the bad lot of trailers Uncle Sam got

[maddawg308]

I remember reading about an episode of govt. waste back in the late 1990s or early 2000s, about a HUGE lot of some thousands of trailers that Uncle bought that were no good. 1-ton trailers or similar weight like the M1101 or 1102s, that were made incorrectly and were unsafe to tow at any speed, I can't remember if that meant loaded or not. Anyways, right around that time I went up to Tobyhanna Army Depot to pick up a lot of surplus and there was a parking lot there FILLED with brand new 1-ton trailers that all had warning tape around them with signs that said "FREEZE" or "HOLD" or something like that. This wasn't in the DRMO lot, just the base itself. Anyways, I figured the two things were related.

Does anyone remember hearing about these trailers, and if so, what were the specifics about the whole deal?

 

[wehring]

hmmm...

Quit trying to crash the market on 1 ton trailers so you can clean up. Sneaky guy...

Justin Wehring
979 997 3112

 

[axlr8]

agreed! But on a more serious level. Seems like its true? Maybe next time bring a big rig, a case a beer, and get to "know the owner" a little better and then offer a free loadout then and there!


Ohh.....

 

[Stan]

What makes you ask about this ten years later ?

 

[Bighurt]

About 5 years back the government bought a 1000 or so 25 ton flatbed trailers to replace the conventional/nuclear munitions trailers DOD wide. Turns out they had critical errors in welds and were not released for use. I'm still waiting to see these on GL. These are brand new trailers rusting in lots across America, that can't be used.

Some trailers are being modified at the expense of the unit for local non nuclear use. Essentially a welding shop is cutting the bad weld and redoing the job. However they will never pass nuclear certification, so many will just be DRMO'd at some point.

 

[Ratch]

The bad lot were the first run of 1101's. The goal was a higher speed off-road trailer for the HMMWV.
They used an aluminum drawbar that turned out to be way under-engineered and cracked either at the lunette or the brake actuator, and resulted in trailer-tow vehicle separation. I read about it somewhere but can't remember where. The problem was solved and the bad trailers were either retrofitted or replaced.
$10k per unit, I sure as heck hope they were fixed...

Ah, found it:
http://olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_ltt-hmt_trailer_ltt-history.php

 

[doghead]

You want me to change your username to Ralph Nader?

 

[maddawg308]

DH - I thought your purpose on here was to prevent or delete unneeded posts in military-vehicle related threads, not POST them.

Ratch, that sounds like it. Thanks for the info!

Stan - just something I remembered, I wanted to clear up my foggy memory from a while back. Couldn't remember if the trailers I had seen were M101s, M1101s, or something else.

 

[gimpyrobb]

I wanted to clear up my foggy memory

Quit drinking

 

[maddawg308]

I'll stop drinking when I have a full set of thank-you letters from all the major breweries in America. Right now, only Budweiser and Coors have sent me one.

 

[doghead]

DH - I thought

And that's where you went wrong, again...

 

[Flyingvan911]

They will sell them to us then wait until we fix them. Then they will reclassify them and take them back. Problem solved. Good trailers with no taxes used to correct the mistake.

 

[Welder Sam]

Anyone know the bed length on the 1101/1102? Not the overall, just the bed. Thanks