Another M-416 (1 Viewer)

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Mattman

SILVER Star
Joined
May 25, 2015
Threads
20
Messages
459
Location
Peoria, Arizona
No fancy build thread here. Just a fun little project I thought I'd share.

I picked up this trailer last year. It was found as an M-762 actually, the flatbed variant of the military M-416 quarter ton trailer. I located it here in the Phoenix area. Later I found a M-416 tub in Tucson that looked like it had been at the bottom of the ocean for 20 years. I didn't want to do a period correct restoration or anything but just a clean up, repaint and configuration into a RTT, camp gear and firewood hauler.


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I flipped the axle, did some rust repair and removed some old brackets and things that had been welded on over the years. Every nut and bolt on this thing was frozen requiring lots of death wheel and torch cutting. I undercoated the bed and fenders, painted it Marine Green and wired up some LED lighting. The only major change was a receiver tube for the tongue, three axis hitch and some towers for the RTT mount from Compact Camping Concepts. I also added 235/85-16 BFG KO2's.

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It came out of the paint booth on Tuesday, I finished wiring it and bolting everything together on Thursday and it was deep in the Kofa mountains by Friday. It performed perfectly! I think moving forward I may do a spray in bedliner and some leveling jacks that are removable for travel. Perhaps some water storage and a rack for propane.

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Those military trailers were meant to go anywhere and carry a load of ammo. I had a shooting buddy that would load one full to the top with stacked .50cal cans full of everything he needed to keep a bunch of belt-feds running for a weekend, and it never even sagged from the weight. Nice build,
 
Awesome build! What kind of ballpark figure are we looking at to do a little trailer build like this? Could be a fun future project for me.
 
Awesome build! What kind of ballpark figure are we looking at to do a little trailer build like this? Could be a fun future project for me.
Not including the tent, I have under $2k in this, that's with new BFG All Terrains, hitch receiver, 3 axis hitch and coupler, tent brackets, wiring and canvas tarp. I handled everything myself with the exception of the application of the mil spec single stage "Marine Green" paint. That was done by students at the school I work for. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do black and tan jungle camo over the green.

These are getting a little hard to find but if you check public surplus auctions they will pop up occasionally. A lot of rural fire departments use them and occasionally you'll see one on Craigslist or something. There are a couple guys in the midwest that specialize in military surplus vehicles that have a bunch of these and they can usually be picked up for under $2k in decent shape. It's a great platform that you could potentially add all kinds of things to. Like @LongDuck said, they can handle a load and a lot of abuse. I don't want too much weight but will possibly add water storage, leveling jacks and a mount for a propane tank.
 
Not including the tent, I have under $2k in this, that's with new BFG All Terrains, hitch receiver, 3 axis hitch and coupler, tent brackets, wiring and canvas tarp. I handled everything myself with the exception of the application of the mil spec single stage "Marine Green" paint. That was done by students at the school I work for. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do black and tan jungle camo over the green.

These are getting a little hard to find but if you check public surplus auctions they will pop up occasionally. A lot of rural fire departments use them and occasionally you'll see one on Craigslist or something. There are a couple guys in the midwest that specialize in military surplus vehicles that have a bunch of these and they can usually be picked up for under $2k in decent shape. It's a great platform that you could potentially add all kinds of things to. Like @LongDuck said, they can handle a load and a lot of abuse. I don't want too much weight but will possibly add water storage, leveling jacks and a mount for a propane tank.
Awesome, thanks for the info! That seems like it could be within my wheelhouse.
 
Not including the tent, I have under $2k in this, that's with new BFG All Terrains, hitch receiver, 3 axis hitch and coupler, tent brackets, wiring and canvas tarp. I handled everything myself with the exception of the application of the mil spec single stage "Marine Green" paint. That was done by students at the school I work for. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do black and tan jungle camo over the green.

These are getting a little hard to find but if you check public surplus auctions they will pop up occasionally. A lot of rural fire departments use them and occasionally you'll see one on Craigslist or something. There are a couple guys in the midwest that specialize in military surplus vehicles that have a bunch of these and they can usually be picked up for under $2k in decent shape. It's a great platform that you could potentially add all kinds of things to. Like @LongDuck said, they can handle a load and a lot of abuse. I don't want too much weight but will possibly add water storage, leveling jacks and a mount for a propane tank.
Oh yeah I put leveling jacks on mine, which is really nice for increasing stability in the tent and getting it off of the suspension.
 
Oh yeah I put leveling jacks on mine, which is really nice for increasing stability in the tent and getting it off of the suspension.
Is yours lifted? If so what did you use? I'm struggling to find a side-crank, drop leg jack with the cup mount. I want a cup mount so that I can un-pin and stow for travel. I can only seem to find 5k or 8k lb rated jacks in that configuration. I definitely don't need to support that much weight!
 
Is yours lifted? If so what did you use? I'm struggling to find a side-crank, drop leg jack with the cup mount. I want a cup mount so that I can un-pin and stow for travel. I can only seem to find 5k or 8k lb rated jacks in that configuration. I definitely don't need to support that much weight!
Yeah mine is leaf over axel lifted and I have cup mounted jacks. I had to find the tallest ones I could. Let me search for some pictures.
 
I should note that if the area we are camping is not too level I do end up using the full length of the jack and have had to put RV type leveling blocks to get a bit more distance.
 
Nice setup! That's exactly what I had in mind. So you stabilize as a tri-pod set up utilizing the wheeled tongue jack? That is another thought I had.

Due to the low mounting height of my tent, I'm hoping to get about eight to ten inches of additional travel once the jack is on the ground so that I can get the slack out of the bottom of my tent annex. I had the opposite problem when it was on the roof of my 80 and I was tripping over the entrance. Now it's all bunched up (as seen in post #4).
 
Nice setup! That's exactly what I had in mind. So you stabilize as a tri-pod set up utilizing the wheeled tongue jack? That is another thought I had.

Due to the low mounting height of my tent, I'm hoping to get about eight to ten inches of additional travel once the jack is on the ground so that I can get the slack out of the bottom of my tent annex. I had the opposite problem when it was on the roof of my 80 and I was tripping over the entrance. Now it's all bunched up (as seen in post #4).
Yes I tripod with a wheel jack on the front. I kinda hate mine and think I will put a hard wheel one on at some point when I change around my front end.

While my tent looks a little high on top of the can back, it doesn't feel tippy at all and it is the perfect hight for the annex. I would like it about 2" lower to fit in my garage. May fab a new bracket up later for that. We had never used the annex when that tent was on the cruiser, since we would typically be driving everyday. Now with the trailer, If we are staying someplace for a few days it is awesome, especially with the wife and kids.
 
Yes I tripod with a wheel jack on the front. I kinda hate mine and think I will put a hard wheel one on at some point when I change around my front end.

While my tent looks a little high on top of the can back, it doesn't feel tippy at all and it is the perfect hight for the annex. I would like it about 2" lower to fit in my garage. May fab a new bracket up later for that. We had never used the annex when that tent was on the cruiser, since we would typically be driving everyday. Now with the trailer, If we are staying someplace for a few days it is awesome, especially with the wife and kids.
I had purchased an XO jack but returned it. I thought it was way too bulky especially with the excessive mounting hardware etc on such a little trailer.
 
I had purchased an XO jack but returned it. I thought it was way too bulky especially with the excessive mounting hardware etc on such a little trailer.
That looks cool, but yeah more than necessary.
 

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