Tip up troubles

[Steve01987]

I have a couple heritage Laker tip ups that are giving me a hard time. In order to trip the flag, you have to pull the line fast and pretty hard. When I bought them two years ago I barely had to touch the spool and the flag would go flying. It's frustrating as I can't spend 35$ a pop whenever I feel like it. Anyone else have this problem with their traps? Maybe their just getting banged around too much in the sled.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

I have had this happen in the past and it was from yarding traps out of holes that were slightly iced over causing the spool to bend from its original position. Maybe check for straightness and go from there?

[CA1492]

Also check the bracket where you set the flag they can get bent up or loosen from the wood and make it harder to trip.

[Dirt23]

I didn't like the amount of tension my heritage took to trip flag. Seemed to have a lot of hit and spit when they felt that resistance. I took a flat file and ground a little bit of clasp off. Now they're hair trigger not half the resistance to trip flag lot more hookups. When grinding check every couple swipes don't want to take to much off

[mowbizz]

The hardware on mine was getting loose (all hardware fastened with tiny nails) so I replaced the nails with tiny screws. A couple were not tripping because of this...problem solved with the screws.

[TheCrittaC]

Two things you can do
File down the little hook that you hook the flag behind and rotate the flag at the top of the trap to make it trip easier. You won't get wind flags if you set them so they go off into the direction the wind is coming from.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Two things you can do
File down the little hook that you hook the flag behind and rotate the flag at the top of the trap to make it trip easier. You won't get wind flags if you set them so they go off into the direction the wind is coming from.

That’s exactly what I do, filed completely flat and spring arm turned.

[Cowboys#1]

Turn the spring on top

[mowbizz]

Turn the spring on top

Yup...forgot a couple of mine were doing that too. I epoxied the spring in the correct position to fix that as some were too loose to stay put.

[Coffin Dodger]

Two things you can do
File down the little hook that you hook the flag behind and rotate the flag at the top of the trap to make it trip easier. You won't get wind flags if you set them so they go off into the direction the wind is coming from.

Agreed!
Assuming also, the OP doesn't have the drag tightened down?

[Steve01987]

Agreed!
Assuming also, the OP doesn't have the drag tightened down?

Nah it's not the drag, I might try the filing technique that everyone talks about. I have spun the spring around in a couple and that did help. My cheap little frabil where you can't even set the drag worked money today though. When I bought it I thought the baitfish would give false flags, but it's worked out.

[Coffin Dodger]

It's been a bit since I've used those tip ups.
Along with the other suggestions, you might want to check the nuts on the arbor?
Have they tightened up?
Even without the suggested mods, they shouldn't have to pull that hard to trip.

[Dipstick]

Hold the base trip near the spool, where you want it. Then up top on flag release twist to where you want it. There is a lot of play in the shaft of the tripper. They can be changed easy. Love heritage!

[Dipstick]

Hold the base trip near the spool, where you want it. Then up top on flag release twist to where you want it. There is a lot of play in the shaft of the tripper. They can be changed easy. Love heritage!

[Steve01987]

Hold the base trip near the spool, where you want it. Then up top on flag release twist to where you want it. There is a lot of play in the shaft of the tripper. They can be changed easy. Love heritage!

Ok. I'll try it. The heritage traps are great! I'm starting to become a fan of the Hardwater Explorer HT Tips Ups as well. They're less money and they seem to be reliable.

[Arctic Addict]

Rotate the flag dowel counter clockwise.  When the flag is set, the coil spring should be pointed to your right if you at looking at the triggering bracket.  By rotating the spring dowel, you can adjust the triggering pressure.  Good luck.

[Arctic Addict]

Rotate the flag dowel counter clockwise.  When the flag is set, the coil spring should be pointed to your right if you at looking at the triggering bracket.  By rotating the spring dowel, you can adjust the triggering pressure.  Good luck.

[Catch em Keckins]

Mine were getting tough to pull line from this year- Took the reels off and cleaned everything with a little WD-40 and all is now well. There was some greenish buildup I that I am guessing is due to the brass hardware they use. Also found one of the spool posts was loose and that spawned another project of replacing those with bolts.  Gotta love scope creep....

[fishlessman]

have turned the flag, modified the release, addressed the spool issues, basically a good design but that heavy spring will still bang on release causing the bait to be spit out. i went to the jack traps and hook ratio went up with them. ill use my 40-ups before the heritage traps now

[AQUAASSASSIN]

have turned the flag, modified the release, addressed the spool issues, basically a good design but that heavy spring will still bang on release causing the bait to be spit out. i went to the jack traps and hook ratio went up with them. ill use my 40-ups before the heritage traps now

Agreed! My iceman 40-ups are the smoothest popping I’ve owned, and got far less drops.

[800stealth]

I didn't put those two together until this weekend and now you guys mentioning it... I didn't have one dropped bait this weekend with my new Jacks, the old HTs would see 1 in 4 baits dropped. This weekend I attributed the super smooth spool on the jacks to lack of drops but now that it's mentioned here, I believe a big part of the drops might be the violent spring release on the HTs that shakes the entire trap n the hole and clues the fish on to something not quite right with their new found meal. Good stuff fellas

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Exactly!

[Roccus]

Exactly!

X 2... something else often over looked.. how much line you put on a spool makes a huge difference, for one the mechanical advantage increases with size... so does  what I call the fly wheeleffect,the fuller spool weighs more and will roll much easir.. I went to 4" spools on my new traps I built and can't believe how much smoother they are even over full 3" spools. .

[AQUAASSASSIN]

If my spoils can fit more they get it lol

[Coffin Dodger]

X 2... something else often over looked.. how much line you put on a spool makes a huge difference, for one the mechanical advantage increases with size... so does  what I call the fly wheeleffect,the fuller spool weighs more and will roll much easir.. I went to 4" spools on my new traps I built and can't believe how much smoother they are even over full 3" spools. .

If my spools can fit more they get it lol

Agreed!
Joe, scratching my head about your buddy being so successful with 30' and 5 splices on a spool?   

[Roccus]

Agreed!
Joe, scratching my head about your buddy being so successful with 30' and 5 splices on a spool?   

  lol...he's one of those guys that just floats through life...believe me...he has plenty of tackle failres..other stuff too.
He's worn out 3 boats,meanwhile I've had the same one since 1980.

[jethro]

Turn the spring on top

Yep, what he said

[23mako]

had a similar problem on one of my tip up  and noticed that there were 2 washers under the wignut holding the real on i took one off and if fixed the problem. you could also try an thinner washer

[HuntnFish603]

have turned the flag, modified the release, addressed the spool issues, basically a good design but that heavy spring will still bang on release causing the bait to be spit out. i went to the jack traps and hook ratio went up with them. ill use my 40-ups before the heritage traps now

I have used 40 - ups my entire life. To me, with the long flag, there's so much adjustment to lighter or heavier set. I've tried many others like heritages, thinking I would move on to a better made trap, but I still feel the 40s have a way lighter spring than a lot of them.
But that's just my opinion.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

I have used 40 - ups my entire life. To me, with the long flag, there's so much adjustment to lighter or heavier set. I've tried many others like heritages, thinking I would move on to a better made trap, but I still feel the 40s have a way lighter spring than a lot of them.
But that's just my opinion.

Agreed