Started work on the M416 today...

Well, in earnest anyway. First thing to do on this was replace this mess....



Someone torched off the lunette ring, drilled a couple of holes, and bolted and welded some oddball 2" hitch to it. My idea was to make an adapter so I could swap out a regular 2" ball hitch (for my truck) or an off road hitch (for the Jeep.)

I wanted to keep the landing gear, so that meant keeping the original casting. I came up with a bolt on receiver so I could swap easily. The first thing I had to do was face off the casting....



Then I fabbed this contraption up. I welded on a couple of rings concentric with the bolt holes to keep everything from sliding around and lined up. It will allow me to use 2" hitch stock to add on any type of hitch I can come up with.







Tomorrow I start on the off road part of the hitch. Stealing Posimoto's idea, I've got a D27 spindle assembly that I'm going to use. More pics as things progress.

 

OK, got the swivel part incorporating the hub worked out today....





Hopefully get to the other two axis' in the next week or two....

 

Finally got the off road hitch done, as well as the 2" ball hitch this weekend.

The off road hitch in it's entirety. (Jeep not included.)


Hooked up to the Jeep. The shackle mounts serve as the attachment point. Going to get some castle nuts and bolts instead of using my shackles.


Plenty of flex in this set up.


Oops! Ran into my first issue in that at angles where the trailer is above the Jeep, the hitch hits the bottom of the spare tire. Gonna have to move it up a little.


Oh, yeah, plenty of flex. The trailer pulled with no issues over all kinds of stuff like this. Given the trailer was not loaded, but I barely felt it behind during all this.


2" ball hitch means I can pull it behind my truck on normal pavement.


Fixed the landing gear by cutting off the extra foot and brace and straightening the leg. Also fixed the pull pin that holds the leg up or down.


It worked out really well, and I'm really enjoying having this project on hand. Actually looking forward to getting on with the clean up, paint and getting it built up to be a serious camping trailer. Will post more as it happens.

 

Nice work!