Henry Spen Restomod adventure trailer build

[givemethewillys]

Copied from my posting at earlycj5.net. I thought you guys would get a kick out of my build:

Good morning everyone! Last summer, I had the good fortune of finding a Spen model S for sale ~4 hours from home. My girlfriend and I made the trek out there with the plans of towing the trailer home. The seller assured me that the tires were in good shape and would make the trip no problem! Well, 5 miles down the road, the first tire blew out, and another 2 miles further, the other tire was flat as well Needless to say, I was not happy. Given that it was a Sunday afternoon in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't find any place to buy new tires from.
I was able to find an Advanced auto parts store that was still open, and with a tire iron in hand, set fort to try and pry my dryrotted tires out enough to fit tubes. While I was struggling, a nice guy came over and offered me the use of his manual tire machine at his house 15 minutes away! What luck!!! I mentioned to him that I was actually thinking of just flipping the darned thing into the back of the truck, when he said to me "hold on a sec...."

The guy walked up to these BIG COUNTRY football player looking high school kids, and said, "Hey, y'all look like some big dumb rednecks, why don'cha come over here and help up lift this into the truck?"

5 minutes later, this is how the trailer sat:





I'm planning on using this trailer for general yard maintenance, as well as for a cool camp hauler behind either the Jeep or my girlfriends FJ cruiser. I have big plans for it, and I hope you guys will enjoy as I chronicle the build

 

[givemethewillys]

So I'm updating this fairly rapidly, since I'm actually quite a ways past the initial "stare at it in wonder" phase. When I got the trailer, I thought it was in pretty good shape. Upon further investigation, however, I realized that the front part of the frame on both sides was rotted out where water would sit stagnant. While I could probably patch new metal into the rotted spots, I wasn't confident that the rest of the steel was so solid.

I decided to start fresh, and soon realized that to do so meant getting custom C-channel bent up for new frame pieces. I made contact with a local company who specializes in custom sheetmetal work. They took my order over the phone based on my dimensions, and a week later I had the pieces for a new 1/8" frame assembly for the trailer. When I went to pick up the pieces (oh yeah), something was wrong!!!! Apparently, 38" doesn't translate over the phone very well, and I had 4 crosspieces 30" long

I was debating my decision on the frame thickness as it was, so this setback gave me the last little bit of oomph to tell the guy, "make it again in 3/16"". Because of the messup, I volunteered to buy the 1/8" pieces, but got a deal on the 3/16". While I was at it, I had them weld the frame into the proper shape to match the original Spen frame. So, now I have a thicker frame for my trailer which other than thickness matches the original perfectly! I'm tickled pink!



The L-bracket on the front part of the frame is one of my first attempts to use my new Hobart 140. Some of the welds look better than others but I think I got good penetration and it will be plenty sturdy. If not, I'll grind it off and do it again, right???

 

[AdamCollen]

The L-bracket on the front part of the frame is one of my first attempts to use my new Hobart 140. Some of the welds look better than others but I think I got good penetration and it will be plenty sturdy. If not, I'll grind it off and do it again, right???

That's the joy of metal. Looking good so far, I can't wait to see the rest of the updates to see where you're really at with it now.

 

[JPNCA]

Awesome
My 416 came home in the bed of my truck too

 

[grnhornetcustoms]

Thanks for sharing here.:archaeolo

 

[Crush Jeep]

I brought mine home on a trailer. After my brother and I tore off the wheels I found out that I would have been stuck on the side of the road too if it was not on the trailer. The hubs had no grease in them and they would have burned up after driving for five hours.

 

[givemethewillys]

Im out of town this weekend but the plans for next weekend are to sandblast the tub and install the axle. While i got you guys here, what are your thoughts on leaf springs? The stock Spen springs are 36" eye to eye. I was thinking about swapping the springs to cj5 leafs which are a foot or so longer. I'd end up with spare spring if i swapped, but I'd like to keep it at least a little bit close to original. So, is it worth it to swap springs?

 

[givemethewillys]

One thing that I really like about the Spen is the tailgate. It lends a very classic look to the trailer and adds quite a bit of usefulness.



What it doesn't do is maintain a rigid structure in the rear sheetmetal section of the trailer. As you can see in the above pictures, this lack of rigidity has caused stress cracks on both sides of the trailer where it angles outward. To remedy this, many different configurations have been tried over time. The angle iron supports on my trailer were a less than successful design. Rather than try to build something off of that design, I'm going to incorporate supports that combine taillights and a rigid support together. This taillight bracket is what I'm envisioning, (ignore the exoskeleton bash-guards):

 

[Robert Bills]

One thing that I really like about the Spen is the tailgate. It lends a very classic look to the trailer and adds quite a bit of usefulness.

View attachment 151867

What it doesn't do is maintain a rigid structure in the rear sheetmetal section of the trailer. As you can see in the above pictures, this lack of rigidity has caused stress cracks on both sides of the trailer where it angles outward. To remedy this, many different configurations have been tried over time. The angle iron supports on my trailer were a less than successful design. Rather than try to build something off of that design, I'm going to incorporate supports that combine taillights and a rigid support together. This taillight bracket is what I'm envisioning, (ignore the exoskeleton bash-guards):

View attachment 151866

Have you thought of something similar to the supports used on the Bantam T3-C (civilian version of WWII trailer, with factory tailgate)?

 

[givemethewillys]

I have thought about it, but i think if i went that route it would lose its "spen -like" quality and look too much like a bantam. That sure is an awesome trailor though!

 

[Robert Bills]

Too much like a Bantam??? You say that like its a bad thing.

 

[givemethewillys]

Haha definitely not a bad thing, but i really love the look of the Spen and want to keep its uniqueness

 

[Robert Bills]

Thanks for the kind words about my Bantam. Since our trailers are from the same era, I thought I'd share some other views of mine to inspire your build:

 

[givemethewillys]

Wow, I REALLY like what you've done with that Bantam! Did you make the rack custom, or buy it from somewhere? The chuck box you made is on my to-do list once the trailer is roadworthy. It looks great!

Here's an update for those of you that are interested Yesterday I made lots of progress on the trailer frame and finished up the main structure of the trailer. I still need to decide whether I'm going to use stock CJ-5 leaf springs for the suspension, or the 36" spen leaves.

Anyways, I started off by welding on a receiver tube section. With this, I'll be able to add any type of hitch I want, plus I can extend the tongue to accomodate longer vehicles such as our FJ cruiser

next, my plan was to make an a-frame using 3/16" c-channel. I was so impressed and confident with my masterful fabrication skills until I tried to fit it all together:

Can anyone see what I did wrong? AAAAGHGGHHHH!!!! Luckily, I already had the same pieces made up in 1/8" which is actually slightly thicker than stock, so I decided to fab up the a-frame using 1/8". I think it actually ended up being a good decision in the end.... the front part of the frame is getting HEAVY! I also decided to change up the design of the A-frame to match closer to stock:

That's all for now, I hope you guys enjoy! Next up, I need to make a decision on the leaf springs, and sandblast the trailer tub.

 

[Expedition Essentials]

Ha; cant tell you how many times I have been overconfident in my measurements and made bad cuts! I usually buy a little extra. Whats was that; measure twice cut once More like measure three times, cut once and wonder what the hell happened!