My '45 Bantam Resto-Mod

[Lilbluerunner]

I bought this '45 Bantam from a gentleman in CO last summer. I scoured CL for quite awhile and finally came across an ad for "old military trailer". It shows a pic of a little white trailer full of junk with some wooden stake sides. I emailed the seller and find out that it is a guy selling for his father in law. Guy has owned it for more than a decade and bought it to pull behind his Jeep when he went hunting. I have him send me some more pics since he is 700+ miles away. He does and I decide I need it.

I make plans to take the wife out to CO for a long weekend, stopping in Laramie, WY for a couple nights to visit some family that we haven't seen in years. I tell the seller that I will pick it up on Sunday morning on my return trip back to KC. I didn't want to buy it first thing, then have to deal with dragging it all over CO and SW Wyoming. Especially since I wasn't 100% sure on condition of bearings and such.

I brought it home and did a spring over to gain a little height. My Tacoma was lifted a couple inches and it looked too low. And it was a free lift kit.

I also started cutting the rust out of the sides of the tub and replacing with strips of .120" mild steel. I know it isn't factory correct but I want a trailer I can use to haul firewood, camping gear, and just use and not have 1000s of dollars tied up in it. :ylsmoke:

 

[Lilbluerunner]

So now we are up to this weekend. I took it over to a buddy's shop since he has a much bigger garage than I do and I can work on it inside. I cut up a trailer load of firewood for the wood stove and have use of half his shop plus tools.

The original floor was completely shot. The PO had laid a piece of 12ga. sheet steel in the floor over the old floor just to make the trailer usable again. Luckily for me he only stitch welded it in a few places that were pretty easy to get to with a angle grinder and cut off wheel. I pulled the "replacement" floor out so I could get to the crusty mess under it. I need to replace the very center cross member since the welds were busted loose from the sides and I think it would be easier to fab another one than try to clean all the rusty floor material off of it.

 

[Lilbluerunner]

After I got the floor cleaned up I needed to direct my attention to the driver side of the tub. It was rusted out on the sides along the floor also. I bought some strips of 12ga steel 6' long and 2" wide. I laid it along the bottom of the original edge where the tub meets the frame and used a Sharpie to mark a line to cut the tub side above the rust. I just used an angle grinder with a cut off wheel on it and buzzed right through it. No pics of the actual cutting but I did take a few of the side after I replaced the metal.

 

[Lilbluerunner]

I replaced the original axle with a Dexter 3500# trailer axle. A 2000# axle would probably be fine but I wanted the bigger bearings of the 3500 axle and truthfully the brake backing plates and brake hubs were cheaper on the 3500 axle than the lighter one.

I am using Jeep TJ 16" Moab wheels to match my '06 LJ Rubicon so I had to use 1.5" wheel spacers to clear the trailer hub. I didn't go with brakes for now just to help with cost. I live in the Midwest and shouldn't have a problem stopping since my popup doesn't have brakes and I can stop it just fine. I will more than likely add trailer brakes before heading out to CO or UT this summer. :wings:

I picked up a set of used 235/85/16 tires off CL for next to nothing. I honestly spent more on having them mounted and balanced on my wheels that I did on the tires. Oh well.

The narrowest axle I could find standard was 61" hub to hub. Turns out after adding the 1.5" spacers per side I needed more like 48". Which was pretty close to the original axle. So out comes the chop saw and we narrowed the axle. I cut a 13" section out of the center and sleeved it with 2 x .219" DOM. I got the spacers on temporarily and the wheels to see how the tires looked. I am still using the orignal springs and C-shackles. I will most likely be fabbing up some lift shackles to give the tires a bit more clearance. I will also have to widen my fenders to cover the tires. The edge of the fender just doesn't quite cover the tread and I really don't want them slinging water and road grime all over my camping gear and the back of the Jeep. :smiley_drive:

That is how it sits for now. I was going to reuse the original ubolts and spring plates but I twisted off one of the u-bolts and wouldn't you know it the new axle is about 1/16" bigger OD than the original and I have to replace the hardware anyway. I will most likely start wiring it today and mount the electric junction box while the floor is still out of it. I really don't want to lay under it if I don't have to.

 

[Maxcustody]

Looks like a nice start, great job!!!

 

[OverlandKyle]

Awesome start.... Just did the same with my 1950 Bantam

 

[BayDog]

I just got 48 Bantam T3C so I will be taking notes. Good luck!
BayDog

 

[Lilbluerunner]

Didn't get as much done today as I hoped. It was Sunday and I was pretty tired from busting my hump on it on Saturday.

I got the axle bolted back in. I bought new U-bolts since I twisted one of the originals off. Once I got home with the new u-bolts I quickly discovered that they weren't long enough. The Bantam spring packs are way thicker than trailer springs so I guess I will be taking those back tomorrow. I used the originals to get me home since my buddy is going out of town next weekend and he needed his shop space back. Anyway I took a few pics of it behind my LJ. My Jeep is stock height so the trailer sits a little tall right now. Anyway here are a few pics.

 

[OverlandKyle]

Didn't get as much done today as I hoped. It was Sunday and I was pretty tired from busting my hump on it on Saturday.

I got the axle bolted back in. I bought new U-bolts since I twisted one of the originals off. Once I got home with the new u-bolts I quickly discovered that they weren't long enough. The Bantam spring packs are way thicker than trailer springs so I guess I will be taking those back tomorrow. I used the originals to get me home since my buddy is going out of town next weekend and he needed his shop space back. Anyway I took a few pics of it behind my LJ. My Jeep is stock height so the trailer sits a little tall right now. Anyway here are a few pics.

The "skinny" CJ 44 ubolts are what you need... Right length and width

 

[Lilbluerunner]

I assume you mean narrow track CJ? I'll have to look around.

 

[OverlandKyle]

Wide track and narrow track should be the same axle diameter which is 2.75 tube..... Skinny meant the 2.75 u bolts as there was a larger one that went on the front axle housing shoulder which was a bit larger ( on the CJs)

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/omx-1820408

These are the ones you need

 

[Lilbluerunner]

I need 2.375" width. Those are 2.75

 

[OverlandKyle]

Interesting........ I have the 2.75 ubolts in the link and they're snug on the axle and my axle is the original one... Hmmm

 

[Lilbluerunner]

Looks like the local trailer supply where I bought the axle has longer u bolts. I'll return the ones I bought at tractor supply and get those.

 

[Lilbluerunner]

Well the sealed LED 4" flange mount tail lights I bought actually need a 4.5" hole. There isn't enough material to cut the holes out bigger nor do I want to enlarge the holes that much anyway. I was thinking I could cut a couple of round steel blanks to fill the holes then use the surface mount slim/stick style LED turn/stop/tail? http://www.crofttrailer.com/led5254r11-slimline-led-tail-light-11-diodes/#page=page-1