1684 RTA Maintenance Trail Won 12-29-2010

[goldneagle]

Maintenance trailer, Year 1991, Mfg. GW Body Works Inc, repair box trailer, Mod # 1684 RTA, steel undercarrage wood floor, alumumin sides, 120 volt lighted interior, side out load ramps. Buyer Loads.

Just won it today at Tyndall AFB, FL 32403. Going to use it for temporary storage until I can afford to build my shop. After that maybe camper conversion?

If anyone knows more about these trailers please chime in and add to this thread.

I could also use the help of someone close to the AFB to check the trailer out for me to see if it is road worthy. I need to know if it has brakes and type of? Also need to know how the lights are tied in to the tow vehicle.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am attaching pictures from the auction.

 

[goldneagle]

More pictures

 

[armytruck63]

Your picture #2 looks like the front axle and it doesn't look like that axle has any brakes. It looks like there are some sort of brakes on the rear axle in photo #7. I would guess the brakes are either electric or air. The tounge doesn't look like it would work for surge brakes.

This trailer looks like it would not be fun to back up. This is probably the cause of the damage to the front corners.

 

[wreckerman893]

I don't think that is a road worthy trailer...it looks like the ones the AF uses on flight lines.

If it is what I think it is it was made to haul around maint stuff for aircraft and was air transportable and was moved around by the flight line tugs. Easier to manuver when there is a pintle hitch on the front of the vehicle.

Just my speculation but I remember seeing something simular at the airfield at Fort Benning when the AF brought in cargo planes and kept them there for a few months.

 

[goldneagle]

I don't think that is a road worthy trailer...it looks like the ones the AF uses on flight lines.

If it is what I think it is it was made to haul around maint stuff for aircraft and was air transportable and was moved around by the flight line tugs. Easier to manuver when there is a pintle hitch on the front of the vehicle.

Just my speculation but I remember seeing something simular at the airfield at Fort Benning when the AF brought in cargo planes and kept them there for a few months.

If you look at the back of it, they have standard Military tail lights as well as trailer clearance lights.

 

[wreckerman893]

If you look at the back of it, they have standard Military tail lights as well as trailer clearance lights.

Point taken but vehicles on the flightline are required to be lit up so they are visible by other flightline vehicles and aircraft. The offroad ammo trailers mentioned on here a while back had brake lights too.

If you look at the scale of the tires in relationship to the box they are pretty small.....at highway speeds the bearings would take a beating not to mention the wiggle factor of that short tongue.

My guess is that the damage was from GL forklifts rather than the suspension and steering gear.

 

[goldneagle]

Point taken but vehicles on the flightline are required to be lit up so they are visible by other flightline vehicles and aircraft. The offroad ammo trailers mentioned on here a while back had brake lights too.

If you look at the scale of the tires in relationship to the box they are pretty small.....at highway speeds the bearings would take a beating not to mention the wiggle factor of that short tongue.

My guess is that the damage was from GL forklifts rather than the suspension and steering gear.

I hope some chimes in that is familiar with this trailer and can give me more info on it's highway readiness...

 

[zout]

It appears this is an airfield/base tender trailer used for flightline.

The front axle would pivot and if I recall it had the capability to have a pin dropped in the tounge to lock it in for backing.

Used in a low profile tow unit such as a tug.
This would be an extremely low speed trailer.

 

[timntrucks]

from the pictures i would have to agree.. its a low speed set up.. best bet would be to put it on a trailer

 

[armytruck63]

My guess is that the damage was from GL forklifts rather than the suspension and steering gear.

You could be right. I was thinking it was caused by the tailgate or rear of a truck trying to back up this trailer.

This trailer could be rated for only 20 or 25 MPH. It probably should be towed home on a flatbed trailer.

 

[goldneagle]

Anyone have a LONG flatbed trailer I can use to tow this bad boy home? It is 20 foot long! Maybe a equipment trailer that has a pintle setup.

I am also open to shipping quotes if anyone wants to recover it for me...

 

[timntrucks]

you might can find a local member that would let you store it at their place till you can get it home.

 

[goldneagle]

UPDATE:

TRAILER IS NOW HOME!

We met the tractor trailer on the side of the road 1/2 mile from my house. He was too big to get into the neighborhood. Looked the trailer over good and made a plan on how to get it off the deck-over trailer. First we had to air up the tires. they had taken some air out to shorten the height of the load. Hooked up the gladhand and hose and filled up the tires. Noticed we had 5 brand new 8.00-16 highway tires on her. The other 4 are 90%. NICE!!

My next plan was to secure the front steer axle so it could not steer left or right while we lowered it off the deck-over trailer. Lucky the lunette arm had a round loop that was used to secure the arm in the upward position. I ran the com-along hook to the loop and the other end to the edge of the plate in the corner. I did the same thing from the opposite side using another com-along. By this time my friend Billy showed up and we tightened both com-alongs to lock the steering arm straight.

I then proceeded to back up my Deuce to connect with the lunette on my trailer. It lined up but the angle was just a hair too steep. I decided to release the tension on one of the 2 com-alongs and we managed to lower the lunette so that the pintle would lock closed on the Deuce. I re-tensioned the com-along and wee were ready to pull the trailer off.

