M105 brakes locked

[saddamsnightmare]

May 25th, 2008.

Gentlemen:

I, too, have just acquired a 1968 Johnson Mfg M105A2 trailer with only one air line and the two wheel landing gear........ Now I'm tryiing to figure out what the valve(?) is just forward of the front cross sill, before the air line enters the underframe....... IF it's a angle cock, there's no handle, and it seems that the handle would be on the bottom. I haven't cut the air in yet, as it towed very well dead from Norman, OK, where I picked it up, and no reason to get Murphy and his Lawyers involved yet!
I will go over the underframe and brake gear carefully (Kudos to Wayne Harris for the assist here), and try to figure out why she has only one brake line.... It seems that every other modification you could make to the body or landing gear has been done, and the tires were new!!!! The Army just loves throwing these babies out, and other then being heavy, they're usefull as sin to save the bed of the deuce from loads that can beat it up....
Thanks for the time, looking forward to the wisdom, oh great Masters of the M105A2....

Regards,

Kyle F. McGrogan

 

[jasonjc]

The 2 line brake were not added untill '77. With out a pic I'll going to say that you may be looking at the inline air filter. The 2 line brakes need a lot more than just another air line. I bet no one thought it was woth the work for just a trailer E-brake. If it don't make it go faster no one seems to care As for the Army getting rid of them, it's because they are getting rid of the trucks too But it also means that we can get trailer to go with are trucks

 

[Srjeeper]

Kyle,

It's an Air Filter.......see pages 76 & 154 in TM 9-2330-213-14. Trailer only needs one line to operate the brakes as it has hand parking brakes. If you put the air to the trailer and there is a problem, just shut it back off. The air only makes the brakes work when you step on the pedal or apply air to the system.

I love mine.....hope you enjoy yours also.

 

[ida34]

One thing I have noticed. Most trailers have had the data plates replaced and I think a lot of A2's are really A1's that are rebuilds. Some of the A2 mods do get put into older trailers but I don't think they go as far as changing the whole air brake system. If I remember right, the true A2's have extra lifting eyes at the front of the bed facing up from the frame. My 68 "A2" has a newer style two wheel landing gear that cranks up and down but only a one air hose brake system. My water buffalo has the two hose setup even thought it is older. This seems to suggest that they did upgrade the brakes on older trailers but selectively. I will have to look at the M149 to see what the data plate says for a build year.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Outside of how they were made, I don't think you will find ant rhyme or reason to the way the trailers come out. The frames have no premanenet vin markings and the GIs know this so trailer chassis get changed all the time.

 

[WillWagner]

When I did the brakes on my 105 I did a bunch of reading and research. The TMs state that 103 chassis and the 105A2 had dual air lines, but a few pages farther into the book, it says that the A2C and the 103A3 were the only ones with dual air lines. A bit confusing. There are differences on the axle, including the brakes, and hubs, from the 105A1 to the A2. Both of my trailers had the original data tags on them 1 was made Oct '67 the other Dec '67. The earlier one, from GL, had composite lights and dual wheel, crank up gear and single air line, you could see where soldier A had torched the RH side tail/BO light bkt to install the comp. lights. The Craigs list trailer was bone stock except for civi automotive paint...I think that's the reason that the thing is lacking the huge amounts of rust at the lifting eye areas...it even had 1967 date coded tires on it. It had the old round tail and seperate BO light and the big wheel gear with a single air line. A few months back, I was at Barstow looking at a CUCV for Jake, and one of the trailers there was a 105A1. Looked old, but, it had 2 air lines, the big, flat lifting eyes on the frame and an A2 style axle...the A1 hub has 6, 1/4 inch bolts that hold the dust cap on and the A2 has 3, 1/4 inch slotted screws holding the cap on. So what happened there? The data plate was an original, but the rest of the trailer was newer. Did someone wreck a trailer and to save their arse, "borrow" another one to put under their data plate? ID numbers on the tag and the paint matched.

 

[saddamsnightmare]

M105A2 Brakes

May 26th, 2008.

THANKS AGAIN, GENTLEMEN...!!!

Wayne set me up with the manual for the trailers on CD, but I haven't had time to pop it into the computer and look. Seems that the underframe has lifting eyes front and rear outside corners of the sills, and way outside on the extreme corners there's an adapted set of lifting eyes coming up through slots in the bottom outside sill members, but the bolts are attached to a queenpost type gusset under the side sills. I haven't pulled all the data off the plates on the tongue, but it is a 1968 Johnson.... Does RAPCO make new data plates for the 105's or should we twist his arm, collectively speaking?
Also- What are the pockets on the side sills, pointing up, and the front and rear quadrants of the trailer? I have seen them fitted with some type of auxilliary cargo retention gates or side boards.... mine no longer has them, but I think Jay Bennett's still does (Bull Dog Mack 13). Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend, and do keep the GI's, past and present, in your thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

Kyle F. McGrogan

 

[jasonjc]

RE: M105A2 Brakes

The side pockets are for the front and rear end gate if you take it off, You then put it in those pockets to hold them.

 

[WillWagner]

RE: M105A2 Brakes

One in each side

 

[Srjeeper]

Kyle,

You can get new data plates from Rod Shaver at mvdataplates.com , and he does a beautiful job stamping them too. I just ordered a set for my 105A2.

Something else I found was that under the orginal data plate on mine, the serial number was stamped upside down into the frame.

I just installed a complete dash set of data plates from Rod in my deuce and every one fit like it came from the factory.