This is the reason why I converted to a dual MC (if you read my restoration post).

I built this in my high school welding class as my senior project. I drove my jeep to school on the nice days. Bantams or any other type of matching trailers are hard to come by around here in good shape. So I built my own. Here's the short and sweet of it.



I used some old jeep front spindles, hubs, wheels, springs, and 2" pipe for my axle.



The tongue with a bantam like leg.



I finished everything I could do at school. I made fenders that resembled Willys truck rear fenders and some tail light brackets for matching NACO tail lights.





My finished leg and latch.



The axle/spindle assembly






The axle looks pretty neat all one color! I reused my old drive flanges off my '53 since I put the cutlas hubs on it.



I made a spare tire carrier since the jeep has 15" wheels and this is going to have 16" wheels, I didn't want to mix and match them. I found another 15" wheel that I used to replace the 16" wheel spare I had on the jeep.



After primer and paint





I even put a bantam serial number tag on, which I stamped also. My initials, the date of completion and the last 4 digits of my jeeps VIN number



And the decking!





I built it for the intended use of hauling a motorcycle, an Indian, to be exact with 4 tie down points in the corners and a bike wheel chock. I also made a really neat Indian sign for the back of it.



I hit the aluminum with the DA and 400 grit sandpaper, then some clearcoat. That gave it one heck of a nice finish!



In this pic, you can see I put a 6 prong trailer socket in the hole for the PTO on my jeep.



And voila! I have hauled 3 antique engines in it (weighing about 1500 lbs trailer included) no problem. The jeep didn't like it too much though. One bike is just right! The OD is a must with it also. 6 gears are way better than 3! If anyone wants more details about something, let me know and I'll gladly post them up!

This year, I may put some 11" drums on it and one of those hitches with a brake cylinder built into it and do a spring over axle swap on it. I'm still on the fence about those. I noticed the wheels sometimes hit the tops of the fenders. At least I can flip the hitch on the jeep and to compensate for the height difference.

Try installing some bump stops before you do the spring over.. Factory ones should bolt in by the looks of your frame. A spring over may end up making it too high to be usefull, especially when loading bikes.. You may want to add a leaf to the spring pack too, as a 1500 lb load of engines might be a little much. That's a great trailer.. It looks like it wouldn't take much to make it a tilting deck model..

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The problem is I made the fenders a bit too low. IIRC there is 2" between the tire and fender. Also if you look at the last pic with it hooked to the jeep, it looks kinda weird with the differences between the tires and wheels. Yeah, I'm never putting that many engines on it again...

The most usefull thing I taught my students in 8 years of teaching auto body was how to use a tape measure.  Because of the metric system, most had never learned inch fractions by TENTH GRADE!!

We got into basic fractions, because of paint mixing, and once they mastered that, we got into fractions of an inch , for frame measuring. They complained about it but I couldn't send them out into the world not knowing how to read a tape.....

When I taught in Job Corps we had six foot long ruler up on the wall,  one foot = one inch... that was really good for the kids that had to start from scratch.

Shop classes are COOL. Shop classes are GOOD for Students...Shop classes are ESSENTIAL for many to get jobs later on. NOT EVERYONE is built to sit behind a desk all day long, and not every job is a desk job. But tell your friendly local guidance coundelor that and see what he says.

Stepping off soap box now.

So..is it gonna be raising the fenders or the suspension, Nate?...My vote is for fender relocation if nothing else hits and it rides right.

Bill- I like they way the fenders are, so they will stay. When I built it, I was thinking of doing SOA. It can easily be done. The guy who built it was thinking.  

There are other schools around here with welding, machining, and wood shops. I heard they actually just added wood shop at my school. I think they figured out us country kids prefer to do that type of stuff than studying.  

Todd- If I wasn't so burned out still from my latest build (I built a new frame from scratch and did a 4 and 5 link coil spring suspension for the Jalopy), I'd build ya one! Are you a fabricator at all? I have a list of materials. It is actually a pretty simple build. I think it could be done in a long 3 day weekend if you have all the materials. I did the hard part of figuring it all out.  


I'll be going to the Willys Picnic this year and I'll probably be taking my trailer along with something really interesting on it. My lips are sealed to what it is. 

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I can't wait  

Very nice work.....you could sell a bunch of those.....