Expedition M116 Pioneer Tool Trailer Build Thread

chevyexpotruck

Observer
I built this a while back but thought others might be interested in the build.

The pics are from a while back, but still good.

I had been kicking around the idea for more than a year about getting an off-road trailer to haul my stuff in it when camping. The truck is normally pretty full of crap most of the time, but when I go camping with it, the truck becomes pretty much completely full. I have been thinking of just removing the rear seats to give me the extra room, but that would make carrying the dogs around pretty difficult. As would carrying any other passengers if the need would arise.

Now while I could have started from scratch, I have built trailers before, and that way is not the cheapest. Like a lot of things you can buy at the store, it is actually much cheaper to buy something already made and modify it rather than buying all the parts and putting it together. Though sadly I have looked online for a while now for a used trailer, or even a basic new trailer and found nothing that I could use.

Until I got my hands on this.

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It is an M116 Pioneer Tool Trailer. It was originally designed to carry, well what else, tools. Though there are currently no more tools inside of it ;-)

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Edit: May 2018 - Been a while since I worked on this thread. Noticed the picture links were dead, so I now uploaded them here directly
 
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
Here she is attached to the old expo truck.

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Close up pics of the trailer.

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Is pretty heavy duty underneath.

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The space between the front of the frame and the box is made to hold a spare tire and the jerry can. The trailer also originally had a supporting leg than just popped down and was non adjustable. But a standard civilian adjustable support leg was installed to make things easier.

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I also like the little tailgate on the back. It was made as a mini workplace to let you hammer on stuff.

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chevyexpotruck

Observer
So at that point I decided to start thinking about the inside of the trailer. Most of the inside would be dedicated to storage of equipment (tools, food, spare parts, camping equipment, etc). But I want to dedicate part of it to a kitchen/cooking setup. I plan on installing a small fresh water tank inside with pump (~15gallons max). That will provide cooking and washing water for a good long weekend. Naturally just having the water will be nice, but I will need a sink to properly wash things in, and a burner top to cook the food with. Only problem is where to mount it all. While having it all sit inside the trailer is good for keeping things clean and out of the way, it can make it a bit difficult to work from inside the trailer. The trailer sits a bit high, so it would be hard for shorter people to reach inside, plus the fender would be in the way. And having a burner inside the trailer is a bad idea for reasons I don't think I need to explain.

My idea for a cooking area would be a slide out unit. You would open a little door on the side of the trailer, grab a handle and pull the stove and sink out as a sort of drawer.

Using my expertise as a master windows paint user, I drew something up to help explain it.

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I would put the drawer on heavy duty drawer rails (same they use for file cabinets that can hold a few hundred pounds of files) so that it will be able to withstand the weight of the sink full of water, and a large pot loaded with food on the burner.

This is the best I could find of what I am trying to explain. I think it would work well.

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Then once you are finished, you simply clean everything up, push the drawer back in and close the door.
 
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
More work was done on the trailer at this point. Started by cutting out the center wall inside which didn't take long when you have a plasma torch. Makes a lot of room inside once you are finished. Pictures aren't that great though. I forgot my regular camera and had to use the camera in my phone. Plus it didn't help that it was very sunny outside.


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Next I decided to work on the rear stabilizer legs. I initially wanted to install one leg on the rear like this.

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But after thinking a bit I decided a pair of rear legs would be a better idea. So I welded leg adapters on both sides of the trailer near the rear. I didn't want to put the legs right on the rear end of the trailer in case I backed into something (or something runs into me) and screws up the adapters. They will be well protected on the sides.

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Next I decided to install some new lights. Current lights work well, but they are mounted on the bottom of the frame. If I bottom out the trailer on the trail, they are going to get ripped off. So I am going to mount them into the back wall of the trailer. Sort of like this.

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Red lights will be for standard brake and turn lights. The white lights will be for back up/reversing. The license plate will go up above the back door to keep it safe. It will get a light too.
 
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
Took some measurements and marked the holes for the lights. Then came the plasma torch.

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Then I installed the license plate light up above the back doors. Plate will be out of the way up here.

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Yeah nothing exciting :-?

Also got my new axle assembly at this point. Was told 2-3 weeks, but I got it after only a week.

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Nice to have an axle that takes standard tires. Here it is using a spare set of tires/rims I had sitting around.