Once the driver released his binder chains we slowly (low range, 1st gear) drove the Deuce forward. Kept getting signals from Billy to inch forward. Got the front axle on the ground! Slowly forward and small bang, rear axle hits the ground! Trailer is off the drop-deck!! Safe and sound on the ground. The bang that I heard was from the rear axle dropping about 6 inches to the ground. (they never put the ramp pieces on! Nothing damaged! Everybody is happy. Semi drives off the next delivery.

Now that the trailer was on the ground the lunette was too high on an angle for towing. We removed it from the stock Deuce Pintle and installed my new hitch below it. I have a combination Pintle/ball hitch to insert into my class IV hitch I had just installed the past weekend. Pulled the Deuce a bit forward so that the lunette would drop into the new pintle hook. Once secured we were ready for the short trip to the house.

I was on the opposite side of the road facing traffic. Waited for a opening and pulled out aiming for the center lane. (turn lane for both directions). Billy pulled behind me a hundred yards back. He was blocking traffic to allow me to merge to the right and line up to make the turn to the side street. It was only a block long before i was able to exit the main road onto a side street and clear sailing home.

Trailer towed easy. I made long arch turns to make sure the trailer didn't end up in the ditch. Took a long arch turn into the driveway and next tot the house. Hit the air horns to let the wife know we were home safe!

Once home I let the Deuce idle for a while as we inspected our new purchase. There was a electric hookup on the side for 120v extension cord to plug in. Plugged in the cord and we had 8' florescent lights working inside the trailer. Trailer come with 2 wide ramps that will attach to the rear side by side for easy access to the interior.

There is some damage to the front of the box. They were in the pictures of the trailer on GL so I knew they were there. We can easily repair them later! I took pictures when we got home and they are attached.

 

[mkcoen]

That was pretty quick from End of Sale to In the Driveway. Hope you're happy with the purchase. Looks like it would make excellent storage or a great mobile hobbie room.

 

[goldneagle]

That was pretty quick from End of Sale to In the Driveway. Hope you're happy with the purchase. Looks like it would make excellent storage or a great mobile hobbie room.

I decided to utilize the wood studs inside and insulate it with fiberglass insulation and then either drywall or plywood the walls and ceiling. I will install a window A/C unit and use it as a SHIPPING DEPARTMENT for my Ebay sales.

Right now I am using one of the 40 foot shipping containers for that. Since they are not insulated it is too hard to keep it cool in the hot weather we have down here. I cannot close the door from the inside on the shipping containers, but this trailer has an inside handle for locking the doors from the inside.

This trailer will be like a narrow office trailer! i will post pictures as I do the conversion.

 

[jasonjc]

COOL

 

[nk14zp]

Looks good glad you got it home ok.

 

[goldneagle]

Thursday the weather was nice out so I decided to start cleaning out the trailer. There were some pieces of lumber nailed to the floor and protruding from the walls. I removed the unneeded lumber and stated to sweep out all the cement dust off the floor. Looks like they were using the trailer for concrete repairs.

Now that the trailer was cleaner I decided to try to pull the ramps out of the storage compartment. They were jammed in there! I tried to pry them out with a crowbar but it was not working very well. I tried to pull them out by jerking them side to side but barely moved them! I was exhausted and only had 1 foot of ramp out!. I tied a sledgehammer from underneath and got another foot. Now I was really pooped and didn't have much to show for it. I decided on another plan. I backed up the Crown Vic with the trailer hitch towards the trailer. I attached a chain to the hitch and hooked the con-along to the chain and the recessed area of the ramp. Success! The com-along pulled the ramps out easily!

When i looked at the ramps there was concrete dust and fine granules on top of the ramps and in the channels they were store on. They must of put the ramps in without cleaning them off and the concrete vibrated off the top surface and jamming the ramps in place. Had to wash the **** out of the ramps and storage space to get all the **** concrete dust off.

After a good cleaning I decided to do some additional stripping out of unneeded items from the trailer. I removed the pvc pipe sections that were screwed to the walls as pumpers. Also removed some more lumber. Will have additional studs to remove due to twisting badly.

 

[goldneagle]

Saturday I arranged with a friend to come over and help patch the holes in the front corners of the trailer. I started early. Now that I looked closely I noticed there was additional damage in the front of the trailer. The spare tire mount had been hit and twisted-puncturing the skin of the trailer. I removed the spare tire (brand new). Had to grind off the 2 top rivets of the tire mount. Using a pipe wrench and helper bar i managed to straightened the tire mount to it's original shape.

I started to flatten out the bent ribs of the front wall using an 8 pound sledgehammer and a piece of 2x4 lumber. The ribs straightened out a bit but not perfect. Untwisted the aluminum skin pieces where the walls have been punctured. My friend showed up and we finished flattening the aluminum skin. We used aluminum tape on the inside of the wall to hold the pieces together so I could install the patches over the damaged area. We used aluminum flashing to cover the damaged areas. I used polyurethane calking to adhere the flashing to the skin and seal the area from the weather. We used lots of 1/8" rivets to secure the flashing to the aluminum walls.

5 patches later we were done with rainproofing the trailer. We drilled two 1/4" holes to re-secure the trailer spare mount to the trailer wall. Reinstalled the spare tire. Trailer looks a lot better but there is still an indentation in the wall where the damage has been. For it's use the results are fine!

More work tomorrow.....and pictures.

 

[papabear]

Sounds like good results for a good troop!!

Not only is it a cool acquisition, it's very functional for your business!!