Gopher-Trapping Pickup Truck

Gopher-Trapping Pickup Truck MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Pest Animals Don Selby is on a crusade to help farmers take back hay fields from pocket gophers whose tunnels and dirt mounds cause untold millions of dollars of damage to crops and equipment each year     To attack the gophers in the area around his home near Vimy Alberta the 75-year-old Selby built a trapping truck that has helped him remove close to 10 000 pocket gophers over the past few years from farms in his area     Selby bought a 1980 Datsun for $50 and modified it so he can quickly zip around fields to set and check traps He has a bird s eye view of the fields he s working from his perch behind and above the cab     He removed the passenger seat in the King Cab to make room for extra supplies such as warmer clothing His traps marker flags and miscellaneous supplies are stored in the truck box     He focuses his gopher control efforts on two-week periods of about 20 hrs per week - first thing in the spring before the hay starts to grow at end of June following the first cut of hay and then again in the fall after the last cut     When he first started trapping Selby had the help of his young grandkids who drove the truck for him between gopher colonies while he stood in the box However as the kids got older they eventually lost interest and didn t want to drive for him anymore      I almost quit trapping because it was hard to see the mole hills while driving the truck making the job a lot harder to do he says     But two years ago Selby decided to make his rig a lot handier by extending the steering wheel and other controls out through the roof     He left the truck s original steering wheel intact but extended it with a universal joint and shaft that runs up to a steering column off a 1966 Ford pickup     Next he removed the back window and ran plastic weed trimmer line from the accelerator pedal up through pulleys to a gas pedal that works like a teeter totter Pressing on the pedal accelerates the truck normally     Since the truck has an automatic transmission with a floor shift Selby duct taped the locking mechanism permanently shut so he can shift at random into any gear he wants thanks to two pieces of strap iron that extend the gear shifter up to the top of the truck     A 1/2-in dia metal pipe bolts to the brake pedal and runs up to a pedal on the operator platform so Selby can brake normally The end result of all the modifications is that once he has started the truck Selby can drive normally while standing on the lookout deck      It wouldn t win any safety awards he admits but Selby drives his rig carefully and slowly through the fields      I should have a kill switch for the ignition because that would be good to have if I was ever in a bind but other than that this outfit has everything I need he says     He built wooden steps inside the truck box to make it easier to climb up on the platform     Since the truck isn t road-worthy he made a tow bar on front with scrap metal and part of an old grader blade He uses this to avoid getting a ticket when moving the unit from job to job When not in use it s held out of the way with a bungy cord which hooks to the center of the hood     Selby marks the traps he has set with flags he makes from wire clothes hangers bent straight with bright-colored material taped to the top     Selby admits that when he first started trapping he didn t know what he was getting into It s much more challenging than he thought it would be Selby says the only way to be successful is to keep expanding the trapping area to prevent new gophers from moving in     Once he realized what he was up against he took hold of the challenge and tried turning it into a business but now it s more of a hobby he says Initially he started out doing it on foot and then on a quad before graduating to the trapping truck     When he started out trapping Selby knew he would need a large number of traps Instead of buying traps that sold for $10 to $15 apiece he built 150 of his own traps by using components from inexpensive Victor rat traps which he could buy for about $2 50 each Selby learned a trick that helps him spot active gopher mounds A day or so before he starts trapping an area he drags an I-beam rail over the field He added a couple skids to the ends of the rail and he pulls it at an angle so it won’t scalp the alfalfa The next day the new mounds that appear are the ones he sets traps on because he knows they’re active “You can’t even make minimum wage doing it but I like the work and I like helping my neighbors ” he says “We kind of use a tit for tat system I help them with their gophers and they help me with other things like plowing out my yard in winter ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Don Selby Box 111 Vimy Alta Canada T0G 2J0 ph 780 961-3160

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