A Southern M416

[A Southern Gentleman]

We bought a 5x10 sheet of 16 guage steel. I cut out a piece for the lid. The tabs will be bent up to form a box that will be welded onto the lid's frame. I also cut out a piece that we welded onto the tailgate frame. The 15 inch Lock-N-Roll hitch is installed on the trailer. We will obviously need to extend the chains so the hooks will reach the receiver on the Jeep.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

The skin for the lid has been bent and thankfully it fits. The next step is to start clamping and welding. Sharp viewers might notice another project vehicle in the background.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

Here we are test fitting the lid and measuring for gas struts. The lid weighs about 125 lbs. With the added weight of a roof top tent we will need some pretty sturdy struts.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

A couple of weeks ago we got the gas strut mounts welded to the tub and lid and test fit the new struts. They look like they are going to work great. I ordered the gas struts online from McMaster-Carr.

Finally this weekend we had a couple of warm dry days so I was able to get the tub, tailgate and fenders covered with bedliner. I ended up using U-pol Raptor liner that I rolled on with a small paint roller. After the bed liner cures for a few days I should be able to get the tub mounted back on the trailer frame. The only thing left to cover with bed liner is the top side of the lid; the underside I painted gloss white for extra visibility when the lid is open. I have also collected a bunch of stickers from Jeep products and Jeep-related events that I've never found a good place to adhere. My plan is to cover the underside of the lid with those stickers so they are visible when you open the lid. I think they will look pretty good against that gloss white background. Unfortunately, I ran out of bed liner so will have to wait for another kit to arrive from Amazon and another warm dry day before I can finish the top side of the lid.

You may notice that I also sprayed a matte white stencil on the edges of the fender showing the proper psi for tire inflation. I found the M416 stencil on Ebay. I think the contrast of the white stencil on the black bedliner looks pretty cool and will coordinate well with the white underside of the lid.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

This project is really coming together. The tub and fenders have been married back to the frame. I also mounted two telescoping swing-down trailer jacks on the rear of the frame. They are 22.5 inches long when fully extended. I found them on Amazon. The jacks should add some stability when the roof top tent is deployed. They fold up out of the way when not in use. I'm hoping to get bed liner on the lid this weekend.

 

[HendersonJL]

@A Southern Gentleman The trailer is coming together nicely!! Well done! If I may ask, where do you source the nuts and bolts? Is there a place I can order a set of different sizes for the M416 or just purchase one by one from a local hardware store?

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

@A Southern Gentleman The trailer is coming together nicely!! Well done! If I may ask, where do you source the nuts and bolts? Is there a place I can order a set of different sizes for the M416 or just purchase one by one from a local hardware store?

I got all of the nuts and bolts in the specialty hardware drawers at Lowe's. Most of them are stainless steel version of what was on the trailer originally. I just took the old rusty ones with me and compared to what was in the drawers at Lowe's. Some of the stranger bits I've put through my media blaster and then squirted with some black spray paint.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

I've gotten the trailer all wired up. I bought some Packard connectors online and connected those to a 4-pin wiring harness that now plugs into the new trailer harness I had installed. You can see the connection point along the side of the frame in front. You may notice in that same picture that I media blasted and then painted the brake handle assembly. I accented the handle with a bit of red, since red=stop. I also got the tail lights installed. I painted the metal casings black and replaced the blackout lenses with plastic full red lenses that I also painted black. I replaced the 24 volt bulbs with 12 volt LED bulbs that I ordered online from superbrightleds. They are super bright and look great. They were acting a bit flaky at first and I suspected a bad ground. These lights don't have a ground wire but instead ground through the mounting bracket. You may notice in the last picture that I added a ground wire that is connected to one of the bolts in the back of the taillight. I connected this to one of the unused blackout light plugs in the harness and it is connected in front to the ground wire in the 4 pin connector coming from my vehicle. The addition of the ground wire appears to have solved the flaky ground issue. I have a bolt-on tongue jack on order from etrailers so that's the next step in the project. After that's installed and the trailer is level and solid, I should be able to move on to mounting the lid.

 

[mudraider]

Hey there, don't forget stainless fasteners have a lower strength than Grade 5 or Grade 8 bolts. If a higher strength bolt needs rust proofing metal, try this.



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[84-4runner]

where did you find the lense for the taillight

 

[Scoutmaster555]

A couple of weeks ago we got the gas strut mounts welded to the tub and lid and test fit the new struts. They look like they are going to work great. I ordered the gas struts online from McMaster-Carr.

Finally this weekend we had a couple of warm dry days so I was able to get the tub, tailgate and fenders covered with bedliner. I ended up using U-pol Raptor liner that I rolled on with a small paint roller. After the bed liner cures for a few days I should be able to get the tub mounted back on the trailer frame. The only thing left to cover with bed liner is the top side of the lid; the underside I painted gloss white for extra visibility when the lid is open. I have also collected a bunch of stickers from Jeep products and Jeep-related events that I've never found a good place to adhere. My plan is to cover the underside of the lid with those stickers so they are visible when you open the lid. I think they will look pretty good against that gloss white background. Unfortunately, I ran out of bed liner so will have to wait for another kit to arrive from Amazon and another warm dry day before I can finish the top side of the lid.

You may notice that I also sprayed a matte white stencil on the edges of the fender showing the proper psi for tire inflation. I found the M416 stencil on Ebay. I think the contrast of the white stencil on the black bedliner looks pretty cool and will coordinate well with the white underside of the lid.

What struts did you go with having trouble deciding what one’s to go with. Length lift mounting locations

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

where did you find the lense for the taillight

I got them from midwestmilitary.com - they are listed as the "full red lens" and are $20 each

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

What struts did you go with having trouble deciding what one’s to go with. Length lift mounting locations

they are listed on the packing sheet as item 9416K21 Gas spring, 26.38" extended length, 150lbs force. See my following post for more info on the struts and a picture.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

The lid is now bolted to the trailer and the struts are installed. The underside of the lid is white and I'm planning to put a bunch of Jeep-related stickers under there so you can see them when the lid is up. The strut mouting brackets are welded at the center point of the lid and about 8 inches from the side of the tub. The struts are 150lb capacity each and as it stands right now the lid will not stay closed. It takes a lot of effort to pull the lid closed and then it immediately pops back open. The lid itself weighs about 125lbs. I've got a Tepui roof top tent that weighs about 100lbs that will be mounted on the lid with a rack. I'm hopeful that the extra weight of the tent and rack will make it easier to close. I've also got to come up with some kind of latch to keep the lid closed. I bought some 3/4" foam weatherstripping on Amazon that I'm planning to put on the perimeter of the underside of the lid to make it a bit more weather resistant. The tailgate is ready to mount. I just need to get the latches mounted and also rig up some kind of drop cable so the tailgate will come down flat which should make it handy as a table, cook surface or whatever. Finally, I still have to get the tongue box mounted up front and then eventually install some electrical gadgets. I'll probably try to use the trailer a few times before I install anything electrical just to get a better feel for what I need and the most convenient place to have phone chargers, lights, etc.

 

[A Southern Gentleman]

I finally got around to mounting the latch so the lid will now stay closed. I've also acquired and painted cross bars for the rack. I'll need to fabricate some mounting plates for the inside of the lid before I attach the brackets for the rack. When that gets done I'll finally be able to mount the tent.