Category: trailers

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Trailer Project a Bust for Now (Post #130) 2/27/2009

Well my plans to buy a M105 trailer and use it for my camping project have fallen through again. I had a plan to get one through the government auction in my area. There were 10 to choose from. We had a guy bidding for us and at the last minute the bids went from 230$(US) to 400$(US). So that put them out of the price range I was hoping to spend. There were several that probably went without bids. But the choice ones were sniped pretty heavily there at the end.

I have other options. But not the funds for them. I found several M101 3/4 ton trailers which would be better for my uses but they are in the hands of private sellers and either in horrible condition or well over 600$(US) and 6 hours away from the OkieRover home base.

At this point I’m going to just get my funds together and hope I can find a decent trailer.

Either the M416 or M101(CDN) are still the ideal trailer for this application. But as they have been bought up the price of one of these starts around 900$(US). I’d like one of these because mostly I wouldn’t have to modify the trailer too much or install a lift kit on the Range Rover.


IF they didn’t weight 2700 pounds the M series ammo trailer that is being phased out now by the U.S. military would be a nice choice. But they are only found on the coasts.


The 3.4 ton M101 is the next logical choice. Larger and a bit heavy at 2250 pounds. The height of the pintle would have to be changed to ride level behind the Range Rover. These also start around 900$(US) for something that needs a lot of work.

The M105 are 2750 pounds and plentiful relatively speaking. But they require a lot of modification to get behind the Rangie.

If go with a larger trailer I will want to build a kitchen to either swing out of or be stored within the trailer. The smaller trailers are definately just right to haul the gear needed for a 3 day stay anywhere. If I take anyone more than myself it requires at least 3 ice chests. As you have read here previously I have slept in the back of both my Land Rovers and that requires very little gear. But the goal of the project was to take the family on camping trips. It is a tall order to pack the gear necessary to have five people camping in the back of either Landy.

So I think I’m back to looking for an old Toyota pickup to chop and make into a trailer. Similar to this excellent example from our friends at IH8MUD.

It’s pretty amusing to me now that I thought 750$(US) for a Sankey trailer like this one from Khaki Corps Imports was outrageous. It is the obvious first choice for anyone driving a British off road vehicle and would look smart being pulled by your Defender.
(wait, I don’t have a Defender, dammit!)

Now they are going for 1000$(US) and up IF you can find one.

So for now I’m going to cool my heals and look around. Maybe if things turn around financially price and budget management won’t be such a consideration.

Jump on over to IH8MUD and check out their forums for great ideas on trailers.

If you want to build your own you have to read REZARF’s home build trailer thread. Genius.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

Postscript
3 hours later: JagGuy has a plan more on that when I get the details. Basically I have a frame and axle and a really huge bed.

Postscript-script
The following Saturday February 28th: I happened through Binger Oklahoma. And a fellow there that sells militaria has TWO M116 tool trailers and TWO M101 3/4 tons.



More on this after I call him. I wonder what his price is?

Posted on

June 26th, 2007 (Post #76)

June 26th, 2007


Not much going on
I haven’t been on to post in a few months. Mostly because, there hasn’t been anything going on. The price of fuel is outrageous. RovErica is driving the Range Rover now. She is quickly learning that like a Sherman Tank, it’s not far to empty in a Range Rover. The sunroof is no longer going back. You can still vent it. But it is jams on when you try to retract it. I’ll have to take it our of the truck I fear to diagnose the problem.

She also reported a screeching sound. But cannot reproduce it. I think it’s brakes but she says it
is not. We also heard a strangle thumping sound under her when we were driving around 50mph on Sunday. Sounded like a tire with a bubble on it. But the tires are still perfect.

The Disco is still going strong.
I think I’m getting a little bit better gas mileage of late. I’m
not sure what to attribute it to though. Could the summer formula of gas make any difference?

I’m still looking for a trailer.
I’ve run into some interesting possibilities. I know where two M116A2 and one M105 trailers are for sale in OKC. The owner wants 450$ each and 650$ if I want the tarps. The M116A2’s formerly had 10kW generators on them. I have looked through the government surplus site at Government Liquidation and see them for sale there but usually with a generator on them. Now I’d love to have a generator on my property. Especially one I could run the whole house on. But I don’t have the money for that type of project.

The M105 trailers are plentiful right now. They have sides and a tailgate. They are also very high up. I’m not sure lowering them is possible. These things are really big too. I used to pull them behind my M554 Kaiser when I was in the Marine Corps. We put the powder for the artillery rounds in them.

The Tool Trailers will probably escape my purchase this time as I don’t have the money right now to do this project. But for an almost ready to go storage trailer/camp kitchen I don’t think you can get any closer than these Pioneer Tool Outfit trailers. They are selling right now for under 400$ on the auction. I’m not sure how high these would go.

