XJSuperman's Sears&Roebuck Trailer

[NOMADIC_LJ]

Very nice job and I love those fenders and wheels! Retro cool

 

[XJSuperman]

Well, the trailer has been sitting since October, and Im currently starting work on a rack for it. This will be similar to the rack in the pic below. Im going with rectangular tubing instead of round, and hopefully keeping it removeable and simple. Should be a one person job if I do it right.

Starting pieces look like a lego set, or a veggie dish, but here is a very very rough layout to get the idea. Possibly ditching the yellow pallet-racking beams in favor of 2x3x1/8"wall tube.

 

[goneagain]

I would step down your wall thickness By alot. .095 will be well suited for a trailer rack. Watch your height, the trailers tend to be very top heavy with a rack, especially unloaded.

Neat trailer though! I have a David Bradley myself that had a very similar paint job.

 

[XJSuperman]

The orange is very thin walled. I haven't made any changes to the yellow yet. It's pretty light right now. I'm not worried about cog yet. It's not really that tall and there won't be anything on top for awhile. The rest of the trailer is just over 500 pounds

 

[SGNellett]

I have a similar trailer but newer, built from a kit, it's a little Bantam knockoff. I did the entire trailer, inside and out, in different colors and textures of Durabak. I used red and gray with no texture for the sides and fenders and did the interior in textured black. I've beat the crap out of it and it lives outside. The only place the Durabak didn't hold up well was in the D/S footwell of my wrangler. Not sure if I had a this spot or something in the "paint" but a section flaked off and I haven't repaired it yet.

As for the rack, I'd be looking real hard at seeing if you could utilize those stake pockets for your rack so as to leave it as stock and functional as possible if/when the rack is removed. The lack of stake pockets was the biggest downfall for mine, I'd have definitely done a rack if the trailer had pockets like yours.

 

[XJSuperman]

The rack will have cutouts for keeping the stake pockets open cause I use them all the time. Hadn't heard of durabak until recently. I used monstaliner and love it. Thanks for the input guys, I didn't think anyone really looked at this but me.

 

[XJSuperman]

Trailer progress derailed until I get the axles done on the jeep. I did however, clean out and re-line the inside of two jerry cans for it.

 

[kzam]

That's a great little trailer with a lot of character! It looks exactly like you described it: a civilian version of a WW2 jeep trailer.

I love it when people can fix up something old and stay true to the original design. Keep those updates coming!

 

[XJSuperman]

Thanks! That's my goal. I want it all to be reversible and subtle changes. If that means welding up a hole the ok, but I don't want to butcher the tub or trash the axle. I just want to add to it. I need to figure out a system to fit shocks on it though, it can be a bit bouncy.

 

[XJSuperman]

Finished the rack in time to haul a other one of these trailers home for thanksgiving. Very happy so far. Still need to add some more extra goodies to it.

 

[Krissmith]

Awesome progress! I just got one of these trailers last night I think it's a early 1948 or late 1947. Mine is much worse for wear I hope mine can look this good by this time next year

 

[XJSuperman]

Awesome progress! I just got one of these trailers last night I think it’s a early 1948 or late 1947. Mine is much worse for wear I hope mine can look this good by this time next year

Earlycj5.com has the fundamental thread for these trailers. It's got more info than anything else ive found.

 

[Krissmith]

I spent all last night reading that thread. That's how I've been able to narrow it down in year range. Mine needs an entire new frame. So once I get a spot cleared for it I can tear into it and cut out the bad and rebuilt what I need. Mine was rode hard and put up very wet

 

[blubayou]

I picked up one of these trailers back in October and I'm impressed with how stout it is. It's in great shape (PO cleaned it up quite a bit, repainted it and recently put new tires on). I have some changes in mind for it, including a rack for my RTT.

How tall is the rack you built? I'm wrestling with that decision as I consider the many uses it'll have. I go back and forth between a simple low rack, a tall rack and one that is on struts to lift the RTT when I need to haul other things under it (bikes, kayaks, etc).

 

[XJSuperman]

I picked up one of these trailers back in October and I'm impressed with how stout it is. It's in great shape (PO cleaned it up quite a bit, repainted it and recently put new tires on). I have some changes in mind for it, including a rack for my RTT.

How tall is the rack you built? I'm wrestling with that decision as I consider the many uses it'll have. I go back and forth between a simple low rack, a tall rack and one that is on struts to lift the RTT when I need to haul other things under it (bikes, kayaks, etc).

I actually don't know exactly how tall it is. I know I have almost 4 feet of height between the floor and it. I know it's not quite as tall as my jeep, and I know the uprights are at an 80deg angle. But I focused more on using what I had and building it square rather than building to exact measurements.

I wanted to be able to fit large items underneath, and want an rtt up top, but I wasn't doing the whole struts and extensions platform raising thing.

These goals were limited by 3 things:
- I wanted it shorter than the jeep, just enough for the rtt to be not much higher than the jeep if any.
- looks and proportions
- the material I had on hand

I need to take some better measurements but I'm waiting until I can go back and tweak some things.