Dawson's M-416 Build

[dawsonc61]

OK People!!!! Updates!

I went over to my good ol' buddy Mike Green's place to finish up phase one of the trailer build. We welded the top and bottom rail to the diamond plate section of steel. I had this piece cut to fit at a metal shop. We then welded the hinges and gate onto the tub of the trailer. I haven't gotten the clasps, rubber weather stripping, and cables installed yet but I'll take care of that this week. Here are the pics of the progress:

Tail gate with top rail welded

We went ahead and took the tub off of the frame to make welding a little easier

Prepping opening for welding

Without tub

We put the trailer up on end to weld the hinges to the bottom of the tub. We welded the other side of the hinge to the inside of the gate so it wouldn't be visible from the outside.

Mike welding the inside of the gate and hinge together

And back on the trailer

Closed

I really like the way this turned out! I'm able to utilize the entire back end now instead of the small space i would have been left with if I had used the CJ tailgate as originally planned.

I really need to weigh this thing! The weight will determine the final design of the lid and roof rack. More updates to come!

I'm now in the market for a roof top tent so if anyone knows of a seller keep me posted. Thanks a ton for all the comments and interest.

D

 

[sseaman]

Looks good, what are you using to lock it closed?

 

[dawsonc61]

I'm waiting on some locking pull latches similar to this:

these will pull the gate tight to the tub.

 

[fjcruzn]

Excellent!

Your build is coming together nicely!

cheers,

dale

 

[dawsonc61]

No real updates today. It's pretty nasty outside! I started from scratch again on Shetch-up. My last mock up was not to scale and I guessed on a lot of the measurments. This one is exactly to scale to my trailer. This is what my lid will look like after it is made. The RTT will come soon after that.

Hopefully I'll have the Lid done next week and the RTT should be on the week after that!

Thanks,

D

 

[Doc Gary]

great build I am thinking about doing a trailer as well and this has given me some inspiration. Gotta love sketchup i've been using it for a couple of years and now that I see you using it to "plan" your build I am going to go that route as well. Thanks and good job!:victory:

 

[dawsonc61]

Ok, I finally got the Mombasa RTT and took it to BMRA this past weekend. I welded some cross bars to the top of the trailer to temporarily hold the RTT. I hope to have the lid finished this week and then have the trailer painted by the end of the weekend. We'll see how that goes! Here are some pics:

 

[Doc Gary]

Looks great!:Wow1:
what are you planning for a color? Match the Rig? Did you have any problems during your "shakedown" test?

 

[dawsonc61]

none whatsoever, Mombasa makes a really great tent. I got the one with the rip stop fabric

 

[dawsonc61]

Lid

I had the day off and I chose to take advantage of the beautiful weather! I picked up the lid from the metal shop first thing this morning. I spent most of the morning riveting the bottom tubing on.

I then cut the rest of the tubing and riveted it. I still need to find someone with a TIG who can put some stitch welds on it to make it a little more stable. I laid down on it and it feels really sturdy! Tomorrow I'll be finishing the paint prep and installing the hinges on the trailer. I've already got the latches so I'll install them too. I hope to hit it with some primer in the AM. Depending on the weather, which is supposed to be a breezy 74 degrees (God I love Texas), I might be able to get coat number one on in the afternoon.

Here are the rest on the pics:

D

 

[IH8RDS]

GREAT work on that lid!

 

[dawsonc61]

Well the build is slowly coming to a close. I spent most of the weekend painting! Very tiring but I'm very pleased with the final result.
I bought a cheap paint gun at Northern Tool and it made the paint job look really nice. It didn't atomize as fine as I would have liked but the texture ended up looking really good. I used Rustoleum primer and a black and red enamel (gloss). The red enamel actually matches the Jeep perfectly, which was nice since i didn't have an option to tint it. Sorry for the crappy night shots, I'll take some more tomorrow! I'll put the RTT on tomorrow too and take some final shots of it behind the Jeep.
I'll start making plans for the guts of the trailer this week.

 

[dawsonc61]

Alright, Well i took a few minutes over my lunch break to take the trailer out for a spin and took a few pics while I was at it. No RTT yet but that is forth coming.

D

 

[WFTW]

That looks awesome...like the Jeep and trailer were built for each other. Looking forward to seeing it with the RTT.

 

[dawsonc61]

I went ahead and put the RTT on after work. I am so pleased with the way it turned out! I can't wait to take it out again. I wonder if I can convince Alli to go camping for Valentines day?

It is still pretty light but I'm definitely gonna need those struts soon. It's good to see that I can lift the lid with he tent extended if I needed access to the front of the trailer.

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