In my spare time I’m restoring and old Vietnam-era military trailer to use as a possible base camp on Southern Utah adventures. It’s a pretty sweet old trailer that’s become popular with a lot of 4WD explorers called a M416. They are a great platform to add a kitchen, put a roof top tent on, and make into a base camp that will follow you anywhere. I was telling both my old man and my wife’s uncle about it…

My dad was basically a draft dodger (not really on purpose — great story about it on his profile on wikipedia) who was in The Marines and he remembers the trailers well. Something about talking about those little Jeeps and their trailers buzzing around the military bases sort of made him a little veclempt.

Carrie’s uncle Jimmy doesn’t really talk about Vietnam. Something happened; I think he might have been shot down in a helicopter. But regardless, he must have seen something bad. Bringing it up made him choke up.

The trailers are amphibious. They were designed so the whole trailer can be broguht up to a river bank by a Jeep. As the trailer floats, they then hook it up to a boat and pull it across, and another Jeep can retreive it and carry the load from there.

Here are a couple pics of the trailers and the M151 “pup” Jeeps that towed them around in their original military flare.

Here are a couple photos of the trailers outfitted for off-roading and expeditioning (modern days use — what I’m building it for).

And here is my restoration, currnently underway…

If you are interested in any of this old stuff (fabrication, restortation, etc), check out the build-up thread. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20925