The Sears David Bradley Trailer

Patrick - Is the axle on your trailer round, or is it the rectangular c-channel type?

 

The round axles were used on the early trailers (both the early Ben-Hurs and the Sears David Bradley version manufactured by Dunbar Kapple). From what's been figured out to date, it appears that both manufacturers switched from the round to the rectangular c-channel type axles sometime in late 1948 or early 1949.

This same general time frame would likewise jive with the wide, long-backstrap welded tailgate hinges your trailer has. By sometime in 1949 (if not late by '48 ), the hinges had been changed to the short-backstrap type, which were used through the remainder of production.

Accordingly, I'd bet that the year on your title is off a bit, and that your trailer actually dates from somewhere between late 1947 and early '49....not that it really matters all that much. In any case, you made a great find!

 

Patrick,

Do you have any pictures of just the back of your '5?

I really like the entire set-up you have on yours, and it would greatly help in trying to find room for everything, as I am getting ready to design a rear set-up for mine (tail lights, spare tire, jerry cans, license plate, reverse lights, hitch, possibly a cooler rack etc.)

Looking forward to this build thread, as that is one neat trailer!

What are your plans for it at this point?

 

I receintly accuired a David Bradley trailer thats in good shape. According to your info here, which I appreciate very much, it should be a '49 model.
Model # is again 231-417 and the serial # is 09101. On the drivers side there is a packet of of what I was told is flairs or reflectors for setting out if you have mechanical issues on the road. My plans are to fix it up and use it for a small three-wheeler and other trailer stuff. I paid $175. Is that a good deal and what are these worth?
When I can figure how to post picts I'll do that.

 

Thanks for posting, and looking forward to seeing your trailer!

Looking at the DB Trailer serial number thread on this forum ( http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75658 ), yours may be more likely to have been manufactured in 1950 than 1949 - but there just hasn't been enough data collected yet to know for sure.

Maury

 

I regestered my trailer as a '49. Sounded older than '50 LOL. Thanks for the offer to help post my pictures. When I get a chance I'll send them to you.
Using it to make my first haul on Friday. I think these are cool trailers though they are on the small side.
Does any one have the plans for the camper accessory that was on some of the old adds? It would be fun to make one for when I do get my Jeep going.
Thanks again for all the info.

 

NorthernJeepGuy sent these photos of the trailer he described in his posts above. Though there aren't any photos showing the tailgate hinges or the axle yet, based on the serial number of 9101, as well as the wheels - which are the early (pre-DB tractor-type) wheels shown in the 1947 Sears catalog - this is likely a fairly early trailer. The wood side racks and top bows appear to be original:









These are evidently some kind of old emergency road flares (or maybe reflectors?), mounted on the side by a previous owner:




Below are photos showing this trailer's short-backstrap tailgate hinges and rectangular-section axle. These characteristics would correspond to the trailer having been manufactured in the late 1948 or post-1948 time frame.

 

Maybe wheel chocks?

 

Anybody have their trailers sandblasted? If so, what kind of costs did you incure? I'm looking into this to really clean it up and give it a good rust prevention treatment.
Ayone extend the tongue on their trailer for better backing up? Mine turns on a dime and hard to get it straightened out. Someone I work with said to lengthen the tongue to help with this but I'm leaning towards leaving it alone.
I'm going to cut the lock off the reflectors on the side to check them out as well.
I appreciate all your input and ideas.

 

I recently disassembled my David Bradley trailer completely, and this past Friday, delivered all the parts to a local outfit that will blast and epoxy prime everything. They do this kind of work by the hour, so I don't have an exact cost figure yet, but will post it once I do.

When I took the hubs apart, I found that the wheel bearings, several of which appeared to be original, were all in need of replacement. I checked around locally for new bearings, races, and seals, and found that NAPA wanted $160 for the complete set. This seemed high to me, and they carry only Federal-Mogul brand (not Timken, which was the original bearing manufacturer). The second auto parts store I went to was unable to find any of the parts or equivalent parts in their system.

I then checked around online, and found one company that could supply all the correct Timken parts for about $100 total plus shipping. Their website is

http://www.jbr17llc.com/

You can also find some of these parts on eBay and through other online sources.

Below are the original Timken part numbers in case anyone else needs to order new bearings and/or seals for their DB trailer:

Inner Bearings (2 needed): 14136A
Inner Races ("): 14276

Seals ("): 203002

Outer Bearings ("): 09078
Outer Races ("): 09195


I'd guess that these same parts will probably fit the Ben-Hur and McCormick Farmall trailers as well, though I have no way of confirming this.

 

Trailer looks great.
I have a 47 Ben Hur trailer I am working on.
What wheels did you use?
Thanks,
Paul

 

I picked up the parts of my trailer from the blaster this weekend. It ended up taking them over 10 hours to blast and epoxy prime the disassembled pieces. At their regular rate of $70/hr, it would have run me more than $700 (!!), but the owner, who I've done business with in the past, was kind enough to discount it to $525. That's still a lot of money, especially considering the fact that I spent much less than that to buy the trailer in the first place - but I plan to keep it and wanted it done right.

It cleaned up very well. Here's a photo of the parts laid out in the bed after priming (except for the wheels, which I'd had blasted and primed earlier). It's a little hard to see all the parts clearly since everything's black now:





My next step will be to reassemble everything, including installing new wheel bearings, and tow it to the body shop. They'll straighten out the few dents and weld up and grind the extraneous holes before painting it. I'm going to go with "Delta Green", an early 1960's Chevy truck color that's slightly darker than the original green, and paint the wheels Arctic White to match my '67 CJ5's wheels. I may end up getting the bed Rhinolined once all of that is done, and also plan to make new wood stake racks to match the originals. I'll post more photos when the painting is complete.

 

I have one with a cover just like that but it's tag says 1963 Haliburton. Also, there are no rope hooks or the rack cut outs on the upper surface. Those wouldn't be needed with a cover.

 

Ben Hur Jiffy Camper

 

I have a 22-47 Ben-Hur that has been in the family since my grandparents bought it used to haul milk jugs. In reading though all of the post I have not seen one with the Jiffy Camper. We have the Jiffy Camper to go with it and it is still in fairly decent shape. I set it up in the yard a couple of years ago just for old time sake. We had spent several years camping in our Ben-Hur both locally and traveling on vacations, now it is used as a utility trailer and the Jiffy Camper is put up for save keeping. I have attached a link of pictures of the trailer and the camper being setup and fully set up.

 

http://s1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff361/alwayscamping/Ben-Hur Camper/

 

That's extremely cool, to say the least. Thanks very much for taking the time to photograph and post it!

It would be great to see some photos of the '63 Halliburton mentioned above as well. That's the first I've heard that Halliburton also made a version of this trailer.

To recap from the original post in this thread, the following is from an ad that appeared in the July 1947 issue of the farming trade journal Implement & Tractor showing the Jiffy Camper exactly as pictured in the link above:





Sears also sold Ben-Hur's Jiffy Camper as an accessory for the David Bradley version of the trailer:




Just to make it easier to view Forevercamping's great photos of his original Jiffy Camper and Ben-Hur model 22-47 trailer, here are most of the ones he included in his link above: