The Pram Museum’s little Herlag (below) arrived with nylon straps instead of the leather straps it originally came with. Amazingly, whoever did the refurbishment realized that this little pram requires six straps rather than four, and had attached the nylon bits even in the fifth and sixth spots.
My replacement straps came from Ruud Mors in the Netherlands, who sells them individually. This set is, I believe, the least expensive on his site. (Click on “Accessories” on his website — the button’s over on the right — for more information about sizes, etc.. The website is in Dutch, German, and English; click on the appropriate flag on the home page to choose.)
I paid about 4 euros per strap. Shipping and handling are high, of course, though not outrageously worse than the higher domestic USA charges. However, checking around had amply demonstrated that there was no way I’d be able to get anything like this easily in the USA for anywhere close to this price. I might have been able to find one-inch-wide straps here, but at higher cost, and, in any event, they would not have been usable for the Herlag, which requires straps that are significantly narrower.
I was surprised to see that the buckles seem to be attached upside down; they have a very slight curve which curls up, rather than around, the circle formed by the buckled belt. The curve is so slight that it doesn’t interfere with function, and it doesn’t matter for appearances in this case, as they are not visible when the pram is in use. The tip on one strap was cut asymmetrically: As two of the straps needed to be trimmed in length to fit, that, too, wasn’t the problem it might have been. I suspect that these issues are at least partly due to the low cost; I’m assuming that the specifications and quality control for more expensive ones would be correspondingly higher.
Ruud is extremely helpful, and very quick with email responses; he assured me that his straps would fit my Herlag perfectly (as they did!), and he sent them out very quickly. I wouldn’t hesitate to do business with him again, as he is responsive in a way one hardly sees any more, but I’d definitely be very specific with questions if, in the future, I were buying straps that would show, especially since trans-Atlantic exchanges are not necessarily a reasonable way to resolve replacement issues.
Here’s the underside of the Herlag, after I installed the straps. (The white you see underneath has nothing to do with the Herlag; it’s cardboard to protect both pram and floor from scratches and dings.)
Everyone who loves old prams is used to seeing spring connectors at the four “corners” near the wheels, but observant souls will have noticed that the old high coach prams also have a third set, which goes from the underside of the pram bed to the lower frame on the chassis — just like this little guy.
The third set is to prevent lateral sway. They are the straps that seem to be lying horizontally, across the bottom of the Herlag. (They haven’t been trimmed yet, which is why they’re resting like that; the loop between the body and chassis is far too big.)
Here’s a close up of the strap installation. I’ve turned the Herlag over, below, but still haven’t trimmed the sway strap, which you can see in the background. Note that the strap next to the wheel is attached to a post that is, in turn, bolted onto the chassis. Don’t make the mistake of accidentally attaching the strap to the axle, which is just under the post.
If you’re restoring a carriage like this one, or a true pram, you might think that you should make the center set of straps as tight as possible. Nothing could be more wrong! Make sure to attach them so that there is a little “give” between the chassis and the body. You want the straps loose enough to allow a spring to the ride, but snug enough so that the pram will not move freely from side to side.
Once the straps are installed, you’ll need to check that your pram is level all around, and that you’ve got spring and sway adjusted just right. Lots of modern prams and pushchairs are a joy to push, but nothing can match the roll of vintage carriages with leather “springs”. Oh-la-la!
Related: Long To See An Herlag?
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