Bantam T3-C trailer

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m3a1
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Re: Bantam T3-C trailer

Unread post by m3a1 » March 16th, 2018, 7:12 pm

It was a really lovely day today so I cleaned, inspected and repacked the bearings of my little trailer. I had to dress some of the large nuts with a flap disc sander because farmer Brown had been at them for years with a chisel or a screwdriver. They refinished just fine (I simply knocked off the burrs) and I reused them. The original felt seals were still doing a fairly good job and showed signs of letting a little grease out but no water in so I reused them as well. I used Mobile 1 on the repack which has a very nice waxy, tacky consistency. Other than the seals, everything else looked very good and I would now pull this trailer to Katmandu and back without any axle worries.

For those of you following along, I thought I'd pull a stripped draw bar bracket assembly of the shelf for a visual comparison. Its bolt pattern for attaching to the two tongue members matches that of the civilian Bantam and the M100 exactly.

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There are two sockets of the same dimensions, available for the lunette draw bar.

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Note that the latch pin is located directly above the pivot for the landing leg. The M100 and the civilian Bantam it is located forward of the pivot point.

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The opening, through which the latch pin must pass during installation, is threaded so that it may be closed off entirely.

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The military draw bar bracket assembly is less massive than its civilian counterpart owing to the space necessary to secure the lunette drawbar with a spring, washer and nut.

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The upper socket for the lunette drawbar has two bosses that are drilled and tapped for retaining bolt and grease zerk fitting. The lower socket has only one tapped boss (for retaining bolt) and no provision for a grease zerk fitting which suggests it is meant for a fixed, non-swivel, drawbar.

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Last edited by m3a1 on April 18th, 2018, 11:25 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Bantam T3-C trailer

Unread post by m3a1 » March 17th, 2018, 10:05 pm

Got some 2"x 2" square tubing and a new 2"x 2" x 2"-ball coupler, drilled my holes and bolted the coupler on with 1/2" Grade 8 fine thread bolts. Finally! Now, I can pull the Bantam with my Yukon -or- my MUTT. It's WAY past Beer:30! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cheers,
TJ
Last edited by m3a1 on April 18th, 2018, 11:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Bantam T3-C trailer

Unread post by m3a1 » March 19th, 2018, 4:01 am

Well, I finally finished the trailer to the level where I can now actually use it. Not everything is done, of course, but it's usable, straight and safe to pull.

I drilled and bolted in the 1/2" steel rod pivot points for the tailgate by drilling a 1/4" vertical hole through the sidewall top tubes and dinging the rods with the drill bit. I then pulled the rods out and finishing them on the drill press in 5/16". Followed that up with a final, through-and-through in 1/4" and dropped the bolts in and secured them with a nylon locking nut but not so tight that I deformed the tube (want to be able to pull these out later for maintenance). I might just have easily used a pin but in this case I doped up the top of the bolt with some RTV so water wouldn't migrate in through there.

And, lastly, threw on some old school reflectors on the back panel right where they originally were. This trailer will be run with a magnetic light kit rather than a permanent set-up.

Next up, dropping the front spring hangers to see if I can located a hidden VIN and addressing the rather worn shackle pins.

Cheers,
TJ

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