Roadster280
LE
I've been looking for a way to get gravel from the quarry to our land, and stumbled upon the venerable M101 military trailer. The lane from the road to the land is too narrow to get a standard dump truck in, so I was looking for a different way of doing it, and the M101 trailer has a facility that allows it to dump. The A frame detaches from the tub at the front, and then hinges on a pair of pins further back. Purists apparently say that this is intended as a storage feature rather than a true dump capability, but it works. Engage the handbrakes, remove the pins, back up the truck, and the bed lifts. Win.
I found one on a government auction site, and bid on it. This one's an M101A3, which is both good and bad. Good because it has wider-set wheel wells, allowing a full sheet of plywood to fit in. Bad because it has HMMWV wheels, which are frankly enormous for such a trailer. The bed is 8' long, and 5'6" wide. Much larger than a Sankey Landrover trailer - similar in size, but different shape, to an Arrows Bedford trailer.
This particular one was at Camp Lejeune and is ex-USMC. I won the auction, and cabbied over there Wednesday night. Picked it up yesterday and dragged it back 450 miles to home. The structure is in good order, and it towed very well. Paint is shagged, as are the side rails, but a) I would have painted it anyway and b) I don't want the rails for the gravel job. Might keep the rail supports and replace the original slats at some point with wood. Some light rust, but nothing a sandblast won't fix.
My biggest question to myself is what color to paint it! Anyways, here's a couple of pics of my very own Trailer of Knowledge
I found one on a government auction site, and bid on it. This one's an M101A3, which is both good and bad. Good because it has wider-set wheel wells, allowing a full sheet of plywood to fit in. Bad because it has HMMWV wheels, which are frankly enormous for such a trailer. The bed is 8' long, and 5'6" wide. Much larger than a Sankey Landrover trailer - similar in size, but different shape, to an Arrows Bedford trailer.
This particular one was at Camp Lejeune and is ex-USMC. I won the auction, and cabbied over there Wednesday night. Picked it up yesterday and dragged it back 450 miles to home. The structure is in good order, and it towed very well. Paint is shagged, as are the side rails, but a) I would have painted it anyway and b) I don't want the rails for the gravel job. Might keep the rail supports and replace the original slats at some point with wood. Some light rust, but nothing a sandblast won't fix.
My biggest question to myself is what color to paint it! Anyways, here's a couple of pics of my very own Trailer of Knowledge