Roma's M416 trailer build (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Threads
499
Messages
6,326
Location
Huntsville AL or Yuma AZ
I've had this trailer for around a decade. I picked it up on craigslist locally for a song but the bed in it was pretty much toast and it had some square tubing welded into all four corners. I removed the square tubing and used the trailer to mostly haul firewood periodically and a load of gravel once. It's hauled 12ht's and a bunch of full float axles over the years. At some point I cut a sheet of 3/16 plate the size of the floor and dropped it in just so my parts wouldnt fall out in the middle of the road. The tires were near original vintage so I never ventured too far from home with it. It's a July 1966 build according to the data plate.

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Fast forward to last week and I got a hankering to build a camping trailer. I have a Maggiolina Grand Tour tent that sleeps my wife, myself, and my little girl comfortably but with the addition of a second tot (boy) who is arriving in a couple of weeks something will need to change. Also switching the tent from cruiser to cruiser is always a hassle. I have 5 cruisers currently and I never know which one I want to take camping until it's time to go. Lastly with the addition of a forward facing seat in the back of the 40 the room for storage is now gone so without more space the 40 would be parked which I'm not really ok with.

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My initial thoughts were to find a truck utility camper topper with a ladder rack on it to install on the trailer box. This would allow for the tent to be on top and by placing a piece of plywood on the wider portion of the trailer box above the wheel wells I would have some additional sleeping space.

Initially I was pretty set on cutting a tailgate into this box since it's pretty beat up anyway and placing a 4ft drawer underneath the sleep platform. I was going to buy one of those weather guard pack rat tool boxes until I noticed that they nearly 400 some odd pounds empty for the model I wanted. I have since decided to not cut a tailgate to keep the trailer more original so, I will probably have trap doors in the sleep platform to access the storage space underneath. I still want to use roughly the rear four foot of the box for storage and at the front two remaining feet I'd like to add an aluminum or stainless water tank for my propane shower set up and general use. I may cut a hole in the front panel and have a faucet sticking out there for easy access. I would also like to put a small propane tank on the tongue of the trailer.

I had envisioned something like this one pictured but after much searching I have concluded the only truck with similar bed dimensions (51x74'') is an (01 to 04) or so Toyota Tacoma flare side. Ironically ARE, LEER, or Century do not make utility toppers for that specific truck. I tried contacting them to get a custom quote but no one has responded so, I take it they don't want my money. I may build something from scratch or buy one and try to cut it down to size. I'd like the pop up doors on the sides and back with one or two windows on each door. I haven't really decided if I want the front of it to have a window or a door.

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Candidate cleaned out and pulled in the garage
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The next day I found a smoking deal on these trakrac crossbars. Not sure how i can incorporate them into the build if I do the enclosure but they can certainly be used to support the tent if I leave it open.

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Box is off the frame.
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The shackles appear to be seized to the springs so will have to get creative there.

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Frame is fully stripped and ready for blasting. There are two sections one in right front corner and one at left rear where the metal is pitted and will need repaired. I'm going to wait till it's blasted and address those two spots at that point.

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Using a flattened copper pipe as backer i filled the holes from the outside and ground the welds somewhat flat. This box is so dented up anyway I don't really have a flat surface to flatten the welds against. After several hours welding and grinding i was satisfied with this ugly mess. I did the same process on the inside to try to make it look a bit better. Hopefully after blasting and galvanizing it won't look too horrible.
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At this point I'm ready to cut the floor out but I can't seem to find a suitable replacement. The reproduction floor pans are flat on the edges with no lip to weld to the sides like the original floor. Going to research my options.
 
Been traveling alot for work so not much progress on this thing. Removing the floor turned into a huge pain in the rear. I initially thought it was stitch welded on the bottom lip so once I removed that I was disappointed to find out it's actually fully seam welded around the perimeter on the inside. With the stitch welds cut and the floor still not budging, I cut the majority of it out leaving the seam welded L shaped lip.

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At this point I had to head out of town so I didn't get to work on the trailer for a few weeks but I did research my options for a replacement floor. There are two companies that sell replacement floors for these trailers armyjeepparts and midwest military. I made some phone calls and turns out midwest or vice versa has the floor made and sells them to the other place. So really one floor option. My concern however was that even though the replacement floor looks pretty good at first glance, it is not an accurate copy of the original. It does not have the lip on the long edge like the factory one to weld the floor in like the original. The replacement panel is made for people to leave the lip "like I had cut out" and drop the new panel in, lapping it over the edge of the old floor. I really didn't like that half ass idea so, I decided to make my own. I bought a 4x10 sheet of 16 gauge steel (same as original) and used a friends bead roller to bead the ribs into the floor.
As you can see beading the ribbing in kind of rolled the sheet up a bit like a taco.
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The old floor has these 2'' by 1.5 pieces of 16 gauge angle welded to the bottom that attach it to the frame for support but also I'm sure to flatten the floor out after it has been bead rolled. I also cut the drains out of the old floor to use as templates for the new one so now I can get this rusty hazard out of my garage.
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A little more test fitting and trying to decide in what order to start welding things. I think I need to set the box on this and weld my angle supports in underneath, then remove and blast the box and then weld the floor in. Hoping everything still fits and lines up.
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Wow. that's pretty amazing work so far. Can't wait to see this come together.
 
Wow. that's pretty amazing work so far. Can't wait to see this come together.
Thanks and same here. This is one of those completely illogical projects in that I probably would have been money ahead and ended up with a better finished product if I had bought an aluminum box kit and made my own frame. At this point though I'm committed and too far in it to scrap the idea.

Terrible photo since I forgot to take it during the process while it was outside but three hours with a cut off wheel and flap disc and I had the lip removed.

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Yesterday I drew out the angles pieces on my remaing 4'×4' piece and dropped it off down the street at the sheet metal shop to be sheared and bent. Today I picked it up and welded them in. I started out doing spot welds but the flat sheet was so tacoed out that a few of the welds popped and I ended up stitch welding them. In hindsight I should have drilled the spot weld holes bigger.

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Here is what I ended up with for the evening. I actually welded the angle pieces with the floor installed and clamped down flat to the frame at each brace. Was kind of busy at that point so no photos of me on my back welding. I also test fitted the box before welding to make sure it all lines up. The front and back of the box do a good job flattening out the front and back section of the floor. So next I need to sand blast the box, install the floor, then box and weld the two together while it's all bolted to the frame.
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