Willys Trailer Restomod
A Jeep’s best friend
Not having a pickup truck, I wanted a utility trailer to go with the Jeep and afford me most of the benefits of a pickup bed without having to live with a truck. I’d seen some old military trailers that resembled the back of the Jeep, so I kept an eye on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace until I found an old trailer overgrown with weeds and blackberries behind a barn in rural Oregon. It was the epitome of a “barn find”, as it still had the original wooden frame to support a canvas top, and had original bias ply tires! As near as I can tell, it’s a 1947 Willys trailer made for the consumer market, making it over 75 years old now.
The floor was rusted quite badly and completely gone in some spots. It was in rough shape, but the bearings hadn’t seized, and the frame was solid. Jake’s Custom Creations again took on the project and it was the first time he got to use his industrial sandblasting system! He completely stripped the trailer down to bare metal, cut out the rot, patched in new panels, and added additional frame beams and gussets for strength. It also got a brand-new floor of thicker gauge plate steel.
The trailer as it sat after digging it out of the brush and bringing it home.
Original wood frame!
Check out those tires! A couple of ones I could date were from the early 1950s. I sold the extra wheels to a Willy's Jeep restorer.
Sandblasted and the rusted floor removed.
Extra frame bracing added.
New thicker gauge floor welded in and painted to with bedliner, while the exterior used leftover beige paint from the Jurassic Jeep.
New hinges for the fold-down tailgate were added. My grandpa worked on similar trailers in the Korean War, and he said these hinges were always getting broken off by careless GIs.
New chain was added to hold the tailgate level when dropped. I changed the hooks to carabiners so they wouldn't loosen with bouncing.
I found a trailer axle with the correct bolt pattern and wheel offset to fit neatly into the original trailer fenders while using the Jeep wheels. If I have a flat while trailering, I can use my Jeep's spare!
New bump stops prevent the tires from rubbing when the trailer is loaded down. This is with 1/2 a yard of gravel, or about 1100lbs. I usually only have a few hundred lbs of stuff to carry at a time.
There's not trailer in the movies, so I took some creative license on where to place the stripe.
Stripe painted!
Problem: kayaks don't fit!
Solution: swappable short and long trailer tongues with grade 8 bolts in double shear.
Standard mode: short tongue with safety chains using stock anchor points and short electrical connection.
Extended mode: safety chains move up to new anchors and an extended length electrical connection is swapped on.
Long kayaks up to 20' easily fit with a cheap Amazon roof rack clamped to the trailer walls.
No jack-knife issues!
A friend of mine made a steel die for bending new anodized aluminum brackets to match the original wooden frame brackets.
My dad made new hardwood replacement rails using the originals as templates. The curves were created by laminating strips together into the shape. A tough lacquer was applied for resiliency.
HIGHLY recommend Jake's Custom Creations for your restoration/fabrication needs!
One of my favorite shots: taking the trailer home!