Trailer for hauling mt CJ, as well as other things

 

I had to borrow a friend pickup truck to rent the trailer to tow my Willys to get it home... Sound like a Dr Seus book.

 

So I set out looking for a trailer. I came across a British MOSKIT trailer. It contains a mobile airport landing lights. Its Helicopter'd in and set up in different configurations. The USMC has been using them since the 90's in Desert Shield etc. I picked it up near McGuire Air Force Base in NJ

 

So for $500, I got this. Without all the cool stuff inside.

 

Pretty cool huh. My two sons and I spent the afternoon taking out all the stainless bolts and screws. Man there was a lot of them. But they are all stainless...

 

The bed is only 57 wide X 104 long. And it sits abour 30" high off the ground. To make it work for me, I found the same rims and tires that were on my jeep on Ebay. Then I figured a tandem axle set up would be great. So I ordered two #3,500 axles, 4 springs, and everything I needed for a tandem axle setup from Southwest Wheel. It was cheaper to buy them and ship them to me than the trailer places in NJ. Go figure.

 

 

First problem... The hubs on the trailer axles stick out way to far to fit the jeep rims on. I didn't think about that. After some research, I found a solution. I had to order 2" wheel spacers to get teh rims to fit. Here is one axle with the jeep rims on, and one without. I kept all the sheet metal so I can make fenders out of it before I scrap the rest. Actually, the metal it thick. I'm not sure what gauge it is, but its way thicker than I expected. Maybe I should keep as much of it as I can. You never know when it might come in handy...

 

Im trying to find a welder near me that can extend the bed about 16" and make "wings" to widen the bed to about 75" or so. Anyone know of a welder in NJ that can help???

 

I was looking a Harbor Freight's wenches. Does anyone have opinions about them? I know its Harbor Freight, but I wont be using it too much.

 

I will post when I make some progress on the trailer. Stay Tuned...

I know Harbor Freight is the bottom of the barrel, but the price is right, and Im not going to use it very often.

 

 

 

I cut off the old suspension, forklift guides, and any other BS that was on the underside of the trailer. I welded the extension on the back of the trailer, making it about 10'2" long. I will probably leave the 2x12's a little longer than the bed.

 

Then the fun part. Since I am towing with a 2004 unlimited I wanted the tongue weight to be correct, which I figured should be about 10% of the loaded trailer. So I set out to have a tongue weight of about 250# or so.

 

To do this, I got 2 4x4's and put them where I thought it would give me the proper weight. Then I loaded up the Willys, got a bathroom scale, and took a reading.

 

First, I put it where the trailer told me to...

 

But the tongue weight was a little too light so I had to move it back about 5".

 

In the end, I had an empty tongue weight of 62 lbs, and a loaded weight of 102. That's without the wench, not even a third of the decking, and toolbox, spare tire etc. I will probably move it back an inch or two to give me a little more tongue weight but I think I was really close.

 

Anything else I am forgetting or not thinking of? I am hoping to weld it tomorrow. Its supposed to start raining again Thursday night.

 

 

What tie down system will you use for your jeep?

 

I have plenty of sheet metal left over from taking the trailer apart. Look at the first pic in the post, I have all those doors, dividers etc.

 

I don't have a break, but I figured I could cut the pieces and weld them to whatever angle I need. I have plenty of metal to experiment with.

 

And yes, there are a couple of cute wenches at the HF near me... lol

 

I don't have an equalizer tongue. I have a pintle. The equalizer I was talking about is a tandem axle equalizer. Its purpose is to make sure both axles share the weight even if the trailer is improperly loaded.

 

Here is a pic of the kit

The equalizers are on the top right, the weird triangle things.

 

I was thinking about tacking it enough to try it out. You are right, I can remove the welds and try again. Or worst case scenario, I can order another hanger kit if I mess it up too much.