Good Deal on M416?
- Thread starter tweenerlj
- Start date
tweenerlj
Adventurer
Understood. I'm not really looking to have an original anyway when it comes to a trailer. This just popped up locally and I am weighing the options of starting with something like this as a platform or start from scratch.
XJBANKER
Explorer
agreed!!!
dirty Bakers
Conservative
Good Deal, says I.
Don't forget the $500-1000 for a good welder, $250 in fasteners/hardware for all the cool things you decided to add later on, or bought wrong in the first place, the 250hrs of your time to do it right, and then redo because you changed your mind
Now that I'm 80% making my M416 what I wanted (but didn't know in the first place), I'm not that far from selling it and using that $$ to buy raw materials and build exactly what I want now that I know what I want.
My recommendation to the OP is buy something like that, find out what works or doesn't work for you, fix it up decent, then decide if you want to sell it and build your own or just keep it since you already have it. If you decide to build your own, you'll get a decent portion of your $$ back out of it and that will give you a nice nest egg to get you started.
StumpXJ
SE Expedition Society
Don't forget the $500-1000 for a good welder, $250 in fasteners/hardware for all the cool things you decided to add later on, or bought wrong in the first place, the 250hrs of your time to do it right, and then redo because you changed your mind
Now that I'm 80% making my M416 what I wanted (but didn't know in the first place), I'm not that far from selling it and using that $$ to buy raw materials and build exactly what I want now that I know what I want.
My recommendation to the OP is buy something like that, find out what works or doesn't work for you, fix it up decent, then decide if you want to sell it and build your own or just keep it since you already have it. If you decide to build your own, you'll get a decent portion of your $$ back out of it and that will give you a nice nest egg to get you started.
Good points, however one has to assume when you buy a trailer like was posted, you would already have the equipment needed and skills to repair it or modify it, so that argument is pretty moot.
If you are restoring it for history sake, in order to preserve it as it was orginally manufactured, its totally cool. But either way, you are going to need the same tools, and the same fasteners, and the same parts to bring it back to a safe usable condition.
My opinion: Do tons and tons of research, analyze what your needs are, determine your wants, and meld the two together.
~ Stump
For me, I got 2 years out of my M416 w/o any modifications, just the original $650 i spent. And I never thought I'd have used it as much for a work/utility trailer, so had I just built my trailer to start, I wouldn't have thought to make sure to have enough capacity for a yard of dirt/gravel/barkdust/pavers - I probably would have built in shelves, boxes, etc. Now that I've had a chance to use it for a couple years, and made some changes to it this summer, I know about 90% of what I'd ultimately use it for, so won't go down a path that won't get me the most for my work (and money).
So maybe the best advice to the OP is: For a pre-built trailer, it's a good deal, but if you have the time, desire, and know what you want, you can build your own custom and it would be a better deal.