Fenders 33"+ tires on our M416's and M101's

[xcmountain80]

Group,

What has anyone done to keep the tires covered by fenders on their Military trailers. My new axle, recycled rims, and tires leave something to be desired.

First is coverage of those big meats and flying debris and water, second not sure but there is a second. Should I have material bent and added to my existing fenders, or get new fenders made altogether? Hmmmmm

A

 

[greentruck]

I went with fenders built wider to cover. They mount with the existing 4 bolts and are plenty strong (16 gauge with heavier angle reinforcement on the outside.)

Wish I had the chops and gear, but I had to have them built. Good job, but ate up most of a $500 bill.

BTW, 33" tires are pretty much the maximum for a CDN M101 without a spring-over unless you plan to attach the top of the fender above where the top part of the tub slopes out. Raising the fenders for bigger tires would make the construction of the inside of the fender more complex and require relocating the angle that the fender mounts on higher up on the angled part of the tub.

 

[xcmountain80]

Dern that's spendy, I'll have to do something with them, the axle width with tired are the same as the tow vehicle, so added fender width will not be problematic.

 

[DrMoab]

I've towed mine through all kinds of muck. Including a solid weekend of rain and mine stick out about like yours. It honestly hasn't been as big of a problem as I thought it would.

 

[flashooter]

I built my own. Basically copied the factory profile but made them 4 inches wider. Used small box tubing along the edges to strengthen them up.

 

[xcmountain80]

I've towed mine through all kinds of muck. Including a solid weekend of rain and mine stick out about like yours. It honestly hasn't been as big of a problem as I thought it would.

I'll take that into consideration, I haven't towed it like this yet as things have been slow and just left little time to work on it.

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[inca gold rubi]

my m-101 cdn with 35 12.5 r15 stock suspension and hi fender

more pic here :

http://s587.photobucket.com/albums/ss320/pat-k5/off road trailer project/?albumview=slideshow

 

[greentruck]

Very nice work there on your fenders. The pics provide a good illustration of what needs modified with the fender to accommodate tires larger than 33".

 

[Hill Bill E.]

I made some fender 'extensions' on my M416. I made everything 'reversible', in case I ever decide to restore the trailer to original.

Worked great to cover the aftermarket wheels and M/T tires.

Inca Gold, I love the 'hi line' fenders! Actually contemplating that, so I can put the axle back in the spring under design. Great work!

 

[xcmountain80]

Yes, now I'm curious if I could spring under and just move the fenders up to the bottom of the tub slope and spring it back under. I don't really have an idea how much the tire and spring combo will flex (I'd hope notmuch).

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[greentruck]

The way I determined the maximum tire diameter on our M101 was to measure the distance between the top of the spring and the bottom of the rubber bumpstop above it, plus a slight nudge to account for the compression of the (very hard) rubber bumpstop.

That number tells you the limit of upward travel. Check that against the clearance of your present tire to the underside of the fender. From there you should have a pretty good idea of the maximum diameter of a larger pair of tires. The axle can only go up so much.

Now it is still possible for one tire to go higher than the other from bumps or off-camber situations, since the tire may rise higher on the opposite side from the other tire. So don't get your planned clearance too close to account for that.

Depending on where you plan to run the trailer, build-up of gumbo type mud between the tire and the fender could also be an issue with too little clearance.

Finally, you need to check backspacing. Given that the hubs applied to run bolt patterns most likely to be used with bigger tires usually will set the inside of the tire farther out from the body on M101s, so check that just to be sure when planning. I'm not sure if that same situation applies to changing out the hubs of a M416 or other 1/4 ton trailers for a different bolt pattern.

 

[xcmountain80]

While I never took pictures of pre axle flip here's the mock up.

as you can see the clearance it tight even moving the fender up won't help much.

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