M416 Military Jeep Trailers

Axle flip – The axle flip will entail a complete rebuild of the axle and relocation to the underside of the leaf springs.
Tongue box – The primary purpose of this box is to hold all of the electrical equipment. This will include the trickle charger, deep cycle battery, power inverter, switch box, and what other electrical devices wind up on the trailer. Actual: This didn't quite end up the way I had planned at first. After several hours of design consideration, I decided that I wanted a cooler rack on the tongue and the electrical elsewhere.
Cut and weld tailgate ( side swing) – the m416 trailer was originally designed to float over 500lbs.therefore, there was no tailgate.  After much thought, I decided to cut a tailgate and mount the hinges so it swings out to the left side of the trailer. This will allow a small kitchen box to be hung off the side of the tailgate and the bed surface to be used as general work area. I may look into acquiring the mounting hardware From an old land cruiser or jeep tailgate to simplify the fabrication. I also need to obtain a mechanism to lock the tailgate in its open position to prevent swinging. Design revision - Sides of the trailer are not stout enough to handle the side swinging tailgate, so we ended up with a good old fashion fold down style with a reinforcing frame.	Neal from Glendale Powder Coating smoothes out the new opening for the tailgate.
Lid system ( hinged with rack components) – the lead system will be designed of steel or aluminum and in such a way to form a watertight seal on the bed of the trailer.  This lightweight get strong lid system will be hinged at the front and lifted by two large lift struts. The outer surface can be made from aluminum or steal, but the internal structure should be designed to hold several hundred pounds of gear on top without collapsing. There should also be some sort of basic locking mechanism to prevent unauthorized access.  On top of the lid system will be mounted a factory roof rack of a Ford expedition or like vehicle. On top of that will be mounted a 2ft. by 6ft. safari basket and two bicycle rails such as those made by the Yakima.  This will allow for additional gear storage in a simple method for accessing the bikes. A factory roof rack system will be used to ensure the availability of parts from common rack manufacturers and the addition of other carrying devices such as those for kayaks, surfboards etc.
Rewire – The original trailer wiring is setup for a 24 volt blackout lighting system that runs on a 12 pin connector. Needless to say that won’t look up to my Ford. My goal is to wire it for normal trailer lighting operation and to draw enough power off the trailer break lead to perform a trickle charging function on the deep cycle battery.  I also plan on installing a power inverter to allow for small 120 volt operation.  If I get real ambitious, I may try designing some LED lanterns for the kitchen area.
Fresh water tank – this one’s pretty simple. I would like to install a 25 to 35 gallon freshwater tank under the trailer and plumb it  for easy access
Canopy extension – Since the kitchen area will be off the back of the trailer, I would like a canopy to be designed to unroll from the underside of the lid system when elevated.  Ideally, tent-like polls could be sprung from the corners of the canvas sail to mounting pockets in the bed.  This one still needs to be tested and may require more cross bracing or ground polls.
Kitchen box  ( to hang off tailgate) – when I go camping there’s nothing I like more than an organized kitchen that I can get in and out of quickly.  The kitchen box would be a fold down aluminum box that would hang off the tailgate when opened and store the stove, cook pots, eating utensils, etc. – pretty much everything but food.

Pete Elton's M416 Trailer Site

Glendale Powder Coating