My Bantam T3-C #4806

I had been on the lookout for an M416 or M100 for awhile. I have scoured Craigslist and on-line forums for weeks. 2 days ago as I was driving by my neighbors house, I happened to look left and I see the back of a trailer by a tree.

I thought " Hmm that looks kinda small." upon further inspection I found this

I am pretty excited about it!  Now I'll be honest I am not a restore guy.  I am a rock crawler/ Expedition guy. Please don't hate me!

This trailer is going to be for pulling behind my TJ when we go Camping.  I hope to one day take a cross country journey across the US and pull this trailer the whole way.

I promptly stripped the trailer to its many parts to inspect its condition.  what I found was the trailer is in remarkably great shape for its age.  It has minimal rust!!!  I was amazed!

I credit the lack of rust to the incredibly thick layers of industrial paint on it.  I imagine it was owned at one time by a county or city.  It appears that once a year it was pulled out and sprayed/hosed down with paint.  Everything is covered.

here are a few pics after I flipped the trailer, wire wheeled, and sand blasted the underside.




Edited by Cisco - 12 June 2013 at 3:15am

Well I may have gotten some pics out of order but you get the idea.  I am further along but that's all I have for tonight.

Since I am not interested in restoring my trailer I have already sold the combat rims to a collector.  and I have this light for sale here on this site now.  I hope someone can use it.

Cisco,

as I said in a earlier post I basically dismantled the trailer down to its bolts.  If it could be taken apart, I took it apart.

I had zero stuck bolts on the trailer and i had only one that was rusted to the point of non-use.  That being said, since restoration
wasn't my goal, i went ahead an replaced most of the hardware with new grade 5 and grade 8.  I didn't want to get in the
 back country and have a spring hanger break off.

I also went ahead and replaced the u-bolts.  They were pitted pretty bad and I sure didn't want one of those to break.

These pics show the trailers current state, the hitch coupler and lack of safety chains as requested.
























Edited by Cisco - 12 June 2013 at 11:24pm

And the most important pic.  The little dog is Butter Pete, the bigger dog is Emmy.  The young 'un is my son.  They approve and are excited for camping adventure!

48cj2a wrote: Very good work and progress! <span id="pb-core-loaded"></span>  I've been busy this week but now have you added into the database and a picture page. What was the original color since you took it down so far (green?)? I need a city and your name to add to the database page too.   The "?" was a typo or what I call a fat finger when the fingers are moving faster than the brain is in my case.   I'd say the helpers approve for sure!   Love the Crawler Hauler in the background too. Need a way to get the Bantam on and off the top deck.

The original color was green. It had split combat rims.

The crawler hauler is a Palimino colt pop up camper with the undercarriage removed. I turned the pop up sideways and welded it to the deck of the gooseneck. My TJ will fit right in behind it.

It hauls GREAT! I towed it about 3,000 miles round trip 2 summers ago on a wheeling/camping trip to Beuna Vista, Colorado. Trailer weights just over 9k loaded for camping and with myTJ on it.

AND I pull it with a 2010 HALF TON Ford four door 4x4!

I'll PM you my name and location! Thans for adding me to your page!