Quieting noisy breast and butt bars

[wsmoak]

My Exiss (Universal Trailer) has these attachments for breast and butt bars:

211006_9185 by Wendy, on Flickr

One handed operation is nice, just drop it in! But… they are awfully noisy, the pin rattles and bounces in the holder.

Elsethread someone mentioned applying a roll of vetwrap to quiet noisy attachments. Is that advisable here, just wrap the pin (obviously not so much that it doesn’t fit in the channel)?

Any other ideas?

[Lusoluv]

Maybe look into rubberized coatings at the hardware store. You can paint on a thin coat to either the pin or the socket area and see if that helps?

[wsmoak]

Heat-shrink is another thing that came to mind. DH uses it on all manner of things. Might take more than one layer to be thick enough, but it’s rubbery and should make things stick in place.

We do have some of the liquid rubberized coating… it’s meant for dipping things in, I’m not sure how well painting it on would work. I’ll have to see if it’s as runny as I remember. Might have to take the divider out and lay it down / prop it at various angles to get the stuff to stay where I want it.

[EssexFells]

I’d start with just a couple laps of duct tape around the stem of the pin. Also, is there anything below there, that you could safely attach a bungee cord hook to? Any edge on the frame or dividers that would let you hook on? I know this would disrupt the one-hand operation a bit, but you would stop most of the clanging and bouncing if you could get just a little downward tension on it with a bungee.

[wsmoak]

Yes, I’ve added small loops below and have a velcro tie (intended for computer wires) holding the bar down in its slot.

Mostly because a Certain Pony was tied too long and put his head down and lifted the breast bar out the first time I put him in the trailer! Still getting used to this straight load thing.

I see that Cimarron has a similar design, but the breast bars have an extra catch you have to hold with your thumb to remove.