M101

The M101 trailer used by the Canadian Army was built by Iltis – which I believe is a military division of Volkswagen.  The trailer that I have saw a little use, but overall, is in excellent shape I think, aside from some surface rust, and missing tail lights.

m101-drawingGeneral Specs-
Date of Mfg: 1992
Production Qty: approx 1973
Overall Length: 114″
Overall Width: 60″
Height: 42″
Box Length: 72″ inside
Box Width (top): 46″ inside
Box Width (bot): 38″ inside
Ground Clearance: 13″
Lunette Height: -Upper: 23.5″ -Lower: 18.5″
Weight: 775#
Payload: 500#
Axle: tubular, solid spindle 3,500#
Mechanical Parking Brake, Hand Lever

I want to set the trailer up for camping/fishing – I’m not so much interested in a trailer top tent, but a trailer that can handily accommodate my pontoon boat, batteries, extra fuel, and camping gear.  I also want to be able to use the trailer to do the occasional trip to the city dump.

Some of the things that I need for the trailer

safety chains – the safety chains that are on the trailer now are fine, but the hook isn’t wide enough to hook properly onto the hoops on my receiver hitch.  Debating whether to replace just the hook, the entire chain, or modify the receiver hitch points to accommodate the original hooks.

tail lights - I want to get the original type of military light assembly – apparently they are very standard, and are used on a wide variety of military vehicles from small trailers to hmmvs to 5 ton trucks. The original equipment has 24V bulbs, but a simple swap out of the bulbs takes care of that (#1156 and #67 bulbs replace the originals).

Using the existing trailer wiring, I’m going to add a 4pin harness to match up with my Jeep wiring.

  • 22-460 to green (right turn/stop)
  • 22-461 to yellow (left turn/stop)
  • 21 Pin E to brown (tail lights)
  • 90 Pin D to white/ground

paint – I like the olive drab, but I’m going to try painting it myself, with some sort of digital urban cam effect :^), and bedline the fenders.

wheels/tires – Eventually, I think that I would like to change the axles or hubs so that I can put the same wheels on the trailer as those on my Jeep.  Make dealing with a spare much easier. I should probably try and find an extra M101 trailer wheel & tire, just so I can have a spare now for it.  Apparently, a 235/75/R17 tire can fit onto the orginal trailer wheels.

More M101 and Expedition trailer resources and Inspiration!:

Here are some links to some useful sites/forums that I’ve been checking out for more ideas!

Overlander_YJ’s M101 Build – Awesome!

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f104/post-your-jeep-trailers-offroad-trailer-pics-here-569561/

http://www.expeditionportal.com [bmonday's M416 | ]

http://www.delawareja.com/forum/index.php?topic=24730.0

trailercanada.com – they have some hub/drum assemblies, which I hope will simply mount onto my trailer.  A couple guys on the Jeep forum suggest that I simply get some spacers made up – that would convert the current bolt pattern to match my JK.  The advantage of this would be that the spacer could accomodate the change in backspacing – the JK rims will definitely have more!

I’ll try and collect some of the other links that I’ve happened across!

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