Anyone else had issues with Flipping Timms trap springs loosing tension ?
Have few traps that have been in the bush for over 12 months that were killers to start but seeing signs of bait getting munched without the trap firing.
Thinking might need to replace the springs.
??
Are you able to confirm from the chew marks that it is definitely possums getting your lure? Our possum traps often have bait-theft by rodents, which are light enough to eat the lure without setting the trap off - although I did once find an especially large Norway rat caught in a Timms trap.
Trap springs do degrade over time though.
Hi Christina,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes afraid its deffinitely Possums. Bite marks are large and can see the grooves left by their front teeth.
Usually use apple but tried carrots in PB and they’ve still managed to chew through the carrot without the trap firing. I’ve set all the traps on the most sensitive setting too.
I’ve checked the trap operation pushing the bait bar back and forth and does seem to have a lot of movement before the springs kick in. Also just looking at the springs when the traps not set there’s gaps between the sping coils.
I’ll investigate replacements.
Cheers
Iain
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Checked with manufacturer and they don’t supply replacement parts. 
Check with CMI Springs. If they don’t have the exact ones they will probably make them to order. With Flipping Timmies I often find my bait has been burgled without catching a possum. on the other hand I now regularly catch rats in my Flipping Timmies. to achieve this, i make the bait harder to remove, first I slide a dried apple ring up the trigger wire followed by a prune. I follow that up with a keeper of my own design, the liberallysmear my peanut butter/nutella mix on the apple ring,then smear a little on the trap entrance and treetrunk.
Hi are you sure it is the springs, logic says if the springs are weak the trap should still go off but the possum may escape, trap gone off with a bit of fur in the trap but NO possum
surprised they don’t supply springs as i can buy springs for the DOC 200 & 250, if you do end up needing them do a google search plenty of suppliers for springs you just need to know what you need Diameter and length cheers
Thanks for the info and Ill deffintely contact CMI springs.
Yes been trying conbinstions of harder baits (carrots) and PB with PB Blaize.
But will giv dried apples and prinesva try.
Cheers
Iain
Not sure if you’ve already tried this but you can also adjust the sensitivity of the Flipping Timmy - If the bait is disappearing, but the trap is not setting off, you many need to adjust the sensitivity of your trap. You can do this by sliding the red sensitivity bush along the metal bar. The bigger the bush diameter that the bait bar sets up against, the more sensitive the trap.
Hi Another point if you have changed lure what size chunks of carrot are you using, research years ago at Lincoln size is important as they can chew and not pull the Lure I covered that in my possum paper in Tip and Tricks. also have a good look on the ground under trap to make sure you don’t have Rat Shit which would indicate the problem is rats ,
The symptoms sound very much like the traps need an adjustment of the sensitivity rather than spring tension issues.
The force required to set off a Timmy is proportional to 2 things; how far the kill bar is from the over-balance point, and how much tension is in the spring.
The lower the spring tension, the more sensitive the trap, (ie the easier it is to over-balance the kill bar and set off the trap) so this is the opposite of your suggestion that spring tension decreasing over time might make the trap less sensitive.
The second factor is how far the kill bar is from the over-balance point, and this is set by the red plastic bush. We have literally hundreds and hundreds of Flipping Timmy traps and almost always slide the red bush out of the way (least sensitive), but if you have the bait pin sitting on the position where the thickest part of the bush is touching the bait pin, the trap is most sensitive - the bush moved the bait pin a little closer to the over-balance point, so its already most of the way to firing.
To echo what @dave_e says, just last night i was doing pest control with thermals and saw a rat climbing around the inside of a Timmy. It finished eating all the bait and dropped out of the trap and ran away. We use apple and smooth blue, it was all gone.
When a rat is standing on the kill bar eating from the bait pin, there will be very little force on the bait pin, therefore very unlikely to set off the trap.
Finding traps set-off, and the bait gone, is a different matter - that might be a trap that is too sensitive, or in our case its often pigs ripping possums from the trap to eat, so not really a problem because you have still killed the possum, you just need to add pig traps to your trap network!
Hi if it is the timms trap springs that are the issue. yes you can buy new springs . i bought new from Farmlands earlier this year. if your local branch doesnt understand tell them to ask their timms trap supplier ( stalion plastics). they ( stalion plastics will give farmlands the code for the springs- sorry cant currently locate the invoice) but you can buy all the parts for timms trap via farmlands ( ex stalion plastics).
if its not the springs , i do have footage of possums using arm to push apple off the bait pin, so do make sure its above the bent section of the pin. trail camera is useful tool to see what is happening.
good luck
I think we need OP to confirm if its “Timms” as in the trap you are referring to, or “Flipping Timmy” (the one from envirotools)
Is the trigger firing?
Lures can be eaten by smaller species that do not activate the trigger.
Stallion in Palmerston North sell parts for Timms traps. I have bought equivalent extension springs from Mitre 10, for the same price, $8 or so. Take the old spring and find something the same length and width. The ones I bought had about a kg more pull in them, measured by fishing scale, at the trap set length. Also you can replace the round crossbars with lengths cut from a metre of galvanised 6mm bar, also from Mitre 10, that costs about $6, where the original crossbars cost that much each.
Hi Kawhai,
Thanks for the info will keep that in mind.
With regards the pigs getting onto Folding Timms, we had a large beast that learned how to pull the trap down and caused us many wasted hours searching for the traps.
Low tech solution was to take a step ladder with us and place traps out of reach and contacted local Pig Hunters who had dogs that had been through the Kiwi Aversion program.
Thanks for that Kenark,
Will defintely follow up on your suggestions.
Cheers
Iain
We have a couple of cameras on our lines to check what’s going on and if we do see any rats showng interest , we add an A24.
Found clustering different types of traps in one location is quite effective as more critters getting attracted to the trap site creates strong scent trails.
Clustering your traps also helps your rangers; one stop clears/rebaits say 5 traps.
We often cluster a T-rex rat trap (rats, weasels), a flipping timmy (possums), a DOC200 double (stoats, rats, weasels, hedgehogs), and maybe a Steve Allen SA-Cat (cats, possums, rats, stoats, ferrets). So there is some target species overlap but also a good range of trap types at one stop.
Anther mod for your Flipping Timmy traps; if you can’t lift them because it would make resetting too hard or dangerous (step ladders on our land would be a burden for rangers to carry, and too unstable in soft ground) you can “pig proof” them; either try to prevent the yellow and black parts coming apart (the “prevent” idea below), or allow them to come apart but not to disappear (the “retain” idea)
To retain:
Drill a small hole in the black hinge nob where the yellow part hinges from the black during rebaiting, and thread galvanised wire in to retain the yellow part close to the black part during a pig vs possum tug-of-war.
To prevent separation;
Use the EnvroTools method here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2RopMYt_LY
To prevent losing the red locking buttons;
Drill a small hole in the red button thumb ridge, and use fishing nylon to retain the red button if it pops off. The red buttons tend to fly a long way when a pig yeets a possum out of the trap.
We fully agree with cameras - you can learn (or confirm) a huge list of pest behaviours and theories by just seeing a few videos of trap interactions.
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