O/T: M101 Trailer Handbrake Mods. W/ Webshots Pix

Carter · Post by **Carter** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:54 am

When I bought this trailer the orig. levers were removed, the box was altered and none of the orig. external brake parts remained, it had been used by municipal govt. as a trash collection trailer. I was intrested in replacing the brake stuff but was not looking to restore it, just to make it serviceable and have it pass state inspection which it now does, so rather than search for all orig GI parts I chose to use 2 handles I got several years ago from Coleman Surplus (item #2176) and modify them to function like an M101A1's set-up. I finally had my honey-do list shortened to the point that I could get some work done on it W/O the OIC, now 40 yrs. in command, giving me flack about working on "my toys" . I pulled the hubs, repacked the wheel bearings, replaced the seals and cleaned up the rust frozen internal expander components, anti-siezed everything and added the new levers and cables which which I got at a DRMO sale years before in a box of auto parts that also included 4 sets of new front brake pads for the M880, all for a buck. I now have good parking brakes that cost less than $20 plus my time and a little welding. I know none of it's orig but that was not what I was looking for, just to have it look OK and work as it should. I have my PE95K gen set bolted in it and wanted to be able to tow and park it safely. I installed 2 new Denman NDT and now it's ready to go. Pix on Webshots trailer album, pages 3 & 4. Comments and questions welcomed. Carter

http://news.webshots.com/photo/25070496 ... 7451tGUhjf

rixm37 · Post by **rixm37** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:04 pm

Great job the trailer looks great. Nice addition of modern tail lights. Using the Coleman parts is great eyeball engineering OR TLAR (that looks about right)

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:52 pm

TLAR is about right. To the uninitiated, the unknowing, and the uncaring, your setup looks "stock." Nice job!

Carter · Post by **Carter** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:48 am

Thanks Gents, TLAR is what I was going for although I had not thought of it in that way, I just wanted to have a good looking and serviceable set-up. The brake levers stick out further beyond the cargo box than the orig. handles on a M101A1 but they don't hit the trucks backside when backing up and turning the trailer at a severe angle and as lifer stated "to the uninitiated, the unknowing, and the uncaring" it sort of does look stock. Now I need to make-up a new wiring harness to connect the GI lights so I am able to connect them to the trucks trailer socket and in that way with separate harnesses be able to use either the 12V or the 24V system depending on what truck I use to tow it. Again, thanks for the comments and for looking at the pix.

k8icu · Post by **k8icu** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:30 am

Well nobody is going to see the internal parts and they work so that's good. They probably work better than the stock ones ...

As for the handles...I think they changed to that style on the M101A1...so unless someone is looking at part numbers and you don't blab..lol.. to them about it they are going to think it came that way that the army did it as a repair along the way....

Good job getting it back on the road!

Carter · Post by **Carter** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:33 am

" As for the handles...I think they changed to that style on the M101A1"

K8icu, This trailer is a mixmaster assembled by someone before I got it, with a M101 frame and axle and a M101A1 box and an orig. A1 data plate, seems made to thoroughly confuse anyone trying to ID it so I didn't feel bad about adding totally non-standard handles. Now it's just a little more of a mixmaster rig, but it works for me