So I was lucky enough to inherit an old military trailer from my friends farm. Been using it just around the house for landscaping and such but now I want to build it up for some overland trips.
There are no identifying marks on the trailer. My friend has no idea either and my internet search bring up little. My friend, his dad and grandfather never had it registered or titled.
I'm hoping the overland community can help me identify this trailer to help me with my build. Looks like it used to be an old dump trailer. Can anyone identify this trailer?
Sorry for the bad pics
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Your images are upside down for me. . .
Indicators for what vintage trailer you might have are the placement of corner handles or not, placement and number of side tie-downs (some had four each side, some had three), overall width at the top of the tub (WWII trailers are slightly narrower at around 49" I think, where Vietnam era trailers are around 51-52"), if the axle has a center seam, if the tub is permanently mounted to the frame or has tabs and bolts so is removable, if the tub has a drain or drains (some 1/4 ton Jeep style trailers were meant to float so gear could be floated across a river), if the tub originally had a tailgate or not, etc.
Yours is different with the deep side pockets for stakes. That's odd, and it may mean it was a civilian made trailer or was originally from another country, or was heavily modified from it's original design. Or that it was not the typical Jeep 1/4 ton trailer but maybe built for a more specific purpose originally, like a tool trailer or something.
Yours does not have ribs in the side panels or tub floor, either, which most all 1/4 ton military trailers did, or at least the most common ones you see. The ribs strengthened the panels by making them stiffer and allowed for thinner gauge sheet metal, keeping weight down.
Your trailer doesn't have the more typical rolled-top edge on the tub, but just an angled edge, which is odd, too. Maybe it's not a 1/4 ton capacity but heavier.
Your trailer
does have military style ND tires, which means Non-Directional tread. ND tires were used in war so that the enemy would not be able to tell which way a vehicle or trailer had been traveling, thereby reducing the chance of giving away troop location.
Check
steelsoldiers.com, and
Vintage Military Trucks/Trailers,
DLBensinger (Jeep and trailer parts) and my own
page at Pinterest - scroll way down past all the XV-2 stuff to a bunch of vintage trailer pics that may lead to pages that will help you.
You'll be looking for names like M416, Bantam T3, Aspen or Bantam Civilian, M100, and MB-T. You'll likely get a lot of folk who think they know what it is but are just guessing. I bought two 1/4 ton military trailers last summer and the more expensive one was grossly misidentified in its sale blurb.
Also look at the Sale/Trailers sections of any overland, adventure, and military forums. You'll see a lot of different stuff, some identified wrongly, but you might see something that will lead you somewhere.
If you dig around enough and are diligent in your search, you'll learn a lot about military trailers and their history and a lot more about whether yours is actually military or not, and what it might be.
I suspect it has had a lot of replacement work with smooth new panels, making it more difficult to tell what it actually looked like to begin with.
Take a mess more pics from each corner, and of the inside, underside, frame details, spring shackles, etc. That, along with accurate measurements for the tub floor width and length inside, and the upper edge of the tub's outside dimensions, and depth of the tub, will all help others more correctly identify what you have for a trailer.
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