G-518 Ben Hur hub question (1 Viewer)

[clownmidget]

I was lucky/unlucky enough (???) to acquire a G-518 military trailer, also referred to as a Ben Hur, but this one is a real ex-mil G-518.

Right now it has the original 7.50-20 tires on some odd 6-lug configuration. The lug nuts are reverse thread and ~3/4" diam. The hubs these are mounted on are ridiculously long and have a drum brake set-up that then mounts to the end of the square axle. The mounting flange on the end of the axle appears to be 3-3.5" diam with a 5-lug set-up where the lugs are small, in the 7/16" or 1/2" size.

Ideally I'd like to just have some common/standard hubs mounted up so I can run common/cheap wheels & tires - though they'd have to be in the 35"-37" diameter to fit.

At any rate, I'm not familiar at all with this stuff and am slowly tearing down to get to the end of the axle to see what I have to start with, but does anyone know or have experience retro-fitting on an old ex-mil spec trailer like this?

Thanks in advance for any input.


edit: Pics:

pic 1: front of hub
pic 2: side shot of hub
pic 3: back of hub showing axle mounting flange

 

[Brian in Oregon]

The trailer uses 5-lug drum parts with a riveted on adapter to covert it to 6-lug and space the tire/wheel out further. The GMC pre-CCKW and early AFKWX trucks had 5-lug hubs, and were changed to 6-lug when they went into full production. The 5-lug hub is likely a GM product.

I suggest you get a techincal manual. Portrayal Press has reproductions. This web site lists the various Ben Hur manuals.

TM info

If you are not going to restore this trailer, you might consider selling it to someone who will. These trailers are valuable and are not common. I don't know what condition the body is in, but if it has no serious rust and is relatively undamaged, you should be able to get a decent postwar jeep trailer for it, which would be more useful on the trail. I've seen unrestored but decent Ben Hurs with wood or metal bodies easily get snatched up for $1500 and up at military swap meets.

 

[clownmidget]

Brian, thanks. I had been on that site too as well as many others - first to just identify what the trailer was and then to get info on parts, etc.

It is in amazingly good shape for an east coast piece but I don't know - or didn't know - that it might be more valuable to a collector. I had been looking for an affordable M416, Canadian 101 or similar but the days of finding them for under $500 appear to be long, long gone as almost all I ever see are priced north of $1000.

I picked this up for nothing but my trouble of dragging it out of a field, covered in briars and filled about 6 inches with dirt, moss, weeds and small saplings. It looks like it was first OD green, then AF blue and more recently used by a FD and painted red. One of the fenders was bent up fairly badly but I've pounded out most of the bad. The rest of it seems nice.

I guess I'll post in the classifieds and see if anyone bites. I just need a functional trailer ASAP as firewood season is here and I've got a lot of hauling!

 

[greentruck]

A whole new 3500# axle can be had for ~$300, w/ brakes not much more. But if it's a collectible trailer, maybe best to find a buyer and use the cash to get a more suitable and modern trailer.

And right now I'm feeling very, very lucky to have found our M101 CDN for $700.

 

[biostroker]

I've had one of these for a few years and just started to think about restoring it for use. It needs new tires, and since they seem to go for about $200 a piece and the rims on these things sound downright scary to work on, I was thinking about swapping axles. I drive a '00 F350 SuperDuty (Vegistroked) and was thinking about swapping the axels and trying to find some SuperDuty axels to put under it as I already have some tires for it, and I would like to keep the spares the same. Any ideas or thoughts? I haven't done any measuring yet, so width wise I don't know if they'll work, just throwing around an idea!

 

[clownmidget]

well for me the whole concept was to NOT spend money! so just going out and buying a replacement axle wasn't an option unless I could find a cheap one on Craigslist.

I still haven't torn apart the hub to get to the drum brake assembly and determine what "junkyard" possibilities could work but the springs on mine are almost exactly 48" apart and the mounting surface (last pic of mine above) is about 60" face-to-face. I think anything that has a WMS ~72" would work well depending on the dimensions of the wheels.