Of course the perfect trailers are these Ammunition Trailers. I would like one of these for the pure utility of them. For the most part the adventure of camping is just getting your stuff to the site. And they don’t make trailers this tough.

These sell for around 300$. I know they are available at Surplus stores in North Carolina for this advertised price. Some people put frames on trailers like this and mount their roof top tents on them.

The possibility of getting an M116A2 is still in the works. A fellow here in OKC has them as I mentioned before. M116A2. These trailers have definate potential. The bows are
steel and would support nicely a tent for the tent over style of expedition trailer. Boxes for the kitchen and storage of other stuff would need to be bought or made. This and fact that the two I see will need a few hundred dollars of paint stripping and painting make them the more expensive of the possibilities. You can see they sit pretty high too. That picture is of a lifted Toyota pulling it. The front stone shield would have to be fabricated. But it could be built to hold the spare and the fuel cans and the jacks and the Hi-Lift jack.

Tents are easy to come by. There are several out there. Most of them start around 1500 and go up. I recently found an outfit on eBay that was selling a rooftop for under 800$. I will probably get one if I go that route. I still haven’t ruled out getting a pop-up camper. But the same deal applies there. How cheap can I get one and how much will it take to get it in shape and fixed up to use? Something tells me I should probably get a pop-up if I want the wife to go along with me on these trips. But who knows, we haven’t even been out yet.

You can see the possibilities are nearly endless. With a budget of around 2000$ you could make a pretty nice outfit. But, sadly, I don’t have 2000 dollars right now.

Blogging
As this is a “blog” by definition. The possibility of moving this to the Blogger website has come up. I currently blog on Devil Dog’s Daily News. It would be much easier for me to post things up if I used this format. And easier for you to look up items and subjects.
So look for that soon.
Posted on

April 13th, 2007 (Post #75)

April 13th, 2007


Land Rover Lifestyle.
Reading the Land Rover Lifestyle magazine this week I noticed the What’s Your Lifestyle? sections. It tells about Landy owners and their Land Rovers and how they use those Land Rovers. Last Saturday I used my Land Rover to get me to the Fort Washita Fur Trade Rendezvous. Which is the extent of my lifestyle. I have been stuck at events and after the last time I purchased a Land Rover to prevent this from every happening again. In those years I haven’t even need a Land Rover at an event. I’ve not even gotten close to getting stuck. How disappointing.

Brakes.
Last night I completed the installation of the brake hoses on the Range Rover Classic. I now have to bleed the system and make sure I don’t have any leaks. RovErica is getting very close to taking her test. So this weekend I hope to have the Rangie driving so we can test the brakes.

Rear Upper Tailgate.
I called Rovers North North to order the aluminum tailgate. With the aluminum tailgate you need to deconstruct the existing gate and then fit all the bits on the new frame. The salesman talked me out of this in just 3 short minutes. With the following logic, I bought another OEM tailgate. Time. Basically he explained that it was a 6 hour project and a major pain. If you have any parts that are not quite right you will have to work out those troubles before you install them on to the new frame. Well my latches don’t work as nicely as they probably did when the Rangie was brand new. Also my rear defogger only works on upper half of the window. If I understand this correctly all I have to do is bolt on the new window and frame when it arrives before next week. I hope he is right.

Fort Washita Adventure.
I wrote up a new adventure. It was driving my Landy down to Fort Washita. I got a great
picture of the Discovery in front of the barracks at dawn. I also had to ford a creek when I was trying to get around the stalled train at the edge of Madill, Oklahoma. Man I thought that thing was never going to move.

I Hate Mud Forum.
I’ve been exploring my options for getting the family out to do some Rovering. There are several
schools of thought on this. Roof Tents. Trailer mounted roof tents. Ground camping. RV style camping. So many decisions so little money… I can’t decide if I want a military style trailer with gear or just get a pop up camper and give a lift and some skid plates and camp in relative style. You can get an older pop up for less than a thousand dollars. You would then of course have to refurbish or remodel it. I’m sure I want the pop up to be a smaller model. But then again, I want the military style expedition trailer. There are several models to choose from several manufacturers. But those start in the $3500(US) and go up from there. Meaning one tricked out the way you would want it could cost you 7000 bucks! Then again for less than that I’m sure I could build my Discovery camper from an old Discovery body. Once again too many decisions to
make and not enough money to pursue each one. With all that in mind I found the I Hate Mud Forum. It’s a haven for the Toyota crowd but their Trailer Tech forum can’t be beat. And they are a bunch of friendly folks too.

Check out their site if you have a chance.

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