Somehow, I thought those neoprene O-rings that replaced the grenade pin straps on my BOB Yak trailer would last more than one season, but they’ve already rotted out. A bit of rummaging produced a hank of rubber gasket intended to secure window screen in its aluminum frame, so it’s presumably better suited to an outdoor life than O-rings; it comes without provenance, so I have no idea what it’s made of.
A few snips, a handful of cable ties, and it’s all good again:
But I’m not expecting a decade out of these straps, that’s fer shure…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
7 responses to “BOB Yak Trailer: New New Grenade Pin Straps”
Should work just fine, although I believe it is typically referred to as “spline”. Steel cable with swaged connections would probably be the best final solution.
“Spline” sounds right, but I definitely couldn’t have pulled that word out of hiding before you mentioned it!
Our suet feeder features a gorgeous stainless steel cable loop with screw-together fittings that came from some useless publicity packet, back in the day when I got such freebies. If I had two more like it, surely I could conjure a pair of pin holders… [grin]
Shub-internet may have eaten my reply…
Your big-box store (the orange one) has galvanized cable and crimp connectors in small sizes–I’ve used some at 1/16″. They have screw type connectors for 1/8″ cable that comes in handy for a fair amount of projects.
With respect to stainless cable, you might find some in a well-equipped hobby shop (or online, like Tower Hobbies and the like), or for small amounts, you probably can find some stainless leaders at a fishing supply place. If I needed larger diameters, I’d hit up Aircraft Spruce and Supply.
Bah!
Galvanized garden fencing lasts two or three years, then disintegrates. I deployed galvanized cable and fittings in the kiwi arbor and that’s pretty well shot after maybe five years (FWIW, the kiwis have been a major disappointment; the berries probably cost about five bucks each after all the overhead).
Different climate, methinks. We’re high country, not quite desert, and 10-12 inches worth of water is it. (Most of that is snow, too.) Most of that is snow, so galvanized anything lasts a long time. Our chicken wire fence-augmenters are at least 10-15 years old, and have a lot more life expectancy. I have a approx 50 year old disc for my tractor that has no factory paint left on it. I figure it would take a century or three before I had serious rusting problems…
BTW, watch out for UV degradation of the cable ties. That’s a problem up here at 4300 feet (that size would last about a year outside, with luck.)
We use cable ties on the mesh netting over the garden fence and, yeah, a season or two is as good as it gets. The trailer gets plenty of use, but that means it’s only outdoors a few hours a week; so far, nylon cable ties outlast rubber!