Military trailer for firewood

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sirbuildalot

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The military trailers are very overbuilt. Im looking at possibly getting one to haul small tractors and firewood in. Something like a 101 or a 1102. Anyone else using these trailers? I'd be towing it with a newer full size pickup.
 
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I don’t know if this will help you any I tried upload a screen shot of the weight spec for the trailer

The tm # is TM 9-2330-392-14&P
You can find it on the web


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This is the M1102, there is also a M1101 which is nearly identical but cannot carry as much weight











This is the M101, which has several variants










To get a lot of capacity weight wise with a civilian trailer you need a physically large trailer and usually a tandem axle. My thought is that a heavily built military trailer will be able to handle a full cord with side boards and will be fairly maneuverable. I believe military trailers weight capacities are calculated for off road conditions. The way these things are built, I can't see overloading them, even with fresh cut hardwoods piled high.
 
I have not used it for wood or anything. I’m in the military and use them all the time for other stuff


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Local craigslist, I've also seen several on GovPlanet. Problem is they are always in far away states.

From my limited research and limited knowledge on them, the military trailers are rated for off road extreme conditions. Typically in quarter ton increments. Lots of them are rated at 1/4 ton, and are around 4' x 6' beds meant to be towed by jeeps. Lots are rated at 3/4 ton, with beds ranging from 5-7' wide and 8-9' long. These are usually meant to be towed by Humvees or trucks. Not to many that i've seen were rated at a half ton or a ton. After 3/4 ton they typically jump up to 1.5 ton. They are also designed to be pulled by certain military vehicles, which can be there biggest negative for civilian use imo. For example, the M1102 has 37" tires to match the Humvee meant to pull it through the desert. That makes the deck platform pretty high up and tougher to load. They are certainly solidly built though. The M1102 weighs around 1500 lbs empty, and is considered "light". A M105 trailer which is rated at 1.5 tons, is around 2700 lbs empty.

I don't think you could wear one out. The prices I see are all over the place, but the M101's are usually cheaper due to being older.
 
I have a 5x10 CAM trailer with a mesh fold down tailgate. It has a GVW of 2200 lbs. Id say it weighs around 500 lbs, so I could probably haul 1700 lbs on it.

Originally I was thinking of getting a dump trailer, but they aren't cheap
 
I thought about getting one for a while. Some of them dump. A lot of them had a pintle hitch, many of the ones I found were wired for military vehicles which are 24 volt so you would need to re-wire it. I never found one that was close enough or cheap enough for me to pull the trigger.
 
I have a m101a3 - second picture excepted converted for humvee. Pros: sturdy, surge brakes, heavy duty stand; will hold a lot of wood with sideboards, neat tailgate, easy 12 volt conversion and easily converted to tilt for unloading (not actually a dump but with some money and a lift mechanism it could be a dump, Tilt ability is accomplished by giving brake lines room to swing and replacing two bolts with pins; to tilt remove the pins, set the trailer brakes and slowly backup.).
Cons: sideboards are fiberglass and not really up to firewood chucking, loading height is high, lights require conversion though simple, pintle hitch is huge, axle swap required to reconvert from humvee setup, and bed is short.

Cost varies. Straight from government can be cheap. I brought 4 really nice ones for a total of less than $1,000. Traded one for the 600+ mile round trip to military base. Sold two within days at $600 each and kept one. Listing retail around here is anywhere from $900 to $1200. They are getting harder to find as government switched to the style shown in the first picture. These run from $1500 to $2500. I am told the beds are aluminum.

The larger ones (m105) for the 2.5 ton 6x6 trucks are too big in my opinion. Same cons plus air over hydraulic brakes and heavy wheels and tires. The last version, however, had surge brakes and lighter wheels and tires. I had one. Towed it home with my 1993 Toyota Landcruiser. Would have overwhelmed the Toyota if loaded. Worked nice on the deuce for which it was designed. I would not recommend any version of the m105 for firewood.

Ron
 
A guy came by about a month ago, dropped off one of those trailers. We put a cord in it, he said it was sketchy towing it back. They tall and narrow and not balanced very well. In fact on the one he had it could be setup to dump.
I wrapped a chain around the lunette to move it with the skid steer, ended up bending the whole surge brake lunette hitch assembly. Too much tongue weight I guess. Wasn't anything I did, the chain was in the eye just the same as the pintle would do.

Figure too a cord is about 5000lbs. Built sturdy... meh... but that's 2x it's rated capacity.
 
The way the axle is mounted in the middle might make it hard to get enough tong weight to make it pull safely at anything over 30mph. Probably not rated for over 45mph.
 
I bought one at an auction for $100 the M101 variant and everyone laughed at me, ( I was fairly young) . I bought it for my father that still likes to go out in the woods and gathers firewood with his tractor. it even has the tall 2-1/3 ton military tires going over stumps and ruts, logs ect is a great benefit. a few years later my brother put an electric dump. and man does that thing haul the wood.

If I had my say I would like to put a dully axel set up on it to tow down the road and lower it a bit; as it sits now it is exclusively a woods trailer ..
 
I bought one at an auction for $100 the M101 variant and everyone laughed at me, ( I was fairly young) . I bought it for my father that still likes to go out in the woods and gathers firewood with his tractor. it even has the tall 2-1/3 ton military tires going over stumps and ruts, logs ect is a great benefit. a few years later my brother put an electric dump. and man does that thing haul the wood.

If I had my say I would like to put a dully axel set up on it to tow down the road and lower it a bit; as it sits now it is exclusively a woods trailer ..

Call Axle Inc. & order an 8,000lb Dexter with the dimensions you want.

http://www.axleinc.com

I had a 7,000lb shipped to my door ready to install with the brakes & hub already on it for less than $650.
 

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