1,000 Coyotes: Part II

July, 2019
The most important pieces of equipment every trapper have are their trapline trucks and the trailers they pull out of state hauling their gear and freezers in. Keeping these trucks and trailers operating is of the utmost importance.

A lot of us routinely drive 8 - 16 hours out-of-state then drive these trucks 12 hours a day on the trapline for weeks on end. It is not uncommon to put 6-9,000 miles on these trucks each trip. There simply is no time to drive to a mechanics shop to have an oil change. The quickest thing for most of us is simply to haul a drain pan, a jug to pour the used oil into and along with a new filter, oil and a grease gun. These items take up very little room and you can often change the oil and grease a truck in less time (30 minutes) than it takes to drive to the nearest mechanics shop.

My trucks are equipped with on board air compressors (under the hood) and air tanks mounted along the frame. Flat tires can be plugged and aired in the field. If a plug is not sufficient to fix the tire, an impact wrench is utilized to quickly change the tire.

Three years ago in North Dakota, seven days into the trip I had two flat tires the same day. Plugging the second tire and airing it up every 10 miles did allow me to cripple in to a repair shop. Nearly three hours and $96 later, I was back on the road to the trapline. The $96 to have the two tires repaired ($5 per patch plus $45 an hour shop rate for the slowest man alive) was not nearly as expensive as loosing those three hours! That time was an exponential loss the whole trip. Those three hours of setting traps should have generated an additional 12 head of coyotes (over the course of the next 10 days) at $75 each that year. In my opinion, those two flat tires cost me roughly $996. Each of my trapline trucks now have a complete set of matching wheels and tires. When I travel out of state, I haul at least two additional spare tires mounted & ready to use besides the spare tire under the truck itself.

A small bottle of dish detergent doesn’t take up much room in the tool box. A shot of it into a bottle of water then shook up will help you find a slow leak in a tire very easily so you can quickly plug it and keep moving.

When I change wheel bearings on my trailers, I always save an old seal and a set of grease packed bearings in a sealed container. These travel in the trailer just in case I should have any wheel bearing trouble while on the road.

     

Breakdowns will occur - even with brand new trucks. Having a spare truck (even if an older truck) set up and ready to roll that can be brought to you is an asset. Traps still have to be checked and or pulled regardless of vehicular issues.

     

No matter how careful we are, sooner or later we all get stuck. I haul a 10,000 pound Warn winch on a cradle that fits into the receiver hitches on the front and rear of each pickup. This winch can be used with whatever truck I’m driving. Quick disconnect battery cable plug ins are located front and rear of the trucks where the winch can be plugged in as well as a quick disconnect located at the battery. No sense worrying about a battery cable shorting out. A pair of bull pin anchors with spades gives me something adequate to winch from if nothing else is available. Two anchors hooked in linear tandem are often needed for a full sized truck and one is generally sufficient for a mid-sized truck.

      

Tire chains, a long handled shovel, and a 4-ton floor jack with a piece of one inch plywood for a base if needed, round out the list of equipment that will get you out of almost any predicament faster than help can generally ever get to you (if you even have cell service to call someone).

     

 A word about tire chains. They are not just for snow and ice! A pickup in 2WD with chains on will stay straight on a mud road, be safer, and go faster than any 4WD without tire chains which is fish tailing and constantly in danger of sliding off in the ditch. The newer styled tire chains with built in tensioners are a lot easier to put on snug and keep tight.

     

 The type of country I’m working in dictates what size truck I use. Typically, in the central plains states it is farm ground mixed with pastures and easy going, so a full sized truck is ideal. I pull a four-horse gooseneck trailer with living quarters in the front and the fully enclosed rear area has enough room for four chest type freezers (15 – 25 cubic foot each totaling 83 - 86 cubic feet combined). This also gives me a well-lit area out of the weather to skin in when needed. This trailer is affectionately known as the “Coyote Death Star.” I can literally plug in at any farmyard or shop where electricity is available, and have everything locked up and totally secure out of the weather.

Working mountainous country and rocky, rough ground, a mid-sized truck like the Toyota Tacoma covers ground faster, rides better, and will go places no full sized truck can even consider. I pull a 5’ X 8’ cargo trailer behind the Tacoma when traveling out of state. A 15 cubic foot freezer fits nicely cross ways in the front of the trailer, then a 21 cubic foot freezer fits along one side. This leaves some room down the opposite side for additional gear, spare tires, and traps.

     

I freeze coyote pelts laid out flat in a freezer with the nose and tails tucked inside the pelt. A plywood cut out that just fits inside the freezer is used with pieces of heavy plate steel on top of it for weight to help compress them for the most efficient use of the space. Pelts frozen in this manner freeze faster (and defrost faster at fleshing time) than if they are rolled up. Muddy or bloody hides can be placed in paper feed sacks and frozen the same way. Sheets of newspaper can also be placed between muddy or bloody pelts to keep them from freezing together or to the freezer walls. With your heavier northern early season coyotes, you will average 3.5 pelts per cubic foot of freezer space. As season progresses and the coyotes get fully prime, you will see this drop to 3 per cubic foot. Your central plains states type coyotes, (i.e. Kansas) will average 5.5 to 6 in early season and then 5 fully prime coyotes per cubic foot of freezer space. Using these figures, a trapper should be able to determine how much freezer space they need for “X” number of coyotes.

     

Never put furs in a hot freezer (I run mine empty until the temperature is -15 or so before using it) or attempt to freeze more than one layer of pelts in any freezer daily. I monitor my freezers daily with a thermometer in each one (this is especially important if your loading them heavy). Freezers that show -10 degrees or colder when you open them can handle more fur that day. Freezers that are reading 10-15 degrees should probably be given an additional 24 hours before more fur is added. The thermometers will show you in advance when a freezer starts to get weak and is getting ready to fail. When traveling, it is best to never run more than two freezers on a single circuit breaker. Plan accordingly for the needed extension cords.

     

 Every other year I seem to be trapping some place where they lose electricity due to ice or wind storms, or the only gas is credit card pumps and the phone lines go out so the pumps are not working. Having enough jugged fuel in reserve for 24 hours stored where I’m staying has saved me many times when I would have been dead in the water otherwise waiting on gas. Better to have and not need than need and not have!

There are only two types of coyotes, the one in truck we will skin today and the ones we will skin tomorrow.