wompser's m416 trailer build

[wompser]

those shocks are a standard NAPA piece. bought them online at napa.

the only problem seems to be that the rubber bushing is a little wider than the original, which makes it difficult to get the cotter pin in.

Item: Shock Absorber - NAPA Response - Front
Product Number: RR 94038
Quantity: 2
Price: 16.99
Core Price: 0.00
Total Credit: 33.98

that's probably the cheapest part on the trailer!!!

 

[REZARF]

those shocks are a standard NAPA piece. bought them online at napa.

the only problem seems to be that the rubber bushing is a little wider than the original, which makes it difficult to get the cotter pin in.

Item: Shock Absorber - NAPA Response - Front
Product Number: RR 94038
Quantity: 2
Price: 16.99
Core Price: 0.00
Total Credit: 33.98

that's probably the cheapest part on the trailer!!!

Thanks my man!

Drew

 

[FeilEOD]

those shocks are a standard NAPA piece. bought them online at napa.

the only problem seems to be that the rubber bushing is a little wider than the original, which makes it difficult to get the cotter pin in.

Item: Shock Absorber - NAPA Response - Front
Product Number: RR 94038
Quantity: 2
Price: 16.99
Core Price: 0.00
Total Credit: 33.98

that's probably the cheapest part on the trailer!!!

Purely FYI here but, those NAPA shocks are made by Monroe. They are also OEM for the CDN2 M101 trailer. They are a screaming deal for thirty bucks.

Where did you find you propane cylinder at?

The trailer is look'n good, keep it up

 

[wompser]

nice! I like yours too.

the propane cylinder is a little small, but I liked it cuz it looked cool! they're availible a couple of places, but I bought mine here: 6 lb Aluminum Tank

 

[66 fj40]

Your trailer is looking great! I just bought a '67 M416 today at a yard sale. Watching your build is making me dream. I'll be following this thread.

 

[wompser]

after a very frustrating day of deadends looking for parts, I finally got some work done.

worked on the crusty latch on the tongue box. I should have taken a better "after" picture. it needed to be completely disassembled, polished, and rebuilt, but since they cost around $70 from austin hardware, I think it was worth a couple hour's wor. before:

I also sanded down the diamond tread so it was a better fit once installed. why didn't the original builder do that? after:

still have to find a key for this lock, or get a new lock cylinder.

i've been thinking a whole lot about how to run the taillights. the original design uses the housing as the ground and has 3 wires going in. i'm not in love with that design, so I decided to use the blackout lights as the ground, by creating a "short" from the light to the chassis.

back when boeing surplus was still around I picked up some stainless steel braiding for .30 cents per pound. I shoudl have bought the whole spool, as it turns out, most places see this stuff for a couple bucks a FOOT.

i put some plastic wire loom material over the wires to give it bulk, then slid the stainless on. it's designed for hydralic hoses, but looks cool on wire too:

once installed though, I have to say, i'm not 100% sure I'm on board with the look. somehow, i'm not sure if these really look right... i'm not sure I can describe why I feel that way, and I haven't seen a better option, but I'll continue to think about it. as my wife said: "for the amount of work you put into those, you'd better keep em!" maybe she's right. they now also have LED lights, though I haven't tested them yet.

still gotta figure out where all the bits and pieces will go on the tongue box.

it's a little difficult to do layout until I get the next shippment of batteries and electrical componenets.

I saw that winch at harbor freight for $69 and just had to buy it. I'm planning on putting the control box inside the tongue box, so the whole winch is smaller.I know it's ugly as sin, but i'm building a box to hide it in on that aluminium alloy plate. my buddy jay gave that plate to me as a gift a long time ago, and i've been trying to find a good purpose for it ever since. It was kind of a shame to cut it up, but my jigsaw made quick work of it, once I put cutting fluid and a jig on it.

 

[65-fj45]

I think your tail lights look great polished, you put a lot of work in to them.

 

[FeilEOD]

Those have to be the most "pimped" M series tail lights I have ever seen, nicely done!

If your concerned about visability of the lights you can replace those lenses with some M series full red lenses, http://www.midwestmil.com/m38p11.html These are also sometimes called Gamma Goat taillight lenses.

Thanks for the link on the propane cylinder, awesome!

 

[wompser]

that's a good link to keep handy. I considered the gamma goat lights, but I assume the bezel is plastic? I suppose I could paint it black (or green) to match the rest of the jeep. in fact, then maybe I should re-wire it so the blackout lights are aux. brake lights...

it's defnintely something to consider. they are pretty expensive at 24 bucks apiece! (and I saw them go higher than that on ebay too.)

