Another M116A2 owner here

[Coug]

So last week went and picked up my first military trailer. I have an MEP-802A sitting around that's kind of a pain to move, so when a trailer for it showed up for sale in my facebook feed I jumped on it.

Went and picked up the trailer, decided I'd rather not tow it with it being unknown condition, so took my truck.



Had a little rust on the bed, nothing serious. Brake master cylinder was full of water, not that big of a deal, I read through some of the threads here and know Napa sells rebuild kits that will work.
Went to Napa and the rebuild kit recommended on here in a few threads, the pre-1966 Jeep CJ5 kit showed one in Alaska, but that was it. I decided against ordering it. Went home and ordered a relatively inexpensive master cylinder for a forklift, part number was provided on another thread here.
I did buy all new brake lines, as one of the lines was physically cut. Nice thing is it meant the end was clamped shut, and the fluid inside the lines looked okay, so probably don't need new wheel cylinders.

Had to get the bows off, they didn't want to budge. Gave up on the sledge hammer and penetrating oil, and went to the farm jack and wood blocks. Worked out pretty well.



Trailer has a nice patch of rust in the center where water pooled. Not terrible, but enough that I wanted to clean it up. Carc was from 1992, so kind of old.
I started cleaning up the rust, used Ospho to convert it, then sprayed some rusty metal primer. Now I have a faded green trailer with some brown pain patches all over it due to rust clean up and primer.

At this point I said screw it and removed the bed from the frame. Lots of bolts, a couple that were a bit of a pain to reach, but went smooth enough. Slid the bed off the back and stood it up with some fence posts. Pressure washed it, let it dry. Next day I soaked it in degreaser, then pressure washed it again.

Got some of the Behr Marquee paint from Home Depot tinted the right color, using the codes found on yet another thread on this site, used a wagner sprayer and painted it green. That was about an hour ago, but looks decent so far, other than a few issues caused by the sprayer not being completely cleaned and bad spray pattern at first, as well as me goofing a few times.



and here's the original unit marking. Came out of Fort Lewis, but other than that I don't know much about it. My HMMWV is from the Marines, so not worried about keeping it authentic.




Just won a 3 ton ECU on govplanet (Under $130, cheap load bank), I think I'll mount it on here with the MEP802A. Supposedly pulls 110% on the 5k when in heat mode according to other threads, but it's a resistive load at that point, so still within the generator's actual ratings not the military printed ones.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Had a little rust on the bed, nothing serious. Brake master cylinder was full of water, not that big of a deal, I read through some of the threads here and know Napa sells rebuild kits that will work.

Nice find!


Do you happen to know the NAPA part number for that rebuild kit? Or what it's called?

 

[SCM35A2]

Nice trailer!

 

[Coug]

Nice find!


Do you happen to know the NAPA part number for that rebuild kit? Or what it's called?

It was just the Master Cylinder kit for a 1964 jeep cj5, but they had only one in the entire U.S. in their computer, and it was in Alaska. Was $20, but shipping would have brought it up to what I paid for the aftermarket master cylinder which was only $36 on Amazon.

 

[Coug]

Currently waiting on the rubber brake line from the frame to the axle, I have the new lines on the axle, and waiting for the rain to stop to go install the lines on the frame. I bought the copper nickel alloy lines from Napa. Not cheap, but very easy to work with. 2 30" lines, one 51" line, and one 60" line to redo them all.

 

[Coug]

Playing around with the trailer, put my MEP802A and a 3 ton Nordic Air ECU on it, roughly 1200 lbs between them. I can still reach the fuel fill on the gen with it like this, downside is tongue weight is a little light, only around 100 lbs. Hoping that will be taken care of when I get some HMMWV tires to put on it. If it's still light I'll mount a spare HMMWV tire on the tongue area, that should be more than enough.

I had the MEP802A first, found the trailer to put it on, then picked up the ECU for about $120, with plans to use it as the load bank for running the gen. Then decided to just mount the two together, since the gen is my only 208 3 phase power source anyway, I can't use the ECU without it.