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I double checked the measurements and they made it the correct length.

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chevyexpotruck

Observer
All was going well on the axle swap, until this happened.....

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Had disconnected the axle assembly, raised the trailer up and was moving the old axle out of the way when I accidentally knocked out one of the trailer legs (which I didn't seem to have put the locking pin all the way for some reason). Naturally it caused the trailer to topple over. Missed my foot by an inch or so (though I was wearing steel toed boots so I should have been okay). Trailer isn't super heavy (~650lbs). But I would rather not be under it when 650lbs comes crashing down. The trailer leg got crushed though when the trailer came down (the one that popped out) so I will have to go get another one. I am usually pretty safe and this was the actual first accident I have had in the shop (well other than cutting my fingers here and there, or banging my head). So I was pretty surprised when it happened.

Just proves that you should be careful no matter how safe you think you are. Luckily there was no one important around that could have been hurt though ;)

Old axle and tires.

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The old axle and tires weigh at least a good 300lbs together. New assembly weighs about half that. A good savings.

New setup.

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New axle is rated at 5000lbs. Yeah I know that is a lot. But the difference between a 5000lbs and a 3000lbs axle was only $20-$22. So it would have been stupid not to spend the extra few bucks.

I took some measurements with the new axle and tires. Old axle sat 16inches off the ground. New one is 14inches off the ground. So it won't be much lower. Only real difference is due to the tire size. Went from something like a 33-34inch down to a 31inch tire.
 
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
The axle in place after picking the trailer back up.

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Here you can see where the spare tire would sit.

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My official helper.

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Here is what it looks like now with the new axle installed. Slight bit lower. But not much.

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The steel to make the rack for the roof tent. Bought three 24foot pieces and had them cut it up into 7foot sections. Would have liked to have gotten them as full length pieces, but it would have been pretty difficult to transport.

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Started off by cutting some shorter pieces. These are to keep the rack away from the body a bit. It needs to sit away from the body so that I have room to open the side doors as they overlap the front and rear of the trailer.

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I welded one on each corner. Then I cut longer pieces of steel. Tall enough to clear the top of the trailer. As I said before, the doors will be modified so that they don't open as high.
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
More work on the roof rack.

Started off by welding the bars for the roof basket. Nothing fancy. Just took my time measuring everything a couple times to make sure everything would come out properly.

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Everything was tacked in place. I hold everything in place with a few tack welds so that I can remeasure and make sure it is good after all the pieces are in place.

Measured all the way around, then I measured across to make sure it was square. But sadly in the end it was not perfect. I was off by 1mm :Wow1:

Was going to just scrap everything, due to being off by 1mm, but decided I might as well keep going :p

So I then welded everything up properly and was ready for the next step.....which was me having a heart attack hauling the roof tent up on the trailer by myself. Oh yes, I am sure it would have been fun to watch.

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Roof tent fits very nicely up there. I will be keeping the tent a bit farther back on the trailer so that it is directly over the axle to help keep things balanced. That left me with space up near the front which was perfect for the next thing I wanted to do. Since I live up north and we have a lot of trees, and the tent sits up high, I decided it would be a good idea to built a sort of brush guard for the front of the trailer. This will stop branches from smashing into the tent and damaging it, which I do not want since the tent is not cheap. So away I went.

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I made it just a little bit taller than the tent. While this will not completely protect the tent, it will at least grab a lot of branches and help push them up and over the tent. Naturally I only tacked everything in place first to make sure it was what I wanted. A hell of a lot easier cutting a tack weld and readjusting a part then having to completely cut it apart.

Though I didn't like just the two arms and decided to add another in the center for added protection and strength.

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Then I decided to start working on the doors. As I stated earlier, once I put the rack on the top, the doors would not open properly anymore. As you can see here in these pictures.

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To make it so that the doors will open wider I need to install a second hinge. Now there are many ways you can go around this including a way to remove the doors when you need to access them. But not very practical and a pain in the ***. You can install some standard door hinges. But you would need to install a couple of them and you risk warping/twisting/damaging the doors every time you open them, as the metal is somewhat flimsy and you would only have strength in the couple of places you have hinges installed. Another way would be to install a piano hinge. You can pick these up at most hardware stores, and they are not too expensive. Though the problem with this on my trailer is that the doors are curved and have ridges in them (for strength). This will made it hard to install the piano hinge. And one main problem I will face is that every time it rains the water will pour through the hinge and into the trailer. Naturally the hinge will also rust after a while, likely making it hard to open. But anyone who has seen my projects before knows I have a plan for just about everything ;)

I am going to install a long hinge made of.........rubber. The hinge will be one long piece and run from one end to the other. It will be held down on both sides of the door with exterior silicon and rivets or bolts.

