Holden MTO20 Engineering Equipment Trailer (EET) 10 ton pintle trailer

[CBR Metalworks]

I just bought one, I will be posting pictures/info here from the time I pick it up and any modifications or repairs I do to it. First thing will be to install new (well, new to it) 395/85/20's. It was missing three tires/wheels (including spare) so I bought 5 new wheels and 5 tires to be sure I have good tires to get it home. It is in Little Rock, AR so it will be quite the haul to get it home!.

Missing ramps, looks like most of the clearance lights are busted, I am hoping the wiring is in useable condition. Not sure if the ABS will work without the tow vehicle having ABS or not, but if it will work I guess it might be nice to have.

I bought it to tow behind my M920 and to haul a M548 on.

 

[OldTow]

Wowwwww heavy duty lookin sucker, I am sure it will be neat once you get all the mods done....Good luck and keep the rubber side down

 

[M813rc]

I'm jealous, those are very cool trailers!

Here are some pictures taken in my son's motor pool (authorized, and cleared for sharing) a few years ago. Hopefully some of the details might be useful to you.
The one thing I would worry about is that tail-light wiring hanging out on the back, seems easy to rip out.

Looking forward to seeing your progress on this one.

Cheers

PS - the site smashes the pictures down so far that a lot of the detail is lost. If you want the full sized ones, PM me and we can set up emailing them to you.

 

[CBR Metalworks]

Well we made it home without much issue. Drove to Little Rock on Sunday, got a hotel, and went to pick up the trailer first thing Monday morning. Used the forklift at the lot to raise the trailer up to change tires, the brakes had already been caged so that was a plus, although the brakes are in dire need of replacement. Our one hiccup was ONE stud on the rear axle was spinning, we had no way to get the lugnut off of it... After installing the other three tires we hauled it about 3 miles down the road on the flat tire (was ruined already) to a welding shop, $25 later the stud was torched off. Brought the trailer back and put the last tire on, put on some tow lights and hit the road. (11 local time, we were there for about 3 hours).

It towed great, one tire had a 'shake' about 60mph, but after I figured out it smoothed out at 65-70 all was well. The potholes in AR and TN were ridiculous, plenty of traffic jams (we bypassed a couple) and cars with ruined tires.

Without brakes on the trailer I made sure to leave plenty of room ahead of me (my friend owns the 3500 Chevy, he went with me, but I drove the entire 800 miles home), the truck pulled great and the exhaust brake really helped slow it down, coming down Black Mountain in NC it had no problem maintaining a safe speed (I had to give it throttle a few times because it was going TOO slow).

We got pulled over about 15 minutes from home, apparently the high quality Harbor Freight tow lights stopped working (no taillights, only brakelights), he told us to run the flashers, his reasoning was so the drunks that were out driving would not rearend us (we had quite a laugh about that). Got home about 2:30am, so total travel time home (with stops for fuel/food) was 14.5 hours.

I have a couple PLS trailer axles I was hoping would be a direct swap, but after looking at them they are different. I think all the brake parts should swap over though so it will probably be cheaper for me to rob parts off them than it would be to buy the parts elsewhere.

 

[Another Ahab]

That sucker is a brute. Real nice.

 

[OldTow]

Sure glad you made it alright, it already looks a lot better than the first pics.

Rick

 

[CBR Metalworks]

Well I had hoped that I could swap EVERYTHING off these axles from the hubs out (and brake chambers) so that it would essentially give me 100% rebuilt axles (new bearings, seals, etc). Of course nothing can be easy though, I think the hub would swap but the rear seal is different (slightly different diameter). I guess I may try to find some new seals and just clean/repack all the bearings at some point, not going to be high on my list of priorities though.




I may have mentioned the brakes are shot (this was the only one THIS bad)



When I removed the drum it literally fell apart, I probably should have removed these two shoes before I even started the trip home with it, but they made it without causing issues.



The brake shoes and hardware off the PLS axle was a direct swap, so it will have new shoes, drums, hardware, and brake chambers for now. I hate to scavenge parts off brand new axles, but I can't seem to sell them for even $400 each, so I guess it makes sense to just use them for parts.

 

[CBR Metalworks]

I am also taking off all the ABS stuff, the wires were broken and sensors were in pretty rough shape. Not sure if it would even work with the truck not having ABS, but I guess the simple way to rectify problems with ABS is to ditch it all. If I am towing the trailer most likely it will be loaded so it should not be an issue to be without ABS.

I also am trying to figure out a place to hard mount the taillights, I don't really like them being on the ramps, but they won't be very visible up underneath (and if they are close to the back/bottom they are liable to being knocked off)

 

[Another Ahab]

Yeee-owwww!

I may have mentioned the brakes are shot (this was the only one THIS bad)

View attachment 547325

Scary

 

[M813rc]

I keep picturing in my mind how pretty that trailer would look behind my M813, with the V100 on it. Sigh....

Looking forward to progress reports.

Cheers

 

[rustystud]

I am also taking off all the ABS stuff, the wires were broken and sensors were in pretty rough shape. Not sure if it would even work with the truck not having ABS, but I guess the simple way to rectify problems with ABS is to ditch it all. If I am towing the trailer most likely it will be loaded so it should not be an issue to be without ABS.

I also am trying to figure out a place to hard mount the taillights, I don't really like them being on the ramps, but they won't be very visible up underneath (and if they are close to the back/bottom they are liable to being knocked off)

Your correct, you need the tow vehicle to have "ABS" for the trailers to work.

 

[maddawg308]

I like that trailer, can't wait to see it all finished!

 

[CBR Metalworks]

I keep picturing in my mind how pretty that trailer would look behind my M813, with the V100 on it. Sigh....

Looking forward to progress reports.

Cheers

I have actually found another one just like it, but it is missing the front axle and needs a lot of work done on it as well (missing ramps, etc). I thought about trying to buy it to fix it up to sell. I had hoped these PLS axles would be a direct swap, but since they are not it would take some fab work to make one of them fit. Not sure it would be worth the investment in time/money to try and buy it to fix/sell though. I figure I will have about $5k in THIS trailer when all is done, and figure that is about what I could sell it for, possibly a little more if I found the right person.

 

[Another Ahab]

. I figure I will have about $5k in THIS trailer when all is done, and figure that is about what I could sell it for, possibly a little more if I found the right person.

 

[CBR Metalworks]

Haha, well the one other person I know of that has one of these trailers told me he would sell it for $15k... As you can imagine I did not even consider it.

A civilian pintle hitch trailer rated to HAUL 20k lbs would be about $5k give or take a couple thousand depending on condition. As much as I like THIS trailer, I don't think the market for it would be good enough to justify buying another to try to fix/sell.

I will be very happy to end up with $5k in mine, because at that price I am including going to get it, new wheels/tires, new brakes, ramps, and anything else it may need. There is no way I could have this nice of a trailer (with all new parts) for $5k in the civilian trailer market.

 

[CBR Metalworks]

Hooked it up behind the M920 today to move it, perfect match! I still need to adjust the brakes, install lights, grind off sharp edges, and wire it up. I also need to make ramps for it.

 

[CBR Metalworks]

The wiring on the trailer had a bunch of extra wiring for ABS, which will not work with my truck so I removed it all. It also did not have a plug on the front, I had a few civilian style intervehicular cables, so I bought a receptacle and put it on the trailer, perfect spot for it out of the way, this way if the cable gets damaged I can just replace it. The civilian connectors seem to be a much better design than the military plugs, unless the military plugs are brand new they are a pain to connect.