Inkog's M416 Project

rain76king

Adventurer
Well, its been a while, but I'm back at. :victory: The one week wait for the fab work turned into 4.

I think the lid turned out great so far. It is really stout and weighs in at an aceptable 75lbs. The ribs in the top help keep it rigid and will keep water from pooling. I still have a little welding and a lot of grinding to get done.

Still waiting on hinges, latches, and gas struts.

I picked up a bunch of 1" square tube last week, so fenders, a rear bumper and stablizers will be comming soon.

More to come.

lid1.jpg

lid2.jpg


Looks great...what did the supplies for the lid end up coming to?
 

Airborne Lee

Observer
You are just ahead of where I am. But I went with a flat lid. What are you doing for hinges and how are you attaching them? Have you considered a latch system???
 

Inkog

Observer
Thanks everyone!

As far as the specs.. I neglected to get my original drawings back from the fabricator, but I'll see what I can do. All I did was mirror the existing tub profile. Its made from 1" square tube and 18g sheet.

I will forwarn everyone that this design will require some sort of seam sealer where the sheet meets the tube to prevent moisture getting in there and eventually causing rust. I'm going to use some metal epoxy on the external seam as a filler. The stuff I found is sandable, paintable, and has an hour working time. I'm sure some bondo would work just fine too, but I hate working with the stuff. As a precaution, I spent the effort to weld up the internal seam. This was to help prevent any flex in the sheet that could mess up the sealer. Plus, I'm a bit anal, and it just looks cleaner.

I'm concidering cutting off the original round 1" tube lip on the tub and welding on a square one. Mine is bent up quite a bit in some places, and again, it would look cleaner.


Airborne,

I'm going to use "lift-off" hinges so the lid is removable. I use this poor trailer to haul about everything, so it has to be adaptable to my changing needs. I'm still debating my latch system. I want something that is secure, but with only 1 latch/lock.
 

Inkog

Observer
I'm about finished with the major lid work. Here are a couple of pics of the inside and outside seams all welded and finished. You can also see where I just applied a metal epoxy as a sealer to the outside lip seam.

lid3.jpg

lid4.jpg
 
Last edited:

Trailpsycho

Observer
Looks great! I was debating on replacing the round tube on the hinge side-at least wtih square or rectangular to facilitate hinge mounting. Keep up the solid work. I will be wathcing with interest.
 

Inkog

Observer
Has it really been 2 years???

Damn, time sure flies...

Life kind of got hectic there for a while, so my trailer got put on the back burner for some time. My old '00 TJ (RIP @215k) started giving me all kinds of problems and quickly became a money pit. I eventually quit throwing money into her and resolved the issue:

2011 JK Rubicon
IMG_2866.jpg


Just about everything I still needed to finish on the trailer hinged around the tow vehicle: axle, tires, rims, adapters, fenders, paint etc. Now that I finally got my ride in order, it's time to get back to work!
Its been too damn hot to work on the trailer until recently. I am however back at it :victory:. I'll post my progress shortly.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,782
Messages
2,878,177
Members
225,329
Latest member
FranklinDufresne
Top