Expedition M116 Pioneer Tool Trailer Build Thread

[Redcrow]

Nice! Love the Pioneers

Great looking trailer. I have the same one. I went with a telescoping roof rack so I did not have to cut the doors. Only thing is I have to raise the rack to open the door. Swapped axles and did a spring under so my tent annex room was not too high off the ground.View attachment 196940View attachment 196941
I have not decided on a kitchen setup yet. Probably going to go the rear door with that. I have a 40 gallon water tank on the interior directly over the axle so that limits my kitchen placement. With 3 small kids they need a spray down every night! (if not hourly). I thought about doing a swing out kitchen on the rear so that it swings underneath my side awning. Don't know how that would go though...

What Telescoping rack did you go with?

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Been a while. Sorry about the picture links going bad. I have now uploaded the pictures here so that the links won't die again. Sadly I can only upload 10 pictures per post, so I had to cut down on the amount of pictures I had posted.

Still love the trailer, even though I haven't been able to take it out in a while. But it looks like the hydraulic tool trailer might become the main expo trailer now, as it has been sitting around for years and would work better for my use at the moment. Might be a new thread on it soon.

 

[jgoard15]

All was going well on the axle swap, until this happened.....

View attachment 516832

Had disconnected the axle assembly, raised the trailer up and was moving the old axle out of the way when I accidentally knocked out one of the trailer legs (which I didn't seem to have put the locking pin all the way for some reason). Naturally it caused the trailer to topple over. Missed my foot by an inch or so (though I was wearing steel toed boots so I should have been okay). Trailer isn't super heavy (~650lbs). But I would rather not be under it when 650lbs comes crashing down. The trailer leg got crushed though when the trailer came down (the one that popped out) so I will have to go get another one. I am usually pretty safe and this was the actual first accident I have had in the shop (well other than cutting my fingers here and there, or banging my head). So I was pretty surprised when it happened.

Just proves that you should be careful no matter how safe you think you are. Luckily there was no one important around that could have been hurt though

Old axle and tires.

View attachment 516834

The old axle and tires weigh at least a good 300lbs together. New assembly weighs about half that. A good savings.

New setup.

View attachment 516833

New axle is rated at 5000lbs. Yeah I know that is a lot. But the difference between a 5000lbs and a 3000lbs axle was only $20-$22. So it would have been stupid not to spend the extra few bucks.

I took some measurements with the new axle and tires. Old axle sat 16inches off the ground. New one is 14inches off the ground. So it won't be much lower. Only real difference is due to the tire size. Went from something like a 33-34inch down to a 31inch tire.

Do you remember the measurements on the new axle? I’m getting ready to do the same thing