Yet another M416/M762 tongue extension idea..

[re_guderian]

Need some input on whether this is a good idea or not. I just picked up a M762 (flatbed M416). I'm going to build a removable cargo box for it, no rooftop tent. Just need extra space for gear for family/Scout camps. Anyway, I've had an M416 in the past, and love the off-road articulation of the short tongue and all, but would like the option to lengthen it when needed. Would like to have the following criteria be met.

• Keep the parking brake
• Keep the rotating lunette
• Be able to get close to stock length, plus add 18" or so to the tongue length
• Keep the landing leg.

I've researched Brian in Oregon's threads, which are close to what I want to do, except I have a 100 series and no way to mount a rotating pintle hitch on the tow vehicle side to keep the rotation ability (unless there's a way to mount a rotating pintle on a receiver?). I like the stock setup as much as possible.

I was wondering if a) it would be possible, and b) if it would be a good idea, to fab up a "carrier" out of c-channel to bolt to the existinge lunette casting. This would have box tube perpendicular to the axis of the lunette and behind it, and be gussetted for rotational strength. This would have a drawbar piece that would go into a receiver that would take the place of the lunette casting on the trailer tongue. Make sense?

My sketch-up skills suck, so here's a photoshop hack using someone else's trailer pic. (sorry if it's yours and I butchered it, it was one of the first google hits with an angle I could use...).

Inputs?

 

[e9999]

as you can probably tell from my flurry of posts about tongues and tubes, I'm thinking about similar types of issues these days so here are a couple of thoughts (worth what you paid for them... )

- there are rotating pintle hooks but they are expensive and not that user-friendly (long shank, need to bolt to a plate through a hole etc). There are relatively inexpensive swiveling lunette rings, however, that are fairly easy to fab with.

- it would be much easier and probably cheaper to buy or build an extension for the receiver on the truck side. 18" is not that much and if you get a good extension with, say, 1/4" wall thickness 2.5" tube you should probably be fine if the trailer is not extravagantly heavy.

- if you want to do it on the trailer side, it seems to me that as usual the "cut the cheap part" rule would apply, i.e. I would not futz around with the frame. I would build an attachment that would replace the existing lunette. You could for example take that or a similar lunette, cut it and weld a receiver tube to the shank. You can then put whatever coupler you'd like on the other end. That would be easily removable and you could then have the 416 in the original config.

- if you don't want to cut or buy a lunette coupler, rather than cutting the frame I would add a sub frame with a longer coupler under or over the existing one. You could U-bolt it in various places with a pin or 2 for redundancy.

 

[titanpat57]

Need some input on whether this is a good idea or not. I just picked up a M762 (flatbed M416). I'm going to build a removable cargo box for it, no rooftop tent. Just need extra space for gear for family/Scout camps. Anyway, I've had an M416 in the past, and love the off-road articulation of the short tongue and all, but would like the option to lengthen it when needed. Would like to have the following criteria be met.

• Keep the parking brake
• Keep the rotating lunette
• Be able to get close to stock length, plus add 18" or so to the tongue length
• Keep the landing leg.

I've researched Brian in Oregon's threads, which are close to what I want to do, except I have a 100 series and no way to mount a rotating pintle hitch on the tow vehicle side to keep the rotation ability (unless there's a way to mount a rotating pintle on a receiver?). I like the stock setup as much as possible.

I was wondering if a) it would be possible, and b) if it would be a good idea, to fab up a "carrier" out of c-channel to bolt to the existinge lunette casting. This would have box tube perpendicular to the axis of the lunette and behind it, and be gussetted for rotational strength. This would have a drawbar piece that would go into a receiver that would take the place of the lunette casting on the trailer tongue. Make sense?

My sketch-up skills suck, so here's a photoshop hack using someone else's trailer pic. (sorry if it's yours and I butchered it, it was one of the first google hits with an angle I could use...).

Inputs?

I'll try and find some dimensions and "hook a brother up"

bout time you bought a trailer...

 

[Brian in Oregon]

Some other extension methods can be found in these threads.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/trailer-tech/362781-anyone-lengthened-lunette.html

https://forum.ih8mud.com/trailer-tech/386702-m416-tongue-extension-question.html

https://forum.ih8mud.com/trailer-tech/319054-wompsers-m416-trailer-build.html

 

[The Jade Bean]

I'm with the idea of not cutting the frame, but if your going too, my vote is Brian-in-Oregon's second suggestion above.

-Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.

 

[re_guderian]

I'm with the idea of not cutting the frame, but if your going too, my vote is Brian-in-Oregon's second suggestion above.

-Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.

Yep, I don't plan on cutting the frame. What I'd like to do on the trailer side is like the first post in the second thread linked by Brian. What is different is that I'd like to retain the stock lunette casting piece and lunette to fit into that receiver tube, thus retaining landing leg and rotating lunette while being able to add length. So in my first drawing, I probably should have shown the short c-channel around the lunette casting as new material, and not part of the original frame. Real question I guess is how to make a receiver insert using the original lunette casting.

 

[re_guderian]

I'll try and find some dimensions and "hook a brother up"

bout time you bought a trailer...

I had one previously, but sold it as a package deal with my FJ60 back in '05.

 

[Splittilps]

Some other extension methods can be found in these threads.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/trailer-tech/386702-m416-tongue-extension-question.html

I followed this idea but made it extendable on the trailer. Post 49

https://forum.ih8mud.com/trailer-tech/303462-finally-i-found-m101-3.html

 

[Corprin]

Check out the extension on Jeremy at Expedition Ops' tongue extension. Story goes, the prisoners at the facility he got his from had fabbed up his extension. 100% reversible, and much less engineering needed than some of the other options.

Flat plate with two hold punched through, matching bolts pass through the plate, through the lunette casting, and bolt in the same place the lunette ring does. The two bolts maintain proper alignment and prevent twisting. A gusseted 2.5" receiver tube is welded to the plate, and the max coupler is plugged into it. You could weld or use receiver bits from that point.

From looking at the trailer up close and personal, I would weld the heads of the two bolts to the flat plate before attaching the LONG receiver tube, I guess Jeremy has to stack up a pile of extensions just to reach that bolt.

 

[ntsqd]

Welding on a bolt turns it into a Grade Zero bolt because the weld heat alters or removes the heat-treating.
If you don't want it to rotate w/o having to stick a long extension down the tube then weld a pair of heavy strips to the plate right next to two opposing flats of the bolt head. I try to use square key stock for this.

 

[e9999]

or grind 2 flats at the end of the threaded end...

 

[Corprin]

I guess one could just thread the hole and lock tight it in place, then the long extensions would only be needed on occasion?