A little over 5 years ago, I picked up this old M-416-65. Over that time I've built and rebuilt it numerous times, traveled over 60,000 miles pulling it, and spent around 800 days living out of it. I've learned more than I could imagine about the history of these awesome units and how to build with multiple mediums. I'm not the most eloquent writer and I'd rather be on the trail than on line but here's the story of my 52 year old trailer and the changes it's gone through.
Warthog to Wardrop.
- Thread starter StinkFist
- Start date
We purchased this plain trailer for a platform for our RTT. I had a simple plan to build a telescopic rack and add a lid to the tub. I had no idea how difficult such a simple idea could be. I also only had 3 months to have it ready for our wedding. So with simple tools, no welder, and limited experience, I said "let's do it" and went head first.
I'm a heavy equipment operator by trade and have friends and connections to shops and mechanics. I realized quickly that I couldn't count on others to do the work I wanted when it was needed. I needed tools. And a welder.
My first welder was a HF 90A inverter welder. It kinda worked. Not on anything structural but it worked. Kinda.
After cutting the tongue off and realizing I couldn't get high enough quality welds to make it road worthy, I learned the hard lesson of buy once, cry once. Upgraded to a Lincoln 210 and things started happening. Last year I finally upgraded again to full gas and picked up an aluminum gun.
Anyway, I'll gloss over the first few years and get more to the current build that is basically finished at this point. There are a few more big additions that will wait until spring.
I'm a heavy equipment operator by trade and have friends and connections to shops and mechanics. I realized quickly that I couldn't count on others to do the work I wanted when it was needed. I needed tools. And a welder.
My first welder was a HF 90A inverter welder. It kinda worked. Not on anything structural but it worked. Kinda.
After cutting the tongue off and realizing I couldn't get high enough quality welds to make it road worthy, I learned the hard lesson of buy once, cry once. Upgraded to a Lincoln 210 and things started happening. Last year I finally upgraded again to full gas and picked up an aluminum gun.
Anyway, I'll gloss over the first few years and get more to the current build that is basically finished at this point. There are a few more big additions that will wait until spring.
