This has been a good discussion on how to bring a 50 to 70 year old suspension back to life. Having owned a '42 M-100, a '67 M-416, and a '68 Con Fer Toyota jeep trailer, and building my own jeep trailer in 1965 I have a different perspective on jeep trailer suspensions. 1. The militaries are way over-built, especially the WWII's, so very heavy for their size. 2. More or less, the best upgrade is a SOA and some decent jeep wheels. 3. Most of the ones I see now have been loved to death by multiple rebuilds with tail gates and lots of geegaws to make them more trail-worthy. 4. There is such a cult following on these M's that the price has skyrocketed in the last decade, much of that due to the dwindling supply of solid units. They are dying off, just like our WWII vets.
On my '68 Con Fer, which was all metal, same 6 lug and track as an FJ40, water proof with locking lids, and 4 gas can holders on the sides, the problem was they used standard-at-the-time 2-leaf, stiff trailer springs. They had absolutely no give even when loaded. So, as luck would have it, the main leaf on one side decided to go into two pieces in the middle of the Vizciano Desert in central/west Baja.
We put the de-axled trailer with tongue on the roof and rear end on the Tomba Burro and drove with the doors open 150 miles back to Guererro Negro for repairs. When I got home I searched for some softer springs with the same eye-to-eye distance and installed some shocks. I found some used car springs that had enough spring rate but were very pliable and smooth riding. That was the ticket.
A couple years ago, a neighbor was moving to town and had no room to store her 1955 Bradley trailer. Bradley? Sears and Roebuck sold these little gems during that time with thousands made and sold.
They are very well made with a truss rodded tongue, 5 on 5.5" wheels, funky little half-fenders and the exact same track as a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a not-so-grand Cherokee.
They have stake pockets and a double thickness floor of diamond plate steel, and a bomb proof tail gate with metal hooks and chains to secure the gate, just like a '55 Ford P.U.. My specimen, little Blue Bradley is in very good shape with all that lead based paint to protect its epidermis. It comes already SOA. After repacking the wheel bearings, and building lightweight stake sides for Bradley, I have run the wheels off this thing. This year I installed a pintel arrangement (8 ton pintel/16 ton lunette, non-pivoting) and it was dragged over the Mojave Road for the second time with no structural dilapidation.
The springs are pretty stiff with a high spring rate and they look like 1/2 ton pick up springs. The best thing about the Bradley besides the $100 pricetag, is it's light weight. just over 300 pounds. When empty, you really do not know it is back there. The Bantam M-100 weighed in at almost 600 pounds! A big difference in unloaded pull ability. The only reason I posted all this is to expand your horizon on what is out there ready to be re-built into the ultimate off-road, Expo trailer and what the woes are on our historic elder trailers. If this is deemed a highjack, so be it.
regards, as always, jefe
a total steal, which I then drilled a hole in my raised hitch mount after having removed the static one and bolted in the new one. Awesome!
