Tried out my new firewood trailer yesterday

[deerehunter]

Bought this trailer from an estate sale this winter for $50 including the pintle hitch for the truck. Spent some time painting it and converting the lights from the military 24volt to 12 volt. Eventually it will be used for a mobile deer blind but for now it will be put to work hauling ash. Pulled nice down the road loaded and empty and the leaf springs never moved no matter how many logs we piled on. Pretty happy with it overall for what ive got into it. Should work good for grabbing logs close to home.

 

[Guswhit]

Nice!

 

[deerehunter]

Thanks, it was a fun project

 

[PULLINmyPOULAN]

There's a army surplus store south of me that sells military trailers for alot you scored big.

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

That's a cool looking trailer!!

 

[deerehunter]

I watched for one for a while. I was originally looking for an m101a1 so I could have sides on it. this is an m103a3 which was used as a generator trailer which is why it doesn't have sides. It was originally equipped with air brakes but those are no longer used obviously. I do not think you can overload one of these unless you were really trying or doing something ridiculous. I watched the springs as my buddy piled ash logs on and they never moved. The quality in everything from the wiring to the undercoating is impressive. This trailer sat in a field for years and the underside is rust free. I didn't have to touch the wiring other than put a civilian plug on the harness and change to 12volt bulbs. The bulb sockets are even rubber mounted so the bulbs to burn out from vibration when offroad. It has a swing down steel wheel on the tongue so it can set on level ground and be moved around without hooking to a vehicle.

 

[unclemoustache]

$50?!? Man, I'm ashamed to show you the trailer that I got for $50 a few years ago. Nice score!

 

[zogger]

That is absolutely a you suck deal deluxe!

I still haven't used mine, waiting to fix my lifted 3/4 ton chubby, sitting on 37" aftermarket wheels and regulation dotmil tires, matches the nice trailer I got from morewood, an m1102.. Started on it yesterday, it'll be done sometime this summer. Took me awhile to save up the cash, well, more than a year, it needs a new engine, a hood, window motor attention, windshield, repair the class v hitch and find the right size pintle, etc. Won't know the full list until I drive it.

 

[amberg]

Nice heavy duty trailer, Does it pull good on the road? looks to good for a deer blind! But I never find any deals like that!!

( One of those you suck deals )

 

[deerehunter]

yes it pulls nice. It doesn't sway too bad empty or loaded. The little bit of sway it does have is due to the hitch on the truck. This truck has an adjustable hitch that has two levers coming out of the back allowing me to pull one and have the hitch move side to side about a foot and the other allows it to slide in and out. The purpose is for hooking up to farm wagons that can be difficult to get lined up with as often the tongue is just laying on the ground. This setup unfortunately has some play in it which gets magnified by a short wheel base trailer like this one. I pulled this load about 15 miles with no problems. That woodlot is the farthest one I cut at so it was a good trial run to see how it would do.
The reason the trailer was so cheap was that it was purchased from a deceased mans grandson who had a limited amount of time to get his grandfathers farm cleaned up before a developer took possession of the land. He was scrapping and selling all kinds of equipment but was running out of time so he started selling stuff cheap. He told me he would rather see the stuff get put to use than to have it go to the crusher.
Half of the fun for me besides saving money burning wood and making money selling it is getting out there and messing around with equipment and playing with my toys (I mean tools)!

 

[deerehunter]

another neat thing I didn't mention was if you guys notice there is a small rectangular lens underneath the red lens in the taillights. This trailer still had the blackout lights that were used when traveling in a convoy. the lens only has about three small slits that let just enough light through so that the next truck back in the convoy can follow close without using headlights or regular taillights. The purpose was to not disclose your location or be detected by the enemy. just a fun fact for everyone but im sure theres a lot of military guys on here that already knew that.

 

[unclemoustache]

another neat thing I didn't mention was if you guys notice there is a small rectangular lens underneath the red lens in the taillights. This trailer still had the blackout lights that were used when traveling in a convoy. the lens only has about three small slits that let just enough light through so that the next truck back in the convoy can follow close without using headlights or regular taillights. The purpose was to not disclose your location or be detected by the enemy. just a fun fact for everyone but im sure theres a lot of military guys on here that already knew that.

Awesome! Did you wire them so they still work?

 

[deerehunter]

I originally wired it so they would come on with the running lights but they were so dim (let so little light through) that I ended up leaving them unhooked.

 

[Uzi]

Nice that's an awesome trailer for $50 looks like an M105 variant those are rated for 5500lbs on road and 3000lbs off road. The ratings are usually very conservative but my concern would be getting all that weight stopped. Since it was originally air over hydraulic you probably dont' have any brakes on it now? I've got the smaller 101 version and bigger air ride 989 ammo trailer that we pull with the HEMTT. Its hard to go wrong with surplus stuff its always over-built and can take a beating.
EDIT just read where you posted its a 103 those are rated pretty heavy too.

 

[tla100]

Wow, what a deal! That is a beast of a trailer.