jscherb
Expedition Leader
You may be familiar with my first fiberglass trailer design, it's patterned after a Jeep tub:
I built that trailer for fun, but designed it so that it could be a production kit. The kit is on the market now, in the size shown above and a longer 6' 6" version. I'm not a vendor, and I'm not selling the tub kits - after I built my trailer I licensed the kit design to a company that's now selling them.
Over the last few weeks I've been working on a new fiberglass trailer idea, this one is patterned after the military M100/M416 trailers. I thought it would be cool to make a 4' long version of that type trailer that could be produced very inexpensively in fiberglass and bolted to a Harbor Freight Mini-Trailer, which typically can be bought for $200 or less on sale.
Here are a few concept drawings:
And I've built a prototype...
This prototype is 1/4 scale, so the tub is roughly 1' square, representing a full scale 4' square tub. I've made the prototype in fiberglass, the same way I'd mold a 1/1 scale version, to test the concept. The bolt heads are a little out of scale - these scale to roughly 7/16" bolts; the 1/1 scale assembly would probably be done with 5/16" bolts. Likewise the flanges on the parts are a little thicker than they would be on the 1/1 scale tub, it's hard to perfectly scale down the thickness of the fiberglass parts.
I've designed the tub to accept stock factory CJ and Wrangler tailgates. You could also assemble one with two solid end panels and no tailgate, if you didn't want a tailgate.
The tub quickly and easily bolts up to the HF Mini Trailer.
The model photos above show HF stock 12" wheel/21" tires that come with the frame. Here's a photo showing 31" tires on Wrangler 16" Moab rims, along with larger fenders. Upgrading the tires to 31" is pretty easy, by starting with the HF 4x8 1720-lb. capacity trailer frame, which has a 5-on-4.5 bolt circle on a 2000-lb. axle, and you could just leave out a few parts and built it in a 4x4 size instead of 4x8.
The way the tub is designed, it could also be produced in longer lengths, say a 6' long version, which would be the same length as the military M100/M416 trailers, so you could build your own "military" replica, or perhaps you could replace a beat-up and rusty tub on an original military. No reason the tub couldn't be produced in 8' lengths as well. I'm working on a 6' long (scale) model as well, which is the same length as the military M100/M416, I can post photos of that when it's done. Here's a model 6' frame built for it, patterned after the HF heavy duty frame.
And here are a few photos of the 6' version of the tub.
Because I painted this one olive drab, I put a smooth tailgate on it rather than a Jeep logo tailgate so I could put a star on the tailgate
.
The tongue box is a scale model of the Harbor Freight #65439.
Of course these tubs don't have to be put on a Harbor Freight frame, they could be put on any frame that's an appropriate size.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to take this project beyond the model stage and build molds for this in full scale.
I built that trailer for fun, but designed it so that it could be a production kit. The kit is on the market now, in the size shown above and a longer 6' 6" version. I'm not a vendor, and I'm not selling the tub kits - after I built my trailer I licensed the kit design to a company that's now selling them.
Over the last few weeks I've been working on a new fiberglass trailer idea, this one is patterned after the military M100/M416 trailers. I thought it would be cool to make a 4' long version of that type trailer that could be produced very inexpensively in fiberglass and bolted to a Harbor Freight Mini-Trailer, which typically can be bought for $200 or less on sale.
Here are a few concept drawings:
And I've built a prototype...
This prototype is 1/4 scale, so the tub is roughly 1' square, representing a full scale 4' square tub. I've made the prototype in fiberglass, the same way I'd mold a 1/1 scale version, to test the concept. The bolt heads are a little out of scale - these scale to roughly 7/16" bolts; the 1/1 scale assembly would probably be done with 5/16" bolts. Likewise the flanges on the parts are a little thicker than they would be on the 1/1 scale tub, it's hard to perfectly scale down the thickness of the fiberglass parts.
I've designed the tub to accept stock factory CJ and Wrangler tailgates. You could also assemble one with two solid end panels and no tailgate, if you didn't want a tailgate.
The tub quickly and easily bolts up to the HF Mini Trailer.
The model photos above show HF stock 12" wheel/21" tires that come with the frame. Here's a photo showing 31" tires on Wrangler 16" Moab rims, along with larger fenders. Upgrading the tires to 31" is pretty easy, by starting with the HF 4x8 1720-lb. capacity trailer frame, which has a 5-on-4.5 bolt circle on a 2000-lb. axle, and you could just leave out a few parts and built it in a 4x4 size instead of 4x8.
The way the tub is designed, it could also be produced in longer lengths, say a 6' long version, which would be the same length as the military M100/M416 trailers, so you could build your own "military" replica, or perhaps you could replace a beat-up and rusty tub on an original military. No reason the tub couldn't be produced in 8' lengths as well. I'm working on a 6' long (scale) model as well, which is the same length as the military M100/M416, I can post photos of that when it's done. Here's a model 6' frame built for it, patterned after the HF heavy duty frame.
And here are a few photos of the 6' version of the tub.
Because I painted this one olive drab, I put a smooth tailgate on it rather than a Jeep logo tailgate so I could put a star on the tailgate
.
The tongue box is a scale model of the Harbor Freight #65439.
Of course these tubs don't have to be put on a Harbor Freight frame, they could be put on any frame that's an appropriate size.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to take this project beyond the model stage and build molds for this in full scale.
