M101 Handbrake Mods.

[Carter]

When I bought this trailer the orig. levers were removed, the box was altered and none of the orig. external brake parts remained, it had been used by municipal govt. as a trash collection trailer. I was intrested in replacing the brake stuff but was not looking to restore it, just to make it serviceable and have it pass state inspection which it now does, so rather than search for all orig GI parts I chose to use 2 handles I got several years ago from Coleman Surplus (item #2176) and modify them to function like an M101A1's set-up. I finally had my honey-do list shortened to the point that I could get some work done on it W/O the OIC, now 40 yrs. in command, giving me flack about working on "my toys" . I pulled the hubs, repacked the wheel bearings, replaced the seals and cleaned up the rust frozen internal expander components, anti-siezed everything and added the new levers and cables which which I got at a DRMO sale years before in a box of auto parts that also included 4 sets of new front brake pads for the M880, all for a buck. I now have good parking brakes that cost less than $20 plus my time and a little welding. I know none of it's orig but that was not what I was looking for, just to have it look OK and work as it should. I have my PE95K gen set bolted in it and wanted to be able to tow and park it safely. I installed 2 new Denman NDT and now it's ready to go. Pix on Webshots trailer album, pages 3 & 4. Comments and questions welcomed. Carter

http://news.webshots.com/photo/2507049620045927451tGUhjf

 

[CGarbee]

Looks good Carter. In fact, it looks close enough to my M101A1 that I suspect many folks would not notice the differences between them unless they looked closely...

Photo of my factory brake handles for comparison:
http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/december/M101A1/DSCN0766.JPG

 

[Brent13]

Holy cow, frame of restoration! Looks excellent, and I can't imagine the time it took. How long did it take you start to finish? I just got my first trailer a week ago and am tackling refinishing all of the wood rails and steel posts. Even that is a project. Your trailer looks very nice.

Thanks,
Brent

 

[Carter]

Re: RE: M101 Handbrake Mods.

Looks good Carter. In fact, it looks close enough to my M101A1 that I suspect many folks would not notice the differences between them unless they looked closely...

Photo of my factory brake handles for comparison:
http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/december/M101A1/DSCN0766.JPG

Hey Cabell, how have you been doing? Ok I hope. Lifer stated much the same as you, that most folks who were unfamilular with the trailers would have no idea the rig had been modified with non-standard levers and cables. Looking at your trailer pic does show however the slight differences in the style and mount of the parts but I didn't build it to be judged in shows, just to be a workable unit and not to look like Bubba and his lack of mechanical skill had a field day with it and also not to have to spend any more money than necessary. Thanks for posting, appreciate your comments, they mean a lot to me Carter

 

[Carter]

Holy cow, frame of restoration! Looks excellent, and I can't imagine the time it took. How long did it take you start to finish? I just got my first trailer a week ago and am tackling refinishing all of the wood rails and steel posts. Even that is a project. Your trailer looks very nice.

Thanks,
Brent

Thank you Brent.
While not really a restoration but more like a half a$$ rebuild, it will serve the purpose for which it was intended. As to the time that it took to do the work, I have owned it for several years and only worked on it part time and I would guess the total hours spent would be about 30 or so. I don't keep track of time spent as I don't want to depress my self by thinking I am to slow or have spent a lot of time on something as unimportant as a new home for my PE95. I probably could have done the job faster but prefer slow and thoughtful over fast and unthinking and then have to go back and do it over.Details do count, and the question was: Why is there never time to do it right but always time to do it over and I chose not to have to do it over. Carter