So I went off to the hardware store looking for a piece of thick rubber, about 7feet long and 2.5-4.5inches wide. I first looked at some weather gasket material they put around garage doors to close the gap. But I couldn't find anything wider than 1.5inches. Then I found the bottom gasket for the garage doors which is slid into a track and forms a "U" at the bottom to help keep things weather tight. The stuff wasn't too expensive, was 3inches wide and I could get it as long as I wanted. Only problem is that the rubber wasn't as thick as I wanted. It is strong, but I was afraid it would rip under heavy use. But since I didn't see anything else that was reasonable, I picked it up. I also found some thick rubber floor matting I could have used, but I would have needed to buy 14 feet of the stuff which was also 4 feet wide (I needed 2.5-4.5inches wide). But the 14 feet would have cost me nearly $170, so I decided against it.

While I was there I decided to look around to see if I needed anything else. While going through the tile flooring section I found something even better than the garage door gasket. I bought some of this.

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Its the stuff you see in schools, government buildings, offices as a black plastic baseboard. It is very strong, thick, yet flexible (made to be folded around corners). It also came in several different colors (sadly no OD green, but I will live with black), 4inch width and lengths of either 8feet or 20 feet. Plus the stuff is pretty cheap. Was $7 for 8feet. You could also buy it with adhesive on it, but I bought the one without it as I will be putting on silicon near the edges (where this has the adhesive in the middle) and bolting it down. Plus the one with adhesive was $4 more.

This will work perfectly as it is flexible, strong and weatherproof. I will be putting one piece on the outside of the door and one on the inside (bought 4 boxes of the stuff in total). For the extra few bucks it is worth putting it on both the inside and outside as I would prefer to keep my stuff inside the trailer dry.
 
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
So now that I have that settled I decided to get back to work. First thing was to mark where the new hinge is going to be installed. Drew some lines on both doors.

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Then came out my most hated tool. I hate working with this thing. A plasma torch is such a boring tool to work with ;)

Off came the gull-wing doors.

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With the doors cut apart, you can see that I will have better access to the interior while the roof rack is on.

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Started off by drilling holes and riveting it to the bottom part of the door. You can see that while the stuff is thick, it is still flexible enough to go around the humps in the door.

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Now you can get an idea how it opens.
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Naturally I will install other hardware later on to properly open the two parts. I just used what was laying around to prop it open so that I could take a picture.

You can see how it looks from the inside with this picture. Here is the second piece on the inside.

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Now the other door is on.

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Once I had both doors on and everything worked as it should I really got into adding more rivets for strength. All the rivets and washers are made of aluminum so that they won't rust.

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Yup, a hell of a lot of rivets. I had to drill each hole by hand, then make sure the hole went through the both pieces of rubber and metal properly before riveting it. Luckily I had an air riveter which made it go a bit faster. But I did end up dulling a drill bit from all the holes I drilled.

I will add some exterior silicone to the hinges later on to help better seal the edge.

Not to shabby so far I think.
 
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chevyexpotruck

Observer
At this point I decided a little bit of paint to clean things up was in order. As well as throwing the tent back on top to see how it looks. I needed the trailer for a camping trip that weekend, so even though it wasn't finished I wanted to make sure the basics were working.

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Ended up painting it flat black as I couldn't really decided what color to paint it. Well that and I had a full gallon of flat black sitting around, so I decided what the hell.
 
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Mark Harley

Expedition Leader
Nice work! Love the Pioneer trailers. Our local EMT / Rescue company has one they rebuilt.
I like the change of axle. Not many tire shops want to work on split rims.
Having a matching bolt pattern to the truck helps too.
Looking forward to the build.
 

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Mark Harley

Expedition Leader
I could see a tall expanded box built to fit the open frame on the front of the trailer and move the spare in front of that.
 

chevyexpotruck

Observer
Those were older pics of the trailer. Here is a more recent one. As you can see I added a few things ;)

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