1978 M416A1 Build

[iptman]

Anyone have an opinion/suggestion for the gaskets between the tub and frame? I think they were waxed cotton webbing.

 

[iptman]

I got a replacement frame to axle soft brake line, T fitting and copper crush washers all from kaiserwillys.com. I ran all new NiCopp hard lines based off the OEM lines. They were in remarkably good condition but I figured with everything I've put in at this point why not just replace them. I used DOT3 since that's what all my vehicles use. I'll let it gravity bleed over night while the wheel paint dries then tomorrow use the Motive bleeder and test. I need to get this thing out of the garage so I can harvest and extract the honey from my beehives this weekend.

 

[iptman]

Sitting on her own 2 feet.

 

[Gretsch]

Nice work here. Love seeing old iron given the love it deserves. Really cool and thanks for sharing.

What size tires are you going with on this?

 

[iptman]

I'm not sure yet but leaning towards 7.50/16 KM3s. I don't want to spend that much money on trailer tires but there aren't many tires in this size. I started to spend a bunch of time searching out tires for these wheels and finally decided to bag it and worry about it later. I basically put anything that's not required to get this thing out of the garage on the back burner.

 

[Gretsch]

I like just the ones on there. What are those?

 

[iptman]

Those are the OE tires as far as I can tell.

 

[ntsqd]

Bummer, they used to offer this tire in a 7.00 or 7.50x16, now only a 7.00x15: Y720™ - https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/y720

 

[iptman]

That's a good looking tire though. It's hard to find a 16 inch 5x5.5 bolt pattern wheel so a 15 might have to be done.

 

[iptman]

I couldn't help it, I had to see how it'll sit behind my 80. Not quite level but it'll do for sure.

 

[ntsqd]

That's a good looking tire though. It's hard to find a 16 inch 5x5.5 bolt pattern wheel so a 15 might have to be done.

They're the default go-to tire for the front of lighter weight desert race buggies because they're really, really tough. Not cheap though. The desert racers buy them with the outer tread corners knocked off because with the sharp corner they tend to bite and flip the car in a hard corner. The rounded corner tires just slide. Best price that I found:

Yokohama Y720 Tractor Service Tires 7.00-15LT - Kartek Off-Road

Yokohama Y720 Tractor Service Tires 7.00-15LT for a sandrail, rock Crawler, KOH, Ultra4, truck, UTV, side-by-side, dune buggy, mini buggy, manx, king of the hammers, 4x4, or Jeep

www.kartek.com

 

[iptman]

I'm at a bit of a decision point. I need to get the wiring done for tail lights. Initially my plan was to reuse the factory tail lights but they really do hang out there on either side. The other option is to buy a set of aftermarket 40 tails from @ToyotaMatt and cut slots in the rear frame rail to fit them. If I do the latter then I can just get an generic 4 pin wiring harness and off I go. If I keep the factory tails I need to rebuild the guts of one since it got rusted out with water intrusion and convert the military 12 pin plug to 4 or 7 pin. My 80 only has a 4 pin wiring harness.

Thoughts and opinions welcomed...

 

[ntsqd]

I'm a fan of this type of trailer light & mounting grommet: https://zips.com/parts-detail/maxxima-stop-tail-turn-light-w-9-le-m63322light https://zips.com/parts-detail/maxxima-oval-black-grommet-6-m50600-b
I put them in a box on our TrailBlazer trailer, but they could be cut into any panel big enough.

 

[iptman]

With significant assistance from @emorth I got the 12 pin military harness converted to standard 7 pin. We combined 3 of the unused see 14 gauge wires to be aux +12v and another 3 wires for ground. My long term goal is to run my 60qt Engel in the trailer so the thicker combined wire gauge will be needed.

I decided to buy a new pair of composite tail lights instead of refurbishing the rusty one I got with the trailer. I'll paint these black tomorrow.

The license plate bracket/light combo came from etrailer.com. I used 1 existing hole and drilled out a second then spaced it out using a couple nylon spacers from Ace Hardware.

The tail lights ground through the bracket and chassis so I had to grind off some powder coat a few places to get continuity back to the front of the trailer.

I'm on the home stretch now. I'll finish up tidying the wiring, painting the tails then drop the tub and fenders on. Hopefully I can get this thing VINed and titled this week. We'll see.

 

[iptman]

I painted the lights and rewired them up. Good to go! I got the tub on with some EPDM gaskets curtousy of @Comet. The tub isn't exactly squared up so I'll need to figure out a way to squeeze the tub and frame rails together to get the bolts in. I installed the new drain plugs and test fit the fenders just to get a look at it all together.

 

[iptman]

And....Done! Well, phase 1 is done. I had to use some hydraulic pressure to get the tub mounting bolts to line up but otherwise it was pretty straight forward.

 

[sggoat]

Very, very nice job here--

 

[iptman]

Took the trailer camping this week. Way easier to pack for 6 people for 5 days with a trailer. I used a Curt 4 inch adapter to get it level. I need to extend the chains a bit. The tarp is a cheap HF jobber with grommets I installed. I also got a canvas tarp I'll start using once I have time to place the grommets properly. This sucker tows great. I do need to replace the tires. I'll do some searching on Steel Soldiers but if anyone knows what size mimic the factory tire I'd appreciate the info. These tires don't show any dry rot and look really good so not sure I need to even change them out. I also might want to replace the wheels but that center hub hole is huge.

 

[iptman]

I bought a couple NOS M416 wheels off eBay to mount a fresh set of tires. Would it be worth it to buy commercial truck tires for this application? I'm mostly thinking about longevity here. I only use this trailer a few times a year, no more than 1000 miles. I've read the commercial tire casings are made to be retreaded so they basically last forever. There aren't many options in 215/85/16 but I've found a few that look good. Anyone have experience with these types of tires?

 

[iptman]

This is one of the Goodyears I'm looking at.