THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

The idea of an M416 trailer for the Pinz has been kicking around in my mind for a while. I was impressed with Krick3tt's M416 trailer when he came through McCall a few years ago. You've probably all seen the little trailer in his signature. I thought those trailers looked "right" with the lines of the Pinzgauer and that they would function well too. M416 trailers can be tough to find though and quite expensive, so it was never a priority, but when one popped up on Craigslist for $200 and only a few blocks from my office, I jumped quickly. Here's the trailer that first afternoon-

This trailer was in pretty rough shape, so a true restoration wouldn't be in the cards. That was fine with me since I didn't have grand visions for the trailer. It needed to stay a multi-use, Swiss-army-knife trailer, just like the Pinzgauer. It needed to work for camping, mountain-biking, wood-cutting, and construction projects. Our Pinzes have plenty of room for camping, overlanding, and exploring, but carrying everything in the back limits those times you want to challenge yourself, and the vehicle, off-road. Leaving a trailer at camp would be ideal.

First step was to split the tub from the chassis and see just how bad this thing was...

I'm going to have to post a little bit at a time although the trailer is mostly done now.

I found out a little history on it. A father and son from Odessa TX came to the area every summer to work a mining claim near here and they brought the trailer and a surplus jeep with them. They probably filled the thing with rocks and that explains the dents, broken taillights, no registration, and reinforced axle. It was buried under a pile of scrap steel waiting for the recycling co. to arrive when someone saw it and pulled it out and put it on Craigslist.

Surprisingly the bolts weren't rusted and the trailer's frame was straight and in good condition. All it needed was a good wire brushing and black spray paint. While it was apart, I had a 2" hitch welded to the frame for a bike rack or other accessories. Since the wiring harness was shot and a new NATO/Pinz plug would be needed, that was the first project for me. I ordered the Pinz plug from SAV and of course it wired up easily and fits the truck perfectly. The trailer's broken taillights meant I could use some extra Pinz taillights I'd already purchased a few years ago.

Sweet trailer man! I've got an M416 too, and love it. They pull so easy, you hardly even know they're back there.

I also think that esthetically it matches a Pinz well. With the angular fenders, I think it even looks better than Pinz trailer, but that's just my opinion.

For $200 bucks, you did very well. I paid a little more and it was also rough. FYI, if you ever wanted to replace the tub, there are really nice repro tubs made. Mine had the tailgate cut out, and I replaced it with a repair panel.

Congratulations!!

undysworld wrote:They pull so easy, you hardly even know they're back there.

You're right, in fact I want to put a flag on it so I can tell its still there.

So, then I could concentrate on the tub, but since I still wanted to load the trailer with wood and construction materials, I didn't want to spend much time or money on it. My cousin was a Swiss army Pinzgauer mechanic and driver and he told me they used to paint the vehicles with brushes and rollers- my own truck has plenty of evidence of that. He sent some RAL 6014 paint which should be correct to the original Pinz and I brushed it on and rolled it smooth. It is interesting paint- water soluble and hardly any fumes- more like acrylic or latex paint. There's no label though so I don't know much about it. While the tub is pretty beat up, it turned out well and the total cost was about $40- perfect!

In early March I had a construction project underway and needed to put the trailer to use so that forced me to put the fenders on, wire up the tail lights, and get it generally road-worthy.

I had to wait a few weeks for an opening at my friend's CNC mill. He makes unique frontends/handguards for AR's and is really swamped, but he took the time to make some custom wheel adapters from my CAD file. After tapping the holes and loctite-ing the correct studs, they turned out perfectly. Here's the before and after!

With some 255/85r16's mounted up to rims from Dennis @ Linden Eng in Golden, CO the trailer matches the Pinz! That's the end for now...

Okay, now I'm doubly impressed.

Awesome!
Would he be interested in kicking out another set of adapter?

Really a good job on that trailer. I sold mine to a guy in the Arizona pinz club, one of the most regrettable decisions I have made. They are hard to find and once refitted to your needs are tough to beat, pull well and hold a lot of items and leave the pinz open for sleeping and not holding lots of kit.
A spare can be fitted to the underside as the space is well suited for 33's.

Happy trails

Great post and photos!

TechMOGogy wrote:Great post and photos!

agreed

The one thing I did notice about the union of the M416 and the original pinz hitch is that the Swiss trailer has a smaller lunette and it will bind in the pinz hitch. I got a universal hitch used on the US military vehicles and there were no more issues.