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Anyone looking for a off-road trailer? I found a bunch of Buffalo Trailers (these are trailers used by the military for transport of anything). They look a lot like the Terratrak trailer only BIGGER. The ones I saw are in great condition almost new (almost new to me is no dings and in great condition). These are real military stuff. Some have Racks and storage bins. They all have hand brakes, air brakes, wheels and tires (the tires I think come off a duece and a half, they are big), the wiring for lights and the lights. Hoses for air brakes, tail gates. They have the pintal-type hitch. This guy sells them for $675.00 to $750.00 but if we can get 5 or more we can pick them up for $500.00 even. These trailers have never been registered, but he will give you all the paper work we need. I DO NOT SELL THESE OR AM I RELATED IN ANY WAY TO THE PERSON SELLING THEM. I RAN ACROSS A GOOD DEAL (I FEEL) AND WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND THIS OFFER TO ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED. I AM NOT MAKING MONEY IN ANY WAY AND I AM GOING TO PAY THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE. If you are interested please let me know at radiver@skylink.net I can give you more info.
*****SCOTT W. or anyone else***
These are probably M-105 A1 or A2 trailers, and are useable with HUMMERs. The military now has them specifically for HMMWV's. They use 20" split-rim wheels, which can be hard to find. I'm in the process of converting one to a Torque-flex axle which will take a HMMWV wheel and tire. You can also get a commercial axle which will take a HUMMER wheel and which has electric brakes. I'm working with Dexter axle now to find the appropriate part numbers and sizes. BEWARE! If these are military surplus trailers, you MUST check with your local vehicle registration personnel FIRST to find out exactly what you must have to register the trailer. Many ex-military trailers are being sold by surplus dealers without the proper paperwork. I bought a surplus trailer I can't register because the surplus dealer doesn't have a "form 97" with the serial number of the specific trailer on it. Furthermore, some states, IN PARTICULAR Colorado, WILL NOT accept a transferred form 97 even if it's valid as evidence of ownership for titling purposes if YOUR NAME is not on the '97. If the dealer who sells the trailer got them from DRMO, the '97 will have HIS name on it, or, worse, he may have bought it from a DRMO buyer, and THAT person's name is on the '97. In Colorado, you must have either a Form 97 with YOUR name on it, showing that you bought it directly from the government, or, you must have a valid TITLE from the state where you purchased the trailer, which means that the person who originally bought the trailer from the government MUST have registered the trailer and obtained a title for it from HIS state. Most surplus dealers do not bother to register trailers or other vehicles, since they never use them on the highways and are reselling them. However, Colorado considers this to be title fraud, called "title skipping", and they consider it to be a FELONY. The theory, I guess, being that by not applying for a title, the original owner is defrauding their state of registration and ownership taxes. Of course, many states don't HAVE ownership taxes, and most of them will accept a notarized Form 97 as evidence of ownership sufficient for titling, but Colorado is not among them. I don't know what other states do, but CHECK FIRST, and get a specific list of things you must have from the seller, or you might end up with a trailer you can't use. And BE SURE that you at least get a valid Form 97 from the seller, WITH a matching serial number. Unfortunately, many of these trailers were sold as "scrap", and no form 97 was issued, or possibly issued without serial number. Be very wary of any trailer that does not have impeccable pedigree papers showing how it left government service, since you risk seizure if you don't. The problem is that they usually have Rockwell axles with air-over-hydraulic brakes, which are incompatible with HUMMERs. The trailers are designed for use with the 5 ton trucks, which have air brakes. In most states, the trailers, which weight about 2200lbs empty, with a max gross of 5800 or so, require operating brakes. Since the HUMMER doesn't have air brakes, you must convert the axle somehow. You can put a surge brake on it, and convert to hydraulic/surge, but surge brakes are not great, and tend to break at inopportune times, like the one on my M-101 trailer did on the road in Canada last summer...nearly burned it up when the brakes locked and I didn't even notice it while dragging the trailer on a gravel road. Next, you can convert to electric brakes, which is the standard method, but it calls for replacing the entire axle and both hubs with a new, commercial axle. This is probably the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to deal with the problem, and it gives you the added benefit of having common, widely available and new commercial bearings, spindles, brakes and suchlike. Sometimes, fixing ex-military stuff can be arcane. If you convert the axle to a civ model, you can change to the 8-on-6.5" bolt pattern used on the HUMMER, extend the axle length slightly to compensate for the deep offset on HMMWV wheels, and use HUMMER wheels and tires, either the radial style on your truck (using old-style one-piece rims w/o CTIS) or, as I do, you can run the bias ply rims, runflats and RT II tires on your trailer. I run my bias rims and tires on my M-101 and 105 trailers, and they work fine...and are cheap. The benefit of running radials is that you have "spares" to use on your HUMMER. I will be deciding on axles for my M-105 this week, as I will need the trailer soon. When I get all the measurements figured out, and get a part number from Dexter, I'll post the info. Dexter tells me that they have a 7000 straight axle which has electric brakes and preserves the parking brakes, which are very useful. Dexter knows about HMMWV's, as they developed a "torque-flex" axle which is used on a couple of current production trailers, one of which (I believe) is the terra-tek. Unfortunately, the axle design is proprietary, and is built under contract for the various companies which make the trailers, and Dexter won't sell them to the public....I tried...hard...but no go. So, you're basically stuck with a straight axle. I recommend the change to the chevy/ford/hummer hub setup, since the 20" Budd wheels are split rims, dangerous as hell to work with if you don't know what you're doing, and the rims/tires are not a common size, and you will need to buy tires from surplus or restoration dealers. You will also have to change the bulbs in the lights to 12volt bulbs, but that's no biggie. The connector will need changing too, to fit whatever you have on your truck, and tracing the wiring is best left to an expert, as there are many extra wires in the cable. Check each trailer for rust carefully.
I have a trailer similar to the ones you are describing. I LOVE IT! (If these are the same ones,) they are the trailer that the Hummer was specified to pull. It is rated at 2-1/2 tons, is 7' wide, and has 16" ground clearance. (These numbers sound familiar?) The bed is 6' wide inside, 9' long, and 18" deep. If you changed the wheels, you might loose ground clearance (the tires are somewhat bigger than the Hummer's 37" tires). I paid less for mine, but mine is not in as good shape as you describe. I would like to get in touch with the person selling them to see if I can get some parts to fix mine up a little. I would also recommend that (if you could), try to post some pictures so that everyone can see what they are. If they are the same, they are really good with the Hummer. (A picture of mine is in the HML Hall of Hummers. My homemade cover hides some of the details, but you can get the idea.) A swiveling (off-road type) pintle hook can be easily added to '95 and earlier Hummers. For '96 and '97, something special may need to be done about the factory trailer hitch and the aux. fuel tank. Should still be do-able. The loop on the front of the trailer is usually curved up to match the hitch on military duce-and-a-half trucks, but can be loosened and turned over (to curve downward) for the Hummer. The hight is then perfect.
Dave Breggin
Jack's Gov't Surplus
I know he has the new type with the modified hitches.
Here are a few sites for trailers: White Owl Trailers Military surplus - White Owl is out of Kinston, NC. MV Trucker's is out of Penn. MV Trucker's Site Map. Both sell surplus trailers. The M105 series is the 1 1/2 ton. The M101 series is the 3/4 ton. Silver Eagle makes the new M1101 HMT (High Mobility Trailer) which uses Humvee tires, wheels, lights etc.: There are many others. Hope that helps. Steve Risken
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