I picked up a M1101 trailer from GovPlanet last spring. My original intent was to mod it into an off road camper but I have had some experience with it that is making me change my mind. I thought maybe it would be helpful if i passed it on.
First of all, the trailer cost me $925 plus fees last Spring from GovPlanet. It is a 2010 Silver Eagle that was issued to the Kansas Army National Guard and i was able to pick it up at their base in Topeka. The fees included the 10% buyer's premium paid to GovPlanet and then Kansas and Topeka sales tax as well as a fee to receive an SF (Standard Form) 97 which is what the government issues in lieu of a title. That allowed me to apply for and receive a title from my home State as well as register and license the trailer. So, out the door was just over $1,100.00. I had previously bought a wiring adapter to allow me to hook up the trailers 24v wiring to my four pin 12 v receptacle on my 2014 Jeep Wrangler JK. The trailer is equipped with multi voltage LED lights with the exception of the taillights so I bought military style replacement taillights that used 12 v LEDs:
At just over $200, they were 'pricey' but, hey! It's only money right?
Pulling is home from Topeka in a two door was....exciting. The clevis hitch was 29 1/2 inches off the ground when the trailer was level. As my 2 door sport's hitch was only 20" off the ground, the rear end of the trailer as stuck up high enough in the air that the rear view mirror was useless:
The next problem developed as soon as we hit the pavement for the ride home. The trailer weighs about 1500 pounds and can can carry up to 1900 pounds so with typical military efficiency it has rather stout suspension. When traveling empty, the suspension will severely bounce when hitting any bumps and don't even think about hitting a pothole. And the tongue weight is 225 pounds so my poor JK Sport, sagged down in the rear far enough that my headlights were illuminating treetops and blinding oncoming drivers.
But, it pulls really nice, the surge brakes work excently and the only problem we had getting home was that passing drivers, particularly those in off road vehicles would slow down while passing to look it over and tended to drift in towards us as they checked out the trailer.
Once home, we decided that the 2dr wasn't going to make it because of the limited towing availability so we traded it in for a 2015 JKU and naturally we got it in 'tank' so it would match the trailer. The first thing we tackled was the insane height diference between our pintle and the trailer's clevis. My first thought was to just change out the massive HUMVEE wheels and tires (8 lugx6.5 GM pattern and 37" HUMVEE run flat tires) with something smaller. Two advantages to that is the height and also the weight. The individual wheels weigh 175 pounds each. But, we decided instead to have the hitch changed from this:
to this:
The fabricator that did this for me does really great work but it was again, pricy at $462.50.
That solved the height problem just fine:
But, I still had the tongue weight problem when hitched up. I had lifted the the JKU by two inches but the trailer when hooked up, dragged the back bumper down about five inches. So, i installed a set of Firestone Coil Rite air bags in the rear springs. With the minimum fiver pounds of pressure in the bags, the bumper still came down four inches but bringing the pressure up to 30 pounds seemed to level every thing off.
We are presently slowly relocating from our home in northern Illinois to our new home in SW Missouri. So this past Thursday my wife and loaded up the trailer with as much as we could strap in and I took off on the 500+ mile trip. At the first gas stop (which proved my MPG had dropped to just 10 mpg) i found the left trailer smoking hot. I knew it has to be either a bad bearing or the drum brake so I backed off all the tension of the military parking brakes and headed off down the road at a slightly reduced speed. At the next refueling stop (still getting 10 mpg) i found the hubs barely warm to the tough so after getting fuel, I headed off again at a speed as faster as possible. Stopping again at a rest area, I found the hubs both really hot again and I realised that maintaining 70+ mph was probably a real bad idea. I am a retired Army NCO and I know everything the military does is based on a max speed limit of 55 mph and that is usually thought to be a safety requirement. But the trailer is not happy at 70+ so once again, i baked off on the speed.
