SHOW ME YOUR M100 or M416 TONGUE BOX

General Automag

Adventurer
I have a neat little M416 trailer that we're mounting a roof top tent on. Our design is a little different in that we designed the tent to be elevated or taken up and down so we can fully utilize the annex room and use it as a changing room, storage from the elements, and additional sleeping rooms. Many of the cool trailers that I've seen have their roof top tents mounted on hinged lids which don't allow enough height to fully stretch out the annex rooms. Plus, we wanted to get a little higher up off of the ground from the larger critters.

What I'd like to see are some pictures of what you did for your front tongue boxes. As you can see from these photographs, our roof top tent hangs over the front part of the trailer, so I'd like to find a box that will fill this area. I'd like to "stuff" this area under the tent "over hang" primarily to keep dirt and road debris from the underside of the tent.

For whatever box I get, I have about a 20" height limit, and I want to keep the hand brake. I can go a maximum of 40" wide and about 14-15" deep if my measurements are correct. (I extended the lunette already, and hopefully it was enough to clear the corners of a full size truck as well as our FJ40 to avoid "jack-knifing"). Also, when you guys mounted your boxes, did you bolt the boxes straight to the "V" part of the frame at the tongue, and if so, was that strong enough to support your boxes. I need a fairly waterproof solution so I can mount some DC power components. If a custom built box is the answer, let me know if you know of any sources.

Thanks for your input!
 

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Matt

Adventurer
I got my box at Northern Tool. Its 30" wide, I can get the other measurements if you want, I cant remember them off the top of my head.
I made some tabs and welded them on the outside of the new tongue I built for the trailer.
Theres pictures of the frame and box in my build thread. Theres a link below in my sig.
 

Mark Harley

Expedition Leader
Most guys use the Harbor Freight boxes, You have mad fab skills, and a shop full of tools maks something custom.
That fits between the tub and lunette mount, clears the hand brake and has the same angles as the tongue tubing.
 

General Automag

Adventurer
Yes....., but I'm trying to keep costs down to a minimum and find something that's pre-built. You wouldn't believe how fast materials and labor add up!
 

95RRC

Adventurer
looks like you will need to fab up something different. They all will have tops that open at the top - none of them will be able to open with the tent down by the looks of it. Unless it is only 12" high - which is silly as you need a nice size one on the front.
 

DonBeasley

Adventurer
I agree with 95RRC. You will have to use a box besides the "official M416 box" from harbor freight since your will have to open to the front like the trailer sidemount boxes that some of the guys use.
 

jeepfreak81

Adventurer
Looking at your 416 I would put the tent over the back while traveling if you can... a battery in the tongue box is a ridiculous amount of tongue weight I have found. If it was back there you could use a standard box too.

Harbor Freight box on my M416

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Mark Harley

Expedition Leader
Find a box for under deck mount. "SEMI TRUCK STYLE" or bed rail box
The door opens forward.
 

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General Automag

Adventurer
Thanks for the pics! I hadn't planned on being able to open the tongue box unless I elevated the tent, which is a limitation of the design.

I had planned to install two batteries in the tongue box, and I have "levelers" on all sides and will have a hand crank jack up in the front. I'm not really worried about the tongue weight; however, I can envision a circumstance where you would need to unhook your trailer in order to turn it around on a tight trail. This happens a lot in the East.

For the rear, I'm going to put in a 2" receiver in the rear so I can attach on of the "Hitch Haul" carriers or a bike carrier. This would seem to work great to haul a deer, a lot of firewood, or an extra cooler or two.
 
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jeepfreak81

Adventurer
Thanks for the pics! I hadn't planned on being able to open the tongue box unless I elevated the tent, which is a limitation of the design.

I had planned to install two batteries in the tongue box, and I have "levelers" on all sides and will have a hand crank jack up in the front. I'm not really worried about the tongue weight; however, I can envision a circumstance where you would need to unhook your trailer in order to turn it around on a tight trail. This happens a lot in the East.

For the rear, I'm going to put in a 2" receiver in the rear so I can attach on of the "Hitch Haul" carriers or a bike carrier. This would seem to work great to haul a deer, a lot of firewood, or an extra cooler or two.

Nice job! Your setup is exactly what we hoped to accomplish by fully elevating the tent so we could use the annex room and awning.


I have 1 battery in my tongue box, and a power invertor (pretty heavy commercial job from 10 years ago), and even with the spare tire in my rear receiver hanging off the back of the trailer it is kind of miserable to move around. I don't know that I could do it alone on a trail. I have my cooler at the rear of the trailer, and will be loading it before we leave on the maiden voyage, I am hoping that takes some weight off the tongue. I can't wait to get the longer tongue on so I can have a wheel at the front too.
 

Kflash

Adventurer
With everything I've read, you should have 60ish percent of the weight forward of the front axle to make for smoother towing. Seems like cooler placement makes the difference for me. I keep it up front. Without the spare on the back it is very front heavy
 

General Automag

Adventurer
With everything I've read, you should have 60ish percent of the weight forward of the front axle to make for smoother towing. Seems like cooler placement makes the difference for me. I keep it up front. Without the spare on the back it is very front heavy

I have an Ironman4x4 50L fridge/freezer, and unfortunately with our setup, I will have to always keep the fridge/freezer in the tow vehicle until we set up camp. I only have 19" or so of height in the trailer with the tent folded down, and because the fridge/freezer sticks above the top rim of the trailer body, I could only make it work if cut out some section of the floor to make a "drop box" which will give me the height I need. Since the tent, when folded down, covers the top of a trailer and acts as a big heavy theft barrier, I don't see putting the fridge/freezer in the trailer. I don't want to cut the tub to make a tailgate either, so the slide out options are not for me. It's not a big deal, but there are always limitations...

Do you have a picture of your tongue box?
 

mooktotter

New member
So if you were to attach a 2 bike holder to the rear and had 25gallons of water, and 6 gallons of fuel, a battery and 10# propane tank forward of the axle and the spare mounted on the axle line, with a 80" roof top tent mounted above slightly forward of center on the tub, would this be enough to balance 2x mountain bikes and a 60# rack? Total hitch weight of the bikes + rack is probably 125-130#? I had some nasty sway when I took it on it's maiden voyage and had to ditch the rack and strap the bikes up top. Not ideal but I did not want to sacrifice bikes on vacation :)
 

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