod and cut them to about 16" weld that to the center of the stand. Know you have a staked stabilizer. The 5" long legs will keep you at the right height off the ground and keep the trap from spinning. That system has caught me 1000s of coon.
While Newt Is scrounging around for sticks and trying to drive them Into the ground you will have 10 sets In and be home taking a nap. LOL

Might be OK if you can read the license plate of your truck
But if there is a pack basket involved.Along with a good walk.
Newt's back aint what it used to be.

LOL

With my system I don't need to carry a hammer. The ground around here doesn't allow you to just push wooden sticks In the ground.

I have welded an MB bracket to a 10” Pc of 1/2 x 1/2 angle iron for some customers.
I sharpen the end that shoves info the ground.

MB brackets are a joke. Some traps fit so tight you can't hardly get them to the next notch and some traps fit so loose they stay that way. In my opinion the H stand Is the only device that truly stabilizes a Body grip.

What he said. Keep trap 5 inches of ground and you will pick up the bonus fox also.

When your dealing with the smaller 160 you want that traps opening high enough so It lines up with the coons head as It travels. Most critters don't travel a trail with their nose tight to the ground.
If the trap Is to low they tend to climb over It, to high they want to crawl under It. One more thing I always stuff some grass or something under that trap to close up that opening It will keep the coons head up.
Know If your dealing with a larger trap like lets say a 220 then you don't want that trap to be over 2" to 3" off the ground. Setting a BG tight to the ground when targeting larger animals In my opinion Is going to cost you some fur.

And you will for sure catch some reds and grey fox. I even caught a coyote In a 160 trail set.

Many have talked about not wanting to carry a lot of stuff around. My body gripper setups are a 160 with a piece of wood 5 inches long with two spikes in it and an 18 inch T-bar stake that goes through the ring on the trap chain. The block of wood is about 2 inches high and the screw in holder adds another inch or a tad more. I also try hard to look for places the coons are ducking under something so they are holding their head a bit lower. Many times I may twist some grass over the top of the trap, but I never use anything solid as the coon will hop right up on that and over. I gave up on those holders about 30 years ago. They are all different and so are one's traps.

Bryce

H stands even fit RBGs a little bending here and there and you good to go.

160 in a regular H stand keeps it at the perfect hight.

Watch this whole video you'll learn lots

that's how Passamote (sp) shows in his book, I believe he used to pile coon up.

Sure he did. Just like the time he was going to go to ND and pile up the rats by just using 160s LOL Oh then he got all his traps stolen from behind his shed.

not all h stands are the same, height wise. i like 4" minimum between bottom jaw and the ground with 160s. coni mount brackets work fine, but the trap has to be adjusted to fit the mount. if you run one brand of trap, you adjust them all the same. with different brands, youd need to keep the mount with the trap, for a proper fit. bending the springs down to the ground still gives you a height thats too low for areas with larger sized coons and 160s. different brands of trap also have different length of spring arms, so another variance to deal with.

A Fist hight between the ground and bottom of the trap is what I've been told