All in all, I think I ended up with a really heavy duty short trip trailer that will work great around the farmette but I am re-thinking it as an off road camper. It is just to big and too heavy for the Wrangler for anything but short trips.
First of all, the trailer cost me $925 plus fees last Spring from GovPlanet. It is a 2010 Silver Eagle that was issued to the Kansas Army National Guard and i was able to pick it up at their base in Topeka. The fees included the 10% buyer's premium paid to GovPlanet and then Kansas and Topeka sales tax as well as a fee to receive an SF (Standard Form) 97 which is what the government issues in lieu of a title. That allowed me to apply for and receive a title from my home State as well as register and license the trailer. So, out the door was just over $1,100.00. I had previously bought a wiring adapter to allow me to hook up the trailers 24v wiring to my four pin 12 v receptacle on my 2014 Jeep Wrangler JK. The trailer is equipped with multi voltage LED lights with the exception of the taillights so I bought military style replacement taillights that used 12 v LEDs:
At just over $200, they were 'pricey' but, hey! It's only money right?
Pulling is home from Topeka in a two door was....exciting. The clevis hitch was 29 1/2 inches off the ground when the trailer was level. As my 2 door sport's hitch was only 20" off the ground, the rear end of the trailer as stuck up high enough in the air that the rear view mirror was useless:
The next problem developed as soon as we hit the pavement for the ride home. The trailer weighs about 1500 pounds and can can carry up to 1900 pounds so with typical military efficiency it has rather stout suspension. When traveling empty, the suspension will severely bounce when hitting any bumps and don't even think about hitting a pothole. And the tongue weight is 225 pounds so my poor JK Sport, sagged down in the rear far enough that my headlights were illuminating treetops and blinding oncoming drivers.
But, it pulls really nice, the surge brakes work excently and the only problem we had getting home was that passing drivers, particularly those in off road vehicles would slow down while passing to look it over and tended to drift in towards us as they checked out the trailer.
Once home, we decided that the 2dr wasn't going to make it because of the limited towing availability so we traded it in for a 2015 JKU and naturally we got it in 'tank' so it would match the trailer. The first thing we tackled was the insane height diference between our pintle and the trailer's clevis. My first thought was to just change out the massive HUMVEE wheels and tires (8 lugx6.5 GM pattern and 37" HUMVEE run flat tires) with something smaller. Two advantages to that is the height and also the weight. The individual wheels weigh 175 pounds each. But, we decided instead to have the hitch changed from this:
to this:
The fabricator that did this for me does really great work but it was again, pricy at $462.50.
That solved the height problem just fine:
But, I still had the tongue weight problem when hitched up. I had lifted the the JKU by two inches but the trailer when hooked up, dragged the back bumper down about five inches. So, i installed a set of Firestone Coil Rite air bags in the rear springs. With the minimum fiver pounds of pressure in the bags, the bumper still came down four inches but bringing the pressure up to 30 pounds seemed to level every thing off.
We are presently slowly relocating from our home in northern Illinois to our new home in SW Missouri. So this past Thursday my wife and loaded up the trailer with as much as we could strap in and I took off on the 500+ mile trip. At the first gas stop (which proved my MPG had dropped to just 10 mpg) i found the left trailer smoking hot. I knew it has to be either a bad bearing or the drum brake so I backed off all the tension of the military parking brakes and headed off down the road at a slightly reduced speed. At the next refueling stop (still getting 10 mpg) i found the hubs barely warm to the tough so after getting fuel, I headed off again at a speed as faster as possible. Stopping again at a rest area, I found the hubs both really hot again and I realised that maintaining 70+ mph was probably a real bad idea. I am a retired Army NCO and I know everything the military does is based on a max speed limit of 55 mph and that is usually thought to be a safety requirement. But the trailer is not happy at 70+ so once again, i baked off on the speed.
All in all, I think I ended up with a really heavy duty short trip trailer that will work great around the farmette but I am re-thinking it as an off road camper. It is just to big and too heavy for the Wrangler for anything but short trips.
