Trailer Identification help (mass produced military, municipal, unknown??) (1 Viewer)

[piecemeal]

Please help me identify the manufacturer and any additional information for this trailer....

Thanks!!
Pics below

 

[piecemeal]

 

[Chris Wilcox]

I'd vote homemade.

 

[piecemeal]

The title says bradley trailer with the year 1993, but I haven't found anything on the net that corresponds with that. There is another one very similar to this one in a neighboring town that a company has used to advertise their tire place with a gigantic tire sitting on it. That one has a data plate I think, but it's painted over and the owners have no idea where the trailer was from or what kind it is and won't let me scratch off the data plate....

That said, I'm almost certain at least the tub and hitch were mass produced and maybe those "wings" and fenders were added later....

 

[LFD2037]

Did any of the military trailers use angle iron for their tongues? I could be wrong but I don't think so. It also looks a lot older than '93.

 

[piecemeal]

^^ Good point ^^ I never thought of that. It is definetely older than 1993, which is what has me puzzled. The GVW says it's 600 lbs which seems right bc I can lift the tongue and move it around without too much trouble, and the loaded weight says it can hold up to 2 tons which I'll never even come close to once the off-road rig is all done (maybe and additional 500-800 lbs total). I wanted a CDN M101, but for $150, I went with this whatever it is....

 

[greentruck]

I'd say it's not homemade, although certainly home-modified. The lunette and fenders are probably your strongest cue. I'm far from an old trailer expert, but didn't some of the early mil 1/4 tons have round fenders? M100?
http://olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_m100.php

Hard to see a lunette on a homemade. The exception would be someone who recycled one cut from a mil trailer, but most people want to get rid of the thing (bad idea in my book) so unlikely to actually make a trailer with one for civvy use. True, some utilities, towns, etc use pintles to tow with still, so one could've been made for that reason. Thus I suggest it's more likely a modded mil trailer than a homemade.

 

[ntsqd]

I'm going to go with a power pole trailer. Those semi-round cradles and the tabs for chain binders on the front and rear tell me that transporting something round was the primary use of the trailer. In use the pole would be chain-bound on top of those cradles with a slightly nose heavy bias. Then a separate tongue would also be chain-bound onto the front of the pole. Bet it's axle and wheel bearings are much stouter than would be normal for a trailer of this size. The trailer tongue is only for getting it back to the yard. Given that it would be towed with a medium duty or heavier truck the lunette makes perfect sense.

 

[piecemeal]

ntsqd - I think you're right. That makes perfect sense with the chain apparatus on the front and there was one on the rear. So, total overkill in the axle department for an offroad camping trailer?

 

[greentruck]

I agree with the assessment about its use as modified. Not so sure about a heavier axle being a factor. Ordinary 1/4 ton trailer axles are fairly stout and the short nature of the trailer means the poles weren't extraordinarily long or heavy. While we can't see the axle clearly in any of the pics, there's no obvious signs that it's substantial enough to rule it out as making this trailer unsuitable for offroad use as you envision. I can't see the wheels clearly enough to count lugnuts, but if there's only 5 it's not too heavy of an axle. A little extra stout never hurts there anyway.

 

[ntsqd]

If it was used to move poles they were long and heavy. The fixed tongue wasn't used with a pole in place, there is/was a second coupler that was chained to the end of the pole. The fixed tongue was only used to tow the trailer after the pole had been delivered. This is exactly how my local utility moves poles around now.

 

[piecemeal]

A couple more pics. Thoughts on removing the lunette and replace with a lock and roll, or a hitchmaster do35 v2 for better articulation? All in all, I think it's a good place to start as an off-road trailer for $150 + $140 tax, tags, and registration ....

 

[greentruck]

If it was used to move poles they were long and heavy. The fixed tongue wasn't used with a pole in place, there is/was a second coupler that was chained to the end of the pole. The fixed tongue was only used to tow the trailer after the pole had been delivered. This is exactly how my local utility moves poles around now.

Check, got that. I was just comparing it to the power utility pole trailers I've seen around here. They're still short, but considerably longer than this one, as in maybe 16' vs 6'. Utility poles vary greatly in length according to application. And in the past they were often shorter than at present in most applications. For instance, I'd suspect this was in phone service vs power utility service because of the relatively shorter length.

The axles pics look like standard 1/4 ton issue and the 5 bolt hubs also suggest the same.

 

[ntsqd]

Pintle - lunette combos can be noisy. Trick is to size the parts correctly. Then they only bang a little. I've yet to see an "articulating coupler" that I'd use. I've designed a couple of them (designing production tooling is what I do) and built none because they fell short of what I'd call acceptable. In the mean time I built a swiveling lunette that pins onto a 2" square tongue ala a socket receiver and the only hitch my current project truck will have is a pintle.

 

[piecemeal]

ntsqd: I found this nifty design. Thoughts??

http://tventuring.com/trailerforum/thread-65.html

Since it's removable, You could just run a standard ball hitch until you get to your off-road location and then switch it up with one of these. Just a thought....

 

[ntsqd]

One of the big challenges in designing such a coupler is getting enough weld bead length to have enough Factor of Safety. Minimum is 2:1 and I wouldn't want one that low. I am not a fan of putting simple butt-welds in tension. Wrap it, fish-plate it, do something but don't leave it like that! I also find welding on nuts & bolts to be abhorrent when they are structural. There are times when there's no other simple choice, but to start out with that as a basic part of the design is poor practice.

Found the rotating lunette pic. Note that those seemingly small bolts are 9/16" G8's. Nuts are prevailing torque lock-nuts Lock-tited and torqued.

 

[piecemeal]

^^ That's cool. Is there a sleeve of tubing on the end of the trailer that that slides into and is pinned? Do you know of any commercial source that sells anything like that? If not, wanna make me one and I'll buy it from you??

 

[ntsqd]

No, that's a receiver tube. It slides over a 2" square tube tongue. It took too long to build, I'm pretty sure I can't afford to build another one.

Was it me I'd buy a pure pintle hitch, not one of those with a ball included, and try it as it is. Then you can make an informed decision about whether to keep the pintle & lunette or move to something else.

 

[JohnnyC]

Kinda has a David Bradley look
http://www.earlycj5.net/forums/showthread.php?74865-The-Sears-David-Bradley-Trailer

Kinda has a Willis equipment look
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/willys-utility-trailer.337150/

Think it's neither ... Just similar

 

[piecemeal]

JohnnyC: It does say bradley on the title, but 93 (gotta be a misprint, or someone's best guess).

Thanks everyone for all the help in the id, or original intended purpose of this trailer. I also verified that it's a 6 bolt pattern, not a 5. I haven't checked it yet, but it sure would be cool if the bolt pattern matched my 74 FJ40 so I'd effectively have two spares in a catastrophic blowout.... When I'm ready to dive into changing this over to an offroad camp trailer, I'll be sure to post the build.