New England Overland » expedition trailer

Expedition Trailer – part 3

admin — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:12:07 +0000

Now that the trailer has been brought up to a level of stability. I’ve started adding some of the components that will help it to become a “base camp”. I’ve added a nosebox to the front that will house all the electronics to run the trailer. That includes(right now): a 12 volt battery, a fusebox and a power converter. Soon, I will also add a marine grade battery charger.

I spent the last weekend repainting the trailer. I’ve tired some of the flat green paint, so I wanted to brighten it up a bit.

Here you can see a stabilizer bar I had to add to strengthen the area where the previous owner had cut out a tailgate. This causes the sides to be very flimsy. He had welded some angle for braces, but that prevented the tub from being removed to retore the frame.

The tub repaint also gave me an opportunity to go over the frame for rust and wear. It held up very well since I refinished it three years ago.

This also gave me an opportunity to devise a better latch system for the tailgate. I ended up using some street hood pins to secure it. It works very well, much better than the gate style latches I had used before.

The finished product for now. I’m going to be adding a tent for it, a water supply and finishing the interior soon. The future will have a lid added and more lighting.

expedition trailer part 2

admin — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:25:21 +0000

So, I’ve been able to start the tear down process of my trailer I have found some pleasant surprise in the process, and some not so pleasant surprises. one of the best things I’ve found is that the flaking from the bottom of the floor that I *thought* was metal disentegrating, was actually a rust proofing coming off. The bottom of the pan looks pretty good. A little warped, and a pinhole or two, but other than that not too bad.

It’s down to the bare frame now:

A bunch of surface rust mainly, nothing rotted through. I’ll be putting a completely new spring set-up in.The old springs, shackles and such would only come out with a cutting wheel. Looks like I’ve got a few days of grinding ahead of me. After grinding, the frame will be cated in POR15, then painted in a chassis coat… probably black. Just because.

The parts bin is growing:

Expedition trailer project

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:54:51 +0000

I’ve been looking for a military style trailer for a while now to use as an expedition/camping trailer. Although I’d have preferred a m101 Canadian style trailer, I did happen across a m416 that was for sale in Vermont. It’s been repainted a few times (poorly, I might add) and has been butchered a bit, but I think it’ll do the job nicely.

The two biggest areas of concern for me (besides rust of course!), is that the lunette has been cut off and had a 1 7/8 hitch welded over it. Not such a bad thing, except they also welded the lunette into the receptacle. My two options are to find a new lunette housing (preferred), or just cut off the remaining length of lunette and use the upper lunette mount. My hold backs to that are that a) it will look bad and b) the upper mount will probably give me difficulty in height for my hitch.

The other “modification” was to cut the rear panel out and replace it with a slide in tailgate. To make matters worse, the individual also welded angle iron to brace the sides. Unfortunately, he also welded them to the frame. So getting the tub off will require a bit of cutting. I’m still planning on how to attack that issue. I don’t mind a tailgate, I just would like it to come down and function as a table of sorts.
Check back for more progress!