I came across this government surplus trailer and wanted to pass on the info. It's not from the military, it's from your local state government. What it is, is a photo radar trailer used by both local , and state police departments, it's made by a company called Kustom Signals. That's the reason for the window mounted on the back of it, so they could take your picture while your speeding! Many police departments have now changed over to a smaller, more compact type of photo radar trailer , so many departments are selling off this model at auction. They can range anywhere from 400 bucks to 1000 dollars depending on equipment and condition. The 1000 dollar ones come with a 50 watt Kyocera solar panel along with a 15 amp solar charge controller. Mine came without the solar panel and charge controller, that's just fine by me seeing as i had no plans for solar, and it was less money that way.
It comes equipped with a AL-KO brand, 2200 pound model U-19, 5 lug rubber flex axle with 14 inch rims, it has a 2200 pound GAWR. This is a heavy duty axle for only being rated at 2200 pounds, it has 1 1/16" outer and 1 3/8" inner wheel bearings. That's the size bearings that comes with a much larger 3500 pound axle, but without the extra pounding your trailer takes with that heavy of an axle when your trailer is not loaded to capacity. AL-KO offers a 6 lug hub along with electric brakes for this axle, so changing to a different size rim is easy. Along with changing the hubs this trailers fenders are bolted on, so it's easy to modify them for bigger wheels too. Here's a link to the factory specs for this axle. http://www.al-koaxis.com/download/2200-3500IbRubber(2).pdf When i got my trailer, as i said, the solar panel and charge controller were already gone, but i still had a lot of "extra" crap left over inside the trailer that i needed to remove in order to set it up the way i wanted it. First i had to remove all the brackets inside that held the solar battery rack, along with the venting system for the battery's. Next i needed to repair the floor where the screen was for the battery venting system. After that job i needed to remove all the brackets that held the speed limit signs and charge controller rack.
Now that all that work was done it was now time to work on making an inside expanded metal shelf, outside gas can racks times 3, spare tire rack, a roof rack to hold longer items that won't fit inside, and a fold down 18" wide by 48" long expanded metal rear table for my Coleman camp stove. The roof rack is made from 1"X 1" tubing, it is 48" wide, 60" long, and 11" high with a reinforced, expanded metal floor.
One of the funny things about this rig is it comes with a factory removable slide out 2" ball hitch that you can change to a lunette ring if you want. The reason why the trailer came with the slide out ball hitch was so pissed off speeders wouldn't be able to hook up to the radar trailer and tow it off, the cops always took the hitch with them when they parked the trailer just to be sure. I even read that some of these trailers came with a lojack system in case someone was able to drive off with one.
The trailer box is small, it's 48" wide, 36" high, and 60' long, it comes with 2, 24" wide by 30" tall lockable doors on each side, the axle has 13" of ground clearance with a 14" rim. The frame is made from 3" heavy wall steel channel, and 3" by 3" heavy wall steel tubing, all the walls, floor, doors and top are 1/16" steel sheet metal mounted on a 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" steel tubing frame. The thing i like most about this little box trailer is the fact that i can keep most of my items inside were they stay nice, clean, and dry. I took the trailer out today for a test drive since i made all the changes, it drove nice and straight on the freeway at 65MPH, off road it handled fine too. Now some of you many be worried about how tall the trailer is, but it's not any taller then other members trailers with roof top tents.
Just as an FYI it seems that the newer models of this trailer only came with one door on the passenger side, so if you want 2 doors you"ll need to look for an older model like mine. It looks like the door change from 2 doors to 1 came about in 1995 or 1996. When they made the door change they all so changed the size of the rear window from the small size rear window like on my trailer to a MUCH larger window on the newer trailers.
It comes equipped with a AL-KO brand, 2200 pound model U-19, 5 lug rubber flex axle with 14 inch rims, it has a 2200 pound GAWR. This is a heavy duty axle for only being rated at 2200 pounds, it has 1 1/16" outer and 1 3/8" inner wheel bearings. That's the size bearings that comes with a much larger 3500 pound axle, but without the extra pounding your trailer takes with that heavy of an axle when your trailer is not loaded to capacity. AL-KO offers a 6 lug hub along with electric brakes for this axle, so changing to a different size rim is easy. Along with changing the hubs this trailers fenders are bolted on, so it's easy to modify them for bigger wheels too. Here's a link to the factory specs for this axle. http://www.al-koaxis.com/download/2200-3500IbRubber(2).pdf When i got my trailer, as i said, the solar panel and charge controller were already gone, but i still had a lot of "extra" crap left over inside the trailer that i needed to remove in order to set it up the way i wanted it. First i had to remove all the brackets inside that held the solar battery rack, along with the venting system for the battery's. Next i needed to repair the floor where the screen was for the battery venting system. After that job i needed to remove all the brackets that held the speed limit signs and charge controller rack.
Now that all that work was done it was now time to work on making an inside expanded metal shelf, outside gas can racks times 3, spare tire rack, a roof rack to hold longer items that won't fit inside, and a fold down 18" wide by 48" long expanded metal rear table for my Coleman camp stove. The roof rack is made from 1"X 1" tubing, it is 48" wide, 60" long, and 11" high with a reinforced, expanded metal floor.
One of the funny things about this rig is it comes with a factory removable slide out 2" ball hitch that you can change to a lunette ring if you want. The reason why the trailer came with the slide out ball hitch was so pissed off speeders wouldn't be able to hook up to the radar trailer and tow it off, the cops always took the hitch with them when they parked the trailer just to be sure. I even read that some of these trailers came with a lojack system in case someone was able to drive off with one.
The trailer box is small, it's 48" wide, 36" high, and 60' long, it comes with 2, 24" wide by 30" tall lockable doors on each side, the axle has 13" of ground clearance with a 14" rim. The frame is made from 3" heavy wall steel channel, and 3" by 3" heavy wall steel tubing, all the walls, floor, doors and top are 1/16" steel sheet metal mounted on a 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" steel tubing frame. The thing i like most about this little box trailer is the fact that i can keep most of my items inside were they stay nice, clean, and dry. I took the trailer out today for a test drive since i made all the changes, it drove nice and straight on the freeway at 65MPH, off road it handled fine too. Now some of you many be worried about how tall the trailer is, but it's not any taller then other members trailers with roof top tents.
Just as an FYI it seems that the newer models of this trailer only came with one door on the passenger side, so if you want 2 doors you"ll need to look for an older model like mine. It looks like the door change from 2 doors to 1 came about in 1995 or 1996. When they made the door change they all so changed the size of the rear window from the small size rear window like on my trailer to a MUCH larger window on the newer trailers.
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