M101A3 Offroad/Expedition Trailer Build - The Vanilla Gorilla

[outpostphx]

Hey guys,

I've been working on a budget trailer build so me and the family can venture out a little farther (further?) into the wilderness. And my wife is sick of sleeping on the ground, which gives me a reason to weld, wrench, grind and drink beers in my garage, so everyone wins.

I've been following a bunch of threads here and steelsoldiers, and got inspired to build a simple, clean and ************ offroad trailer. I liked the m101a3 because it wasn't too big, and the weight was less than some other trailers as well.

I found the trailer on CL. The guys at Bivouac Camping Trailers were selling a bunch of trailers that they got at auction to raise money for Wounded Warriors.

I drove up there on January 17th and picked up the trailer for $625. It was in great condition, and they had already removed the surge brake setup and welded in a front receiver. More to come!

 

[KellyM]

Nice - another M101A3 build! I talked to the guys at BCT about the last A3 they had, but I let it go to someone local. Maybe that was you?

What are your plans for the Trailer?

 

[outpostphx]

Hey Kelly,

I got the 2nd to last one, the other one was in a little rougher shape as I remember... Are you looking to build a trailer too?

Plans for the trailer, gonna keep it simple for now, we'll call this Phase 1. Might do more stuff down the road, but for now I just want to get the trailer road ready.

1. Sandblasting and paint (Flat Black frame, Gloss White tub to match my Xterra)
2. Wheels and tires. The 36" military tires on it now are in rough shape and really heavy. Since I'm trying to cut weight, I'm gonna swap these for some 8 lug civilian wheels and tires, 33" to match the tires on my truck.
3. Propane. I'd like to mount a small propane tank, rather than using the small coleman bottles for my stove.
4. 7-pin connector and new tail lights. Possible running lights / LED lights.
5. Tonneau Cover. Just to keep road dirt out of the cargo area.
6. Rack and Roof Top Tent. My buddy and I did some bartering and I ended up with a Mombasa RTT, so the last item will be a rack to mount the RTT. I'm building a static rack for now, because I just want to do the minimum to get it out on the road and camping. Maybe in the future I'll look in to building an adjustable height rack.
7. Rack mounted Awning. Looking at a 5 x 8 awning to cover what ever meal prep / seating area we have.

That's about it for now. Future mods might include:

Deep Cycle battery with solar.
Water tank with pump.
Edgestar Portable Fridge.
LED lighting all around.
Annex for the RTT.

Here are some more pics of the beast after I picked her up:

 

[KellyM]

Yes, the last trailer BTC had was a little rough, that's why I passed. I did pick up a different trailer shortly thereafter. Here it is. New axle and wheels should go on this weekend



Here is my build page.
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/169115-The-Contraption-a-M101A3-Build

 

[outpostphx]

Awesome! Just subbed. I think we're going for a similar build, so I'll be following your progress. My biggest sticking point is where / how to mount the rack. I want it to look slick, so I'm trying to figure out if I can find some tubing that slides into the existing holes along the tub edges where the stock bars mounted. But I'm not sure if those are strong enough to support a rack and tent on their own. And after reading your thread, I think I have to skip the static option and go for the telescoping rack...

 

[outpostphx]

A friend of mine has a business with his dad, they build large work vehicles for town and city municipal departments. He offered to do the sandblasting and paint for me for $700. He also replaced all the old rusty bolts with Grade 8 hardware.

He took the whole trailer apart, sandblasted it, painted the frame/axle flat black and the tub gloss white to match my truck, a 2011 Nissan Xterra Pro-4X.

Here's a few pics from his shop during the process.

 

[outpostphx]

Here are some pics from the day I picked it up from paint, he did a bang up job on the paint. Looks amazing!

 

[outpostphx]

The tires that came with the trailer were in rough shape, one was OK, but the other 2 were cracking. Since I'm trying to cut as much weight as possible, I wanted to swap the wheels and tires out for a set of civilian 8 lugs. I'm keeping the stock axle on it for now. Might swap in the future, but for now it works. I found a set of 4 wheels and BFG KO2s on CL for $250, 2 of the tires were roasted, this guiy was a big fan of burnouts apparently, but the other 2 were good, and the lug pattern matched.

Here's the original 36 x 12.5-16.5LT MTs



Here's the new shoes... 285/75/16 BFG KO2s on flat black rims.



And it lowered the ride height around an inch or 2 so it rides level now...

 

[outpostphx]

Lights and 7-pin harness

The Xterra came stock with a 7 pin connector, I found a 7-pin harness on Amazon, it's a Lavolta 6ft harness. Pretty well made and it made wiring up the trailer pretty easy. Some of the wire colors are a little different, but I figured it out through trial and error.





I wanted reverse lights in the new setup, so I found these cool, kinda low profile lights that fit perfectly.

The only issue is the turn signal and brake lights are on the same wiring coming from the truck, so I couldn't isolate the amber lens as the turn signal, so the amber comes on with the red when I brake. No big deal...

 

[Redline61]

Nice wiring job man. I love the way the trailer looks in white too.

 

[Happykamper]

Nice paint and wiring !!! Why would someone switch out the axle and wheels? Is it a weight thing? I ask because I just bought one of these from a guy in Santa Rosa and I have plans of towing it behind a jeep JKU. These are not light even before you start adding racks and things. But they do track well behind a rig.

 

[Tcajun]

Whats the best size off road trailer

Hey guys,
I live in Colorado and need some advice on an off road trailer with roof top tent. I enjoy camping and fishing remote lakes. I have a 2001 4 runner. I have access to a metal and machine shop. I have looked on CL hoping to find used army trailer but the ones I have found are garbage and they want an arm and a leg for them. Therefore, I have decided to buld one.

 

[Ovrlnd Rd]

Nice paint and wiring !!! Why would someone switch out the axle and wheels? Is it a weight thing? I ask because I just bought one of these from a guy in Santa Rosa and I have plans of towing it behind a jeep JKU. These are not light even before you start adding racks and things. But they do track well behind a rig.

Weight, bolt pattern to match tow rig, electric brakes - all reasons to change the axle. I'm doing a M116A2, which is the flat bed version of this trailer, and haven't decided if I want to go to the trouble of swapping or not.

 

[SoDakSooner]

Nice wiring job man. I love the way the trailer looks in white too.

+1. Looks great! Moving much faster than mine for sure!!!

 

[SoDakSooner]

Weight and easy to change lug pattern. A decent 3500 lb axle will cost less than $400, and I have heard you can shave 100 lbs or more. That said, I tow behind an JKU. I know it is there, just because of throttle response, but they are nice trailers for sure.