I've read that several folks use truck rotors as weights. I stopped at the local garage and grabbed one to experiment with. As I was looking at it, I had the thought to run a few 6" bolts through the stud holes of the rotor and nut them on the other side. Essentially my rotor now has spikes I can stomp into the mud or at least help hang up on some stuff when the beaver attempts to drag it. I have not deployed it yet, but I look forward to it.

Good idea, I have welded RR spikes to a RR plate for the same effect.

That might be helpful on harder bottoms or places with a lot of snags. In real soft muck, a 1 ton truck rotor sinks into the muck and I dont have any problem. On firmer bottoms I use 2 car rotors, total maybe 25 or 30 pounds, and that holds them down.

My only concern with the bolt idea would be tangling up the trap at the bottom stopping trap from swiveling, but that may not end up being an issue.

Your post gave me the idea to add the bolts.

I put a stop about 18inches from the weight for that.

Glad to have helped!

You could attach a bit of concrete to the bolts too. It wouldn’t be hard to pour a small slab around the hex heads.

I love using truck rotors on my drowning systems. It's the most versatile for terrain I cannot use my rebar rods.

I have used truck rotors with great holding power. So much so that I often have a hard time retrieving. They seem to fetch in sticks and rock ledges very well. Never had one not hold on its own. The only thing I add is a stop 10 inches up from the rotor to help keep cable in good shape.

You need to be aware that they will create suction on the bottom of a lake and may be unretrievable. I went to looping the cable trough the rotor so when I pull up one side comes up first. I had a huge problem trying to get one out of a clay bottomed pond last summer. I was in about 6' of water and i a canoe and even with trying to bounce it up off the end of the canoe it wouldn't budge. I thought someone was playing a trick on me but after about 45 minutes of constant leverage on the end of the canoe it came up. I use them often with no problem but never again in that lake.

I had a rotor once thrown out over an underwater “ledge”. These ledges are common in the lakes around here, usually between 5 to 20 feet from shore there will be a sharp drop where a mat of weeds and mud have grown out into the lake, and it is hollowed out with little caves and hollow underneath. They are really neat and often have big fish lurking back under them. Anyway I had it on a chain slide and as I pulled it in the chain cut into the top of the ledge and the rotor was under the overhang. No way I could get it. I left the whole rig until I was back on that lake with a canoe about 6 months later to retrieve it.

Had similar experiences with rr tie plates cabled together at times...some of these peat bottom/vegetation bodies of water create a vacuum like covering. And can be tough to retrieve at times...especially with beaver tangled up at the end....lol

My ADC work is mostly in subdivisions with manicured lawns and banks of riprap. The above weight proved to be good for a 40 pounder this week. This was on the main channel and I used 12 feet of chain with a hagz drowning lock. I tied a knot about 14" up from the weight. I got a back foot and he appeared not able to budge the weight.