M416 Build

[CFD614]

I finally decided that I would post up my trailer build. I have been lurking here for a few months and have gotten some great ideas from other members. I picked up my trailer over a year ago and it has been sitting at my parents house until Oct when I was able to start the build.

Here is the trailer the day I picked it up. The guy that I bought it from stored it outside and with the nose down. So of course there was going to be some rust in the tub up front. Well I got it home and then stripped it all down to see what I needed for parts. Both leafs were toast, the shocks blown, and the frame was it really bad shape. So It sat for a long time in pieces.




So once I got going again I knew I had to start off by building a brand new frame and go from there. Me and my buddy welded up the frame and copied all the specs from the old frame but extended the tongue slightly. We went with 2.5x.120 boxed for the frame with 2.5x.250 for the tongue receiver.

 

[tarditi]

Off to a good start!

I got a M100 with some rusty nose syndrome myself.

Subscribing.

 

[CFD614]

Got the frame all welded up and mocked up the tongue box like a lot of others have used here from Harbor Freight. After that I finally got to see how the tub would look on the newly built frame. As you can see the tub at some point in its life got beat up on the drivers side and received a huge dent. This I knew when I bought it would take a decent amount of work to get it somewhat straight.




A couple days later, off to the sandblaster the tub went to see what exactly we are working with. It had multiple layers of paint on it from green, then blue, back to green. Once I got it back I the tub had multiple holes in it. The floor had to be replaced and all the holes patched up on the walls. I threw on a coat of Rustoleum rusty metal primer to keep it from rusting.

 

[tarditi]

Nice work. Did you put a 2" receiver in the back?
I'm looking to do that on my m100 to carry a Yakima 4-bike rack.

 

[CFD614]

After getting the primer on the tub it was back to working on the frame. I went with 14 gauge sheet for the nose of the trailer. Next came the task of what to do with the stock m416 spring hangers. After much thought and ease of instal we welded all 4 hangers on the frame mocking them up with the brand new 10 pack CJ3 replacement springs. I found a pair of silent spring shackles and bushings to replace the C shackles the trailer had due to seeing people with bent shackles if overloaded.



We kept the stock axle...for now and will replace the bearings down the road if not the whole axle if I need trailer brakes. Ended up using wheel lug adapters from the military pattern to my JKs 5x5. Heres the frame all finished up. Painted the whole thing with Rustoleum black enamel which came out pretty good. I did a spring over to fit the 35s to match my jeep. I saw another member with stabilizing jacks so I bought a pair of BAL C jacks and got them mounted to the frame. The jacks a tall enough to lift the wheels off the ground if I ever need to change a tire. My plan is to use a cordless impact to quickly deploy them.




Lights on the trailer I wanted to go low pro and make it clean. All the way around are 3/4 LED lights. The rear I did 3 lights on each side so it will be bright enough for stop,turn,tails.

 

[CFD614]

TUB TIME!

Tub time! Back to working on the tub. I really wanted to get the tub done but knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. I was only able to work on the trailer about 1 day a week sometimes 2 so it took longer than I wanted. Since the previous owner stored the trailer tongue down outside it looked like swiss cheese on the front of the tub. I went ahead and taped off the cancer area then got out the cut off wheel and went to work. I cut the same size strip of 16 gauge sheet metal and welded it all in.




Once that was complete I took my hi-lift jack and the oxy acetylene torch to get that top rail and corner piece straightened out. I got it straight the best I could with a little help from the BFH. The metal work continues with 1.5x1.5 angle iron for the top rail to "dress it up" and make it perfectly square. With the help from my dads carpenter buddy we got all the measurements and angles to where they should be and welded all up.

And heres how it sat for a week or two when I got more materials and parts in.

 

[tarditi]

Nice. Angle iron addresses a wealth of sins...

 

[CFD614]

Got it all together. Cut the floor out and welded in a new 14 gauge floor. Sanded the entire tub down with a DA and then put 2 coats of primer on. Sanded again and then rolled on silver montaliner on the outside and black monstaliner for the inside and the lid.

 

[Victory_Overland]

Great looking build. I picked up a pretty rusty M416 here in Hawaii for a steal of a price so I'm going to start this summer on my trailer. I'll surely pirate some of your experiences in hopes to make my build easier.

Great job, hope it works amazing for your trips.

 

[sunnybean]

Looks great!

Did you build the fenders or modify the originals? How do you like the Monstaliner? I'm getting close to paint and am contemplating doing the whole thing (frame, tub, lid) in some sort of bedliner.

 

[Ohio Boo]

Where did you get your wheel adapters and what brand are they?

 

[CFD614]

The fenders I bought from Eric over at Offroad Elements here in MA, theres a local guy in the jeep club that makes them