My Military M416 Trailer Build

[wampiFZJ80]

Hi everyone, I know there are several posts about trailer builds, but I wanted to share mine since all the other posts gave me great ideas and I wanted to add my two cents.
Also, I would like to say that building your own offroad trailer can be the best option if you are handy enough to weld and cut metal. I looked at several companies selling offroad trailers and the prices were not accessible for everyone.
On top of that, I did not find any trailer that had all I liked in a trailer. Therefore, I decided to find a M416 trailer and build it to my specs. I am still not done, but I wanted to share the rack I made to hold my RTT.

Everything started when I found this M416 trailer for sale in ebay. It was love at first sight. I really liked the condition and the tire in the back.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

Mammoth

Four months ago, I purchased a RTT and I mounted it on top of my FZJ80. I loved the tent, but I did not like the idea of carrying the tent around all the time (especially with the gas prices). That is why I decided to start looking at trailer options. Also, I saw couple of Adventure Trailers in ANZA Borrego and I really liked the idea.
As I mentioned before, I looked for military trailers online and I finally found mine. I contacted the seller and we closed the deal. The trailer was located in Nevada close to Reno and I live in Los Angeles. I was lucky enough that the seller agreed to meet me at Mammoth which cut my driving time from 8 to 5 hours.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

The tools and material

So finally I got my trailer and now I needed to get tools since I did not have the right ones for this build.
I also purchased the material to start the rack.
These are the tools I got:
1. MIG welder
2. Chop Saw
3. Grinder
4. Hammer drill
5. Accessories (Drill bits, wire for the welder, safety glasses, etc)

 

[wampiFZJ80]

The build

Now with the trailer and the tools on hand, I needed to decide the design of the rack. I saw several ideas in this and other websites. Most people build their racks in just one position and height. I did not like that because my tent came with a changing room and I needed it to be at least at 2 meter high to be able to set the changing room. Obviously, I could not have a fixed rack because driving with a tent at 2 meters height was not an option. Therefore, the next choice was to build an adjustable rack.
When I started to look at this option, I saw that many people build their racks with the supporting poles in the inside of the trailer. This was not appealing to me because it reduces the cargo space inside the trailer and does not allow you to build a lid for the trailer (which I plan to do later).
Therefore, I decided to build it with the supporting poles on the outside. I ran into "womacje" post here and I decided to build one similar with my own touch.
I must said that I gave myself two weeks and a half to do all of this because I wanted to use it in a camping trip during Memorial Day weekend. At that time, I did not know the huge amount of work I had to do yet and I was lucky enough that a good friend offered to help me with the build.

Once we started, the first thing to do was to build the steps to support the poles. We used rectangular tubes to build these (see pictures).

 

[wampiFZJ80]

more pics of the steps....

 

[wampiFZJ80]

Supporting Poles

Once the steps were ready, it was time to decide how to build the rack. My friend and I went back and forth on the location of the supporting poles. First we thought it might be better to put them in the middle of the steps since that seemed to be the equilibrium point of the trailer, however, after thinking about it, we decided to put them at the corners of the trailer otherwise we would had lost valuable space to carry jerry cans, propane tanks, etc.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

The rack

We decided to make the rack using circular tubes for the supporting poles and rectangular poles for the top. We cut through the top of the circular tubes to make a notch to be able to insert the rectangular tubes in the circular ones.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

The rack

In order to hold the supporting poles, we found some pipe holders in Home Depot used for plumbing or construction. We modified the holders by cutting some edges and they fitted perfectly the tubes and the trailer.

 

[jrock24]

looks good, but that trailer looked soooo nice all original. Good luck

 

[wampiFZJ80]

Once we figured out the supporting poles, we weld them to the steps and trailer and also finished the rack.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

Once the supporting poles were done, we finally inserted the rack into the poles to figure out the location of the holes to place the supporting pins.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

To cover the steps, we chose diamond plates. Since I do not like chrome, I decided to paint the steps and the rack flat black to match with the military green.

I also forgot to mention before that it never crossed through my head changing the color of the trailer. The original military green and the graphics were really well kept by the previous owner and I simply love the look.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

As I mentioned before, my friend and I were rushing to get this done in 2 ½ weeks since I wanted to take the trailer for a camping trip to Yosemite during Memorial Day.
We were already two days away from the due date and with the rack and the pins installed, it was time to mount the tent on the rack and try the whole system. We were worried about the easiness to push the rack to the upper position since leveling the supporting poles was critical and not an easy job. Fortunately, we did a good job and everything worked well.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

looks good, but that trailer looked soooo nice all original. Good luck

I know. I had some mixed feelings at the beginning and that is why I'm trying to keep the original color and pick colors for the additions that match the military green.

 

[fjcruzn]

Excellent! I've been using mine with the RTT mounted on the aluminum lid. I'm now in the process of raising it much like you did! Great job!

cheers,

dale

 

[wampiFZJ80]

Yosemitie

So, we barely made the due date. We finished everything on time. We just did not have the time to do all the finishing details (painting, final polishing, etc), but we still took the trailer to our camping trip.
The whole trailer behaved beautifully! We loaded the trailer and the rack with all kind of stuff and it just worked perfectly. Here are some pictures.

 

[wampiFZJ80]

Now my next goal is to finish all the details. I also want to add some gas struts to the rack similar to the design posted here by “womacje”. After that, I plan to build the lid. I will post my progress once I do more to the trailer.

 

[scottymarks]

Very nice! I'm in the process of building the same setup and will have pictures up shortly but I can't give enough credit to Jeremy (womacje) of ExpeditionOps.com for his design/R&D and all of the build photos. This a great looking trailer happy camping!

 

[fjcruzn]

Excellent build up! I'm starting to build the struts to raise my RTT soon. I have an aluminum lid on the trailer so I'll have to extend my uprights a bit away from the tub.

cheers,

dale

 

[womacje]

Great looking build! I love the speed at which you are cranking thru!!!