Expedition trailer made from FJ40 tub

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Alaskan_IB said:
All i have to say is wow! Thats exactly what i want. Post up some dimentions if you dont mind.
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78" long - same width as a 40. 25" deep In front of wheels. What other dimension would you like?
 
What a fantastic project... Lovin' it...

I have a 1945 Australian army version of your m416 which is towed behind my 73 fj40 which is my pride and joy, but this trailer of yours is going to look just 'right'...

Keep up the good work.... Cheers from Aus..
 
back in feb I started a project like this one but then the 40 needed repairs so this poor guy was put on hold. but the 40 is almoast "done" and so soon I will continue the work on the trailer project. here are some pics to satisfy our urges...

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to be towed by:
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BTW... still (passively) looking for another half tub/rear gates and lift hatch to compleate the body and a trailer frame to get it off the ground, cheaply!!!
P.M. me if you have parts I need cheap....
Tackleberry.
 
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I have been slammed with work, & my wife just had our third child, so Im just now getting back to the trailer build. I Made the lunette reciever. This is actually a lunette from a crane, so it had an huge bolt in the end. I cut off the bolt head and welded the bolt shaft into the reciever. This, in theory, will allow the lunet to rotate providing unlimited articulation.

I also found a donor cruiser over the week end, so now i will have the 2nd top i need to enclose the trailer :clap:. It doesnt look too bad in the picture but I dont want to hear any comments about this is how another legend dies. This cruiser was already DOA. Riddled with cancer. Bought for a whole $300.

I also purchased all the steel i will need to complete the frame. Full speed ahead!
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I was wondering if this buid was still happening, I look forward to wahtever progress you can manage.
 
Combat Chuck said:
I was wondering if this buid was still happening, I look forward to wahtever progress you can manage.
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Once the frame was under the body I fabricated the tongue with a reciever end so that I could swap out the hitch. when I went to mount the tongue to the frame I quickly realized that something was not right. The tongue was not square to the body. In fact it was quite a bit out of square. I Identified immediately that the tongue and the cross piece I had just welded were not square. So I cut and tweaked that which helped, but did not entirely fix the problem. It was obvious that I had messed up somewhere.

At leangth I found one side to be about 3/4" longer than the other side. So being buzy with work & since I commited to help 'Misterpepper' with his FJ40 build ( https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/433939-just-another-average-70-40-build.html ), so the project sat for a while. Today, I am proud to say that I have, to the best of my ability, fixed the problem. Everything is measuring +/- 16th.

Next step is making some body mounts and getting the body aligned with the frame so I can weld on the tongue. I will post some pics at that point.
 
Glad to hear you're back on track. Hope the holidays provide lots of wrenchin time.
 
Progress

I finally got everything as as square as possible. Got the body alligned with the frame. So I welded the tongue to the frame. i still have to weld in gussets & add to the front half of the frame to support the floor & add strength.

I made the tongue a reciever so that I could easily switch between hitches. Ultimately Id like to end up with a multi axis. In the mean time I took the lunet from a crane and squared off the masive bolt and welded it into the end of some 2" hitch stock. - Basically making it into a pintle reciver hitch that rotates. :hillbilly:
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Heres a couple close ups of the lunet rotation.
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this is genius. i am looking forward to the finished product.

and who cares if another legend dies, its for a good cause.
 
Lookin good. I'm in the process of parting a '74 & '78 for a similar project.

Keep the momentum going!
 
I have a question about the rotating pintle...what keeps the eyelet from sheering of the bolt threads under load?
 
Probably the fact that the bolt is about 1.25" in diameter and anything that could shear those threads could certainly snap a driveline or bend a frame first. That sucker is beefy. It's a really slick setup that allows for a lot of articulation in the joint without actually being a universal joint. Pretty much the only way it could fail is if the trailer somehow rolled about a dozen times behind the 40 and managed to unscrew the lunette from the stud.
 
misterpepper said:
Probably the fact that the bolt is about 1.25" in diameter and anything that could shear those threads could certainly snap a driveline or bend a frame first. That sucker is beefy. It's a really slick setup that allows for a lot of articulation in the joint without actually being a universal joint. Pretty much the only way it could fail is if the trailer somehow rolled about a dozen times behind the 40 and managed to unscrew the lunette from the stud.
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MISTERPEPPER is right. This thing is way over engineered. I must point out that misterpeppers is a mechanical engineer by trade. My design is similar, (but with much less leverage) to that of the US Military. My m101A's lunet rotates to adjust for hitch hight. It is 1.25" steel. If its stout enough for the Military, its stout enough for me. cant wait to get it out to test that articulation!
 
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