M1101 Adventure Base Camp AKA "ABC" Formally "College Adventure Build"

[shifty98]

Found some more:
These are of the Santeelah Campsite
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The tent at night:
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[shifty98]

So I have 3 weeks left of school and am compiling parts to work on the trailer a lot as soon as I finish my last final so I don't waste any of my summer with a trailer that isn't ready to adventure.
I have some questions?
1. I am going to build a larger and more sturdy RTT rack (sorry Dan but the original Unistrut one did not do so well on the maiden voyage). I plan on welding one that can go up and down and have plenty of room for RTT and also some roof for firewood, camp chairs etc. Anyway I am trying to figure out if I want to use square tube or round tube. I am leaning towards square right now because it seems easier to work with but I am open to ideas. I do think round tube looks better though. It would be bolted into the factory canopy holes. Round or Square tube?
2. Hub Swap? Currently I am running 8 lug rims and tires. I am considering swapping to a 6 lug in order to match my truck so I only have to carry one spare. My hesitation is my truck has 300k on it so if I get another vehicle then I would be back to having an extra spare. Any thoughts about this?
3. Electric Brakes? I don't mind the surge brakes but I am thinking eventually I might want to do electric. Anything I should consider?
4. Max Coupler? I hate all the play in the pintle. It makes me think that something is broken or loose when it all rattles around back there? I have seen some guys swap to a max coupler. Is anyone able to do this and salvage the surge brakes or do you have to convert to electric at the same time?
5. Paint? I am pretty settled on doing a Raptorliner in Desert Tan.
6. Adventures? I got a list too long to put on here.

 

[M1101Trailers]

Killer job on that trailer! Love what you've done with it!

 

[shifty98]

The trailer is coming along. I have welded all the bases for the new RTT rack. It they are .25" plate steel welded to 1.25" .125 thickness round tube. This will later adjust up and down as the 1.25 nests inside 1.5" .125 thick round tube, which the whole rack is made of. I plan on using some gas shocks later to help it go up and down easier. Right now it is pictured with the 1.5" top tacked to the 1.25" vertical posts. The steel shop ran out of 1.5" to make the veritcals for the rack so as soon as I get some more I can finish the vertical posts and then do some crossbars on the rack.
The next thing on the list is making a box for the water tank and heater so that they don't get muddy and dusty on the back roads. After that paint and that will probably be it for this summer as I want to get out in it 5 or 6 times before I go back to school.
Here are the pics:

 

[Buffalobwana]

First off, I love the 1101. It is a fantastic trailer. It is only slightly heavier than a 101, which is the golden child of the expo crowd for good reason. It rocks. I have two 1101’s and 4 101A2’s. Wife says “sell some of them” ... I just can’t. I don’t know why, but I just can’t!

Tires, wheels - keep your 8 lug, unless you switch to electric brakes, then just make a wise choice.
Brakes. If you want to ditch the surge brakes and pintle and go to a different hitch, it is pretty easy to remove them, sell it on Steel Soldiers and make a new hitch out of the tongue. I’ll show you mine if you want. It lowers the hitch to a reasonable height.

ETrailer sells electric brakes for the 1101. It’s a simple swap out. Might as well go ahead and put new bearings in the wheels since you have them out anyway (if needed, it’s not necessary).

 

[Buffalobwana]

Remove the bolts that attach the pintle to the tongue. To do this properly, buy a 16” long (or longer if you wish) 2.5” receiver tube (not the standard 2” tube) the 2.5” tube fits perfectly since it is the same width as the tongue of the trailer.

I don’t have the trailer with me and I don’t recall the measurements but, I think I used 8”x 3/8” or 1/4” plate and sandwiches the receiver hitch below the tongue of the trailer. Drill holes for the 3 bolts in the tongue and bolt the plate to the tongue (I used a torch for the holes and the holes were off a bit and you can see the plate slipped a bit since I didn’t weld the plate to the tongue.)

Weld the receiver hitch to the plate.

You can use a piece of 2.5 x .250 wall sq tube to weld to whatever kind of hitch you want to use. I used a pintle because I’m used to the noise.

Or you can to step the 2.5” receiver down to a 2” by adding a “step down sleeve”. (I don’t know if that is what they are called?) Just slide that in the 2.5” and you have a 2”. They sell these sleeves at eTrailer too. Then you can use any 2” receiver device in it.

It’s the easiest tongue conversion I have done. About as straightforward as can be. Two plates with 3 bolt holes bolt to the trailer and weld it to your 2.5” receiver hitch and you are ready to go.

 

[cyclic]

Yep did almost the exact same to mine. Just went with a standard hitch and the chains closer to the hitch. Here you can see just how far changing to regular tires bring the height down. Those are dodge rims with 265/75r16 tires. I have since changed to six lug hubs that match my chevys, and 265/70r17 tires that also match. I will be mounting a spare under the rear of the trailer, and changing to electric brakes but keeping the parking brakes. I also cut off the military end of the harness and put a regular civilian 7 pin in it's place.

 

[shifty98]

Thanks for the responses on re configuring the tongue guys. Your set ups are looking pretty nice. I have added electric brakes and new tongue to the long list of mods, just after RTT rack and paint.

 

[Buffalobwana]

Here are the brakes. One set of straight electric. The other is electric with parking brake. (Could only find the one side box in my garage, I’m sure eTrailer can help find the matching side).

Scrapdaddy helped me figure out the parking brakes on my 101A2, so props go to him for any parking brake knowledge. The 101 and 1101 are the same drums as far as I can tell, some matching bearings, but not all bearings and races are the same as the 101A2.

The parking brakes will require some engineering to make the cables work. It’s not a straight snap in fit. The brakes will work easy. Just hook up the wires. You can always leave the cables for another day like I am doing with my current 101A2 build.

Straight electric.

Electric with parking brake option.

 

[shifty98]

The RTT rack is done with the exception of a few adjustments that I want to make. It had it's maiden voyage this weekend and worked pretty good. I thought I was using steel that was plenty thick but one of the horizontal bars bent while driving so I am going to slide a thicker walled smaller diameter bar inside it and the opposite side to reinforce them. I am also going to do a section of crossbars down the middle. It rained and we stayed bone dry and were the envy of the campground. I would have much preferred boondocking but there isn't much opportunity for that in Indiana and I did not think it wise to travel too far for the first trip.

 

[shifty98]

We got out in the trailer again. Did a little more primitive camping time which made me happy as that is much more my style. Found a good site in Hoosier National Forest and despite some rain we had a good time. Mods to the trailer for this trip were reinforcement of the RTT rack, and indoor/outdoor carpet for annex.

 

[shifty98]

Been a while since I posted on here, guess it's been because I've been busy out doing stuff. Anyway here's some recent pictures from spring break.
I rebuilt the rack, the 1/8" round was starting to bend in some places so I upgraded to 3/16 square and it did very nicely on my most recent trip. I went with 11 friends to Chattahoochee National Forest where we camped for several days. We had a great time. Here is a pic of the loaded trailer and setup camp.

 

[shifty98]

Hey all, a little update. Summer of 2019 I lived in CO working for a vet and on a ranch out there. I brought the trailer with me but spent far more nights out with a saddle for my pillow if you know what I mean. I did get out a couple times and here are some pics from those trips. As you can see a reinforced rack, but for the most part my system is all still running swell after 10,000 k and 30 nights camping in the trailer. I'll post some pics from the summer of 2020 soon....