 

[wesintl]

not sure about the jeep thing but i like the trailer build

 

[wompser]

when I said earlier that the lights were dim, I meant it:

this image is with the brakes on, you can see how they compare to my jeep's brake lights.

I'm not confident that if I slam on the brakes the person behind me is going to see! while it's not a great solution when the top is not installed, I think the plan will be to have a 3rd brake light/turn signals installed on the top.

still waiting on parts to arrive, but I did a little more fabrication yesterday on the gas can mounts. here i'm mocking up the fit:

this should give you an idea about the destination:

after i get a little more steel and do some more welding, there will be one on each side: one for gas, and one for water. naturally, I've also gotta repaint or bedline these things. they'll be hinged at the bottom to swing out for filling.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Jerry can holder looks kewl.
You sure work fast!

 

[Hugh Heifer]

i used the original brake handle mounting plate, but relocated it. I got the idea for the turnbuckle somewhere on the mud forums, but I'm going to replace it with somethign more heavy duty pretty quick. i'm not loving this, though it is functional:

Nice work there.

 

[gaberelli]

What kind of tension does the brake lever give you when applying the parking brake? I have to reef on mine just to get it too budge. Before I take it apart, strip, and re-assemble, could you let me know how you brake works?

 

[66 fj40]

It should be very easy to lock the parking break. Try some WD or PB blaster before you take it all apart if you haven't already.

 

[wompser]

I agree with that. take it completely apart. I use a product called KROIL to free rusted/frozen parts. soak it in a little kroil, then use a little force to move it, then more kroil and work it some more. eventually, it should work great.

in retrospect, I should have had the brake blasted and then painted it myself. the epoxy paint they used was a little bit too thick and makes the brake a little harder to move than I'd like. not a huge deal though.

 

[wompser]

my updates have been slow, but I got some more good work in. mostly electrical. I don't have pictures yet of the wiring done, but here's a few as I was putting it all in.

it looks pretty messy, but it really all tucks up nicely. (more pictures to follow.) as you can see, I have an inverter, battery, pump, winch control unit, and auxilary power installed. the cool part is that it all takes up very little space in the actual box itself, there's plenty of rooom for other stuff. I was planning on having the hot water heater externally mounted, but there's so much space in the box, I may wire it in. not sure yet though, I don't want to put more holes in the box than I have to, and mounting the shower in there would require some pretty big ones.

the one design flaw I was not prepared for is how much extending the tongue would affect the center of gravity. it's kind of a headache. it's now really difficult to move around with just one person. while I did haul it up the driveway with the onboard winch last night, I think i'm also going to change the design of the gas cans. I think now I'm going to put them hanging off the back instead of the sides. with ~10 gallons of water in the back of the trailer, it balances out the weight of the extended tongue quite nicely, to the point one person can easily lift an unloaded trailer.

wiring the trailer is mostly complete, just need to tie up some loose ends and get the battery isolator figured out.

 

[wompser]

did some more electrical work... what a pain! it just seems to take FOREVER!

as you can see, i've decided to run a standard 7pin trailer connection... but I wanted a really heavy 8awg wire to charge the battery off the isolator, so you can see it in red. (eventually this will be covered, and the zip tie will be gone!) to be universal, i've also added a 4pin connector. not that i'm going to loan it to anyone... but this way i COULD.

cleaned up the wiring... more for my own permanant record... this explains what all this stuff is:

still a little clean up to do in there, but the wiring is mostly done. (gotta work on the tow vehicle and isolator this weekend, hope the weather holds)

and finally, one of the outside sides, showing the 12v accessory and 110v AC.

 

[Koffer]

looking great so far BUT.........................



























































your landing leg is on backward

 

[wompser]

duh!

it won't quite tuck up under there anymore the "right" way, because of the position of the nose box. that will be addressed, eventually.

i'm also thinking about putting some kind of removable wheel on the landing leg... might even replace the entire leg piece with a wheel/adjustable height jack.

now that the weight is so far forward on the trailer, it's really a pain to move around.* I'm also a bit concerned that I won't be able to put it on/off the hitch when it's loaded. I know may people put this kind of trailer jack on their trailers... but i'm not wild about the look. I definitely want it to be on the original lunette leg. not sure how I'm going to solve this one yet, I need a really small landing leg jack, and a very large swivel wheel. (i'm thinking something at least 12 inches around, so it can easily roll over small bumps. if it's on a swivel, it should be able to tuck up horizontal to the ground.

*I did winch it up the driveway last night, which worked great, though the landing leg just skidded up. it wasn't really fast but that #3000 winch is really strong: at one point I put the trailer brakes on, and still could easily pull the trailer, skidding it along! it's not really a very fast process though!