Depending on how everything sits when I get the HMMWV tires on it, I may also make a couple brackets to mount a couple sections of temper tent on the trailer as well. I figure a set of poles on each fender, and the canvas folded up into smaller packages in front of and behind the fenders, would put me just a little over 3/4 tons load. Still well below the 2250 lbs load the trailer is rated for on road though. Might need to find some of the M116A2E1 heavy springs.

Quick question though, does the A3 landing leg with crank work on the A2 trailer as just a bolt on, or does something need to be modified to make it work?

 

[98G]

Swap positions with the ECU and genset? Tongue heavy is good.

Tongue light is badness. If you've never experienced it, you'll only do it once....

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

... tongue weight is a little light, only around 100 lbs. Hoping that will be taken care of when I get some HMMWV tires to put on it.

Changing your tires won't do a thing for your tongue weight. Tongue weight is about balance, not the weight of your tires. They are the balance point. You could put steel tires on there filled with lead and it wouldn't change your tongue weight.

You need more weight ahead of the balance point. The spare up front will do that for you.


I have the rear leg on my A2. Not sure if it's the same as the one on the A3.

 

[Coug]

Swap positions with the ECU and genset? Tongue heavy is good.

Tongue light is badness. If you've never experienced it, you'll only do it once....

Yes, light tongue is very bad. I've hauled a lot of trailers and never pulled one with a light tongue, but I've seen the results.

I might end up doing that, but I think that might give me too much tongue weight. Right now center of gravity on the gen is just about the back of the fender. I think if I moved it forward then I'd be in the 350-400 lb tongue weight range, which is probably doable, but would need a crank up jack for sure. Other issue is the ECU is about 1/2" too long to fit between the fenders sideways on back, and lengthwise the two units would have zero clearance between them to fit them together. I'd have to leave the ECU sticking an inch or two off the end and use the auxiliary fuel line to refill the day tank on the generator, or just get a secondary tank to mount somewhere. I'm trying to avoid modifying the trailer, so if it doesn't all work out I'll just do the generator by itself.

Other possible option would be put the generator crosswise with spacers underneath it to raise it above fender level, but I dislike raising the center of gravity if I don't have to.





As for my comment earlier about finding some of the M116A2E1 springs, I didn't check until a few minutes ago, but last week I picked up 4 complete axles for this trailer with springs, and all 4 have the 6 leaf spring packs, the ones on the trailer are 5 leaf, so I've already got the parts, just have to do the work.
I have 4.5 inches between current tires and fenders with 1200 lbs of load, with HMMWV tires that will be down around 1.5" space, so I'm definitely planning to change them out. Even if it only gives me an inch or so, it will help.

 

[Coug]

Changing your tires won't do a thing for your tongue weight. Tongue weight is about balance, not the weight of your tires. They are the balance point. You could put steel tires on there filled with lead and it wouldn't change your tongue weight.

You need more weight ahead of the balance point. The spare up front will do that for you.


I have the rear leg on my A2. Not sure if it's the same as the one on the A3.

The taller tires will make the trailer sit more level, which will put a tiny bit more weight onto the tongue. I figure doing a spare tire on the tongue will take care of the rest, and I can always take the spare off to hook/unhook the trailer if I don't get a crank up front leg. A spare HMMWV tire with runflat will be 150lbs or so more tongue weight, where as a 31" tire will be more like 60, which is too little for this load.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

The taller tires will make the trailer sit more level, which will put a tiny bit more weight onto the tongue.

Not enough to make a difference.

I figure doing a spare tire on the tongue will take care of the rest

That will certainly help.

and I can always take the spare off to hook/unhook the trailer if I don't get a crank up front leg.

I know it's heresy, but I got a crank up leg from Harbor Freight for mine, and it works well. IIRC it was about thirty bucks.

 

[Coug]

I know it's heresy, but I got a crank up leg from Harbor Freight for mine, and it works well. IIRC it was about thirty bucks.

I've been looking at them, will probably do one that I can use bolts and plates to clamp it on, and uses a pin to remove it from the mount. Rather not drill holes or do welding if I don't have to.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

That's what I did. Works fine.