M416 gets a tailgate

Before I iritate anyone, the back of the tub was cut by the PO with a torch, so anything I did to it was an improvement.

still gotta add chains

 

How do you have the latches arranged? Could we see a close up pic?

 

Looks good Randy! Does your tailgate and latch system tie to two side together pretty good? I sometimes wish my 416 had a tailgate, but I don't think I could bring myself to cut it.

 

Looks pretty good to me.

 

Looks good, Randy. Good to see you got the bows done as well...

 

Thanks for the encouragement.
Mark, I would never have cut the tub if it were not already damaged, I wanted a trailer with a tailgate and the one I found was already cut.
the sides are reasonably strong without the gate closed, the hinges and some careful gusseting stiffened them up alot.
as you can see, nothing fancy in the latch dept, the bolts will be replaced with standard chain hooks. I was going the cool route with the slide bar latches hidden within the upper tube but decided that I was installing chains anyway so I might as well go dirt road simple.

Chris, the day you stopped by here I looked on Mike Boynk's website and read his description of the bows... $13 later and my tarp was no longer collecting water. thanks Chris, Mike, and whoever invented it.

pay no attention to the weld quality, the others are much better

 

Looks good

 

Very clean tailgate install...

 

Thanks

 

I like it. I miss the utility of having a tailgate on my 416 but don't have the time or inclination to address that soon.

Have you used your trailer much? I'm curious as to how bouncy it is. I know i need different springs and to add shocks to mine, currently it will leave the pavement on solid bumps and I'm only running 10psi in the tires.

 

I've made a hand full of trips with it around town, mostly to the landfill. it doesn't bounce around at all on pavement, the road to the landfill is about 1/4 mile of washboard gravel up hill, no problem, tracked along nicely. haven't had more than #400 in it yet, but that didn't squat it down at all.