[cloddopper]

This afternoon the tail board on my small trailer  came undone at the securing devices and dragged along the road on its hinges till I stopped . Luckily the trailer had just been emptied of various bit of stuff. I definitely tapped the " snecks " down when I put ehe tailboard up after the unloading session.
 

 The catches are the same as a Landrovers tail board catches .I think they are called  " Anti Luce  catches or some thing similar .

 This is not the first time its happened either , I think it is the fourth time in five years It has always happened when I've hit one of the sleeping policeman speed controls at less than  25 mph .

 Have any of you experienced similar problems on " bumpy " ground /roads with a trailer tail gate ?  If so have you cured it & if you did how did you do it ?

 This is the second set of toggles I've fitted on the trailer & they don't seem to be as good a quality as the once fitted to Landrovers.

 They are the exact item in this eBay number & were from the same seller
 
                     190817317015
 

[HappyHippy]

I've seen some trailers with a hook on a bit of rubber which comes up from below and clips onto the end of the catch once closed, securing it taught and less likely to bounce around/come loose. Maybe you could fashion a home made alternative using bungee cords?

[mab]

I have the same issue with the ramp on my little livestock trailer when running empty and bouncing; I put either a large R clip or spring lynch pin through the bottom half so they can't bounce open.

[Rupert the bear]

I use a small dog clip in the lower part of the toggle

[cloddopper]

This morning I had an engineers intense look at the drop down tabs.

 They were so badly made that one would have never ever have reached the full drop down limit . I also noticed that the little nibbles on the inner slot were not uniform .  In fact two were missing on one save for a very minimal indentation & I'd never noticed it till this morning .

 To solve the problem I used a 1/4 inch second cut half round file and filed out new gouge holes to a new line I'd  scribed on the metal , giving each gouge out a decent almost half round shape and making  a decent point at the next gouge .
 The upper most gouge hole was redefined to a slightly bigger hole so that when it sits on the pin in the fasteners anchor it hangs lose and is fully dropped down .

  Lastly after a couple of trial refits I decided that it would be OK to have some sort of compression rubber to oppose the closing of the tailgate as this would help ensure the catches stay locked when traveling .
 For this I used two  rubber grommets that an electrician fits in a metal double socket back box to protect the cables .  With a bit of silicone grease & no little effort I managed to slip them over the body of the fastener and push them up flush to the metal they are anchored in .
 Closing the tail board this time round worked well , giving it just that little bit of resistance needed to see the drop links secure.
  As an extra precaution I used two  ratchet strap to pull the tail board in taught so if the fasteners did come lose the tail board would stay in place .
 I then  took the trailer & car to my pals . he lives up a 3/4 mile long very bumpy stone track .. Both  the drop links were still fastened tight in both devices .

 Thinking itn through after reading the posts I've decided to get so 200 mm long light contraction springs and fashion hooks at each end of them for them to fit in the bottom of each drop down link & hook over a self tapping screw so there is tension in the springs as they pull the links down & keep them there .

 I think this is a better idea than bungees as they don't decay with UV light like a bungee does nor should they flap around and stretch  .

 I did see a horse box tailer earlier tonight that had two sets of " Antiluce " type fasteners on each side of the tail board .. that seems a very good idea to implement  the next time & have £ 25 or so spare..

Thanks
Dave