Boyink! - Spring Forward on the Web

Pictures and details from the day the trailer came home to the day it appeared in two magazines.

Buying the Trailer
If you’ve read up on my 1966 CJ5 you know I’ve been around it since I was 9 years old.  Having a real Jeep around kids naturally led my folks to buying us a number of Jeep toys to play with.  You know, those cool sets that always came with a Jeep and matching trailer.  After growing up and becoming the owner of the ‘66 it wasn’t much of a stretch to recall those toy playsets and want a 1:1 version of a matching Jeep and trailer. 
So for years I’ve had my eye out for a “Jeep trailer”.  I never knew much about them until finding John Hubbards’ Jeep Trailer’s Spotters Guide posted on Derek Redmonds CJ3B site.  After much study of those pages I could at least put a name on what I was looking for - a name from the real roots of the Jeep - a Bantam Jeep trailer.
Knowing it’s name didn’t make one any easier to find here in the Rustbelt, though!
Then a mistake on some wheels I had ordered for the CJ led me to a machinist who mentioned having a trailer that “took Jeep wheels”.  My ears perked up, and I described the basic shape of the Bantam box and the rounded fenders.  “Yep - that’s what it looks like.”  “Want to sell it?”  “Ya know..we’re moving here in a bit and it’s just sitting full of junk anyway.  Yea, I’ll sell it.”

I didn’t even ask the price.  A few weeks went by before he had the time to get it cleaned out and brought in.  When I finally went to pick it up I went to write the check and asked “How much?”  “75.00” was the answer.  I felt a little guilty, knowing these things sell for quite a bit more than that on the ‘net.

Little did I know the initial purchase price would be about the cheapest part of the project:

Not bad looking for $75.00, eh?  That’s what I thought…

 

A little worse for the wear, but not *too* bad…right?

 

Right?

Time to Disassemble
First let’s get this tub off of the frame..

 

So we can really see what we’re dealing with here…which is a very rusted and useless frame.

 

Might as well go whole-hog at this point and disassemble the entire thing.

 

Reassembly Starts
Hang it all!  For POR-15 application that is… the trailer will live outside, so all metal gets a coat of POR first.

 

Assembling the new frame.  The quotes I got to re-create the lighterweight sheet metal frame the Bantam originall had were pretty high, so a heaver frame was welded up from standard angle and c-channel.

 

Tub is now welded to the new frame.  Also in place at this point is a new reproduction floor from JeePanels Plus.  New “RV store” fenders get fitted at the same time as the originals were rusted past being salvageable.  The new fenders are actually very close in size and shape to the originals, and for $18/ea I just couldn’t beat them.

Bodywork
Back from the sandblaster and body shop.  My novice welding job is visible here.  A MIG welder runs so much better when there’s gas in the bottle… who’d a thunk?  New floor is visible.

 

For rear side supports I copied an early Bantam design and reinforced the edge of the bed with 1” angle and added the diagonal 1” square tubing supports.  Sturdier than the sheet metal type and better looking.

 

Many of the tarp hooks and fender mounts had to be re-brazed on since there was rust behind them. 

At this point we painted everything with the POR15 product, then took it back to the bodyshop for final paint.

Finished Product
The finished product in 1962 Ford Rangoon Red. Not bad!  Front shot shows spare tire mounted - a 4.5” Jeep wheel with a small metric sized VW radial.

 

With the CJ at the local state park on Lake Michigan.  I had several people come talk to me while I took the pictures…it’s amazing the attention draw these little trailers are.

The CJ and trailer were featured in the February 2002 “Readers’ Rigs” section of Four Wheeler Magazine, and the September 2002 “Jeep Shots” section of JP magazine.

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Saúl Dávila on January 16, 2005

   Well, I was looking for a trailer in the same circunmtances you did. Finally I found my trailer laying after many years on a small ranch in mexico.I have not started the restoration, but Im very enthusiastic about my project.

2. Bob OBrien on June 01, 2005

   Nice job!I have been looking out my upstairs window for about ten years,into a neighbors yard where a civilian bantam trailer has sat. Two years ago I met some one from that family and inquired about the trailer, but was told that it was not forsale. Yesterday I finally met the owner and was told to get it out of the yard!I accomplished that today. It needs sandblasting,a floor, tires,and paint. I’m currently looking at other trailers that hane been restored.Incidentally,IT’s origional color seems to be a forrest green or something close to that,based upon the areas covered by the reflectors.Regards,Bob OBrien

3. Joe Termini on August 22, 2005

   Is C channel a standard item and were did you get it ?        Thanks

4. Michael Boyink (Author) on August 22, 2005

   Hi Joe -

   Yes, C channel is a standard item just like angle iron and strap metal.  Your local metal supplier will have it or can source it for you.

5. Rick on October 04, 2005

   Just bought a bantam civilian jeep trailer myself. Are they supposed to have shock absorbers like the military version?

6. Michael Boyink (Author) on October 05, 2005

   AFAIK the civvie trailer didn’t have shocks, but a previous owner could have easily added them using mil parts.  I’ve considered doing so on mine to stop it from jumping around so much when empty.

7. Jim Cowan on December 08, 2005

   Nice looking rig with the jeep attached, however you need to add height to the hitch or raise the tongue on the trailer,  It wilol track much better with less side to side fishtailing.  Good show…

8. Michael Boyink (Author) on December 08, 2005

   Keep in mind the trailer is empty in the pics…so a load of any weight will drop it level.

   FWIW I never had an issue with fishtailing as shown with now almost 4 years of use, with loads of all different wieghts and behind 2 other tow vehicles that were lower than the Jeep.

9. tony on April 03, 2006

   Where did you get the wheels/rims?  I am looking for a spare for my Bantam civilian trailer and was wondering if there was a modern production vehicle rim that would fit.

10. Michael Boyink (Author) on April 03, 2006

    Tony -

    The Bantams used Jeep parts where applicable (springs, hubs, bearings etc) so any pre-Wrangler era Jeep wheel will fit.

    You want a “5 on 5 1/2” bolt pattern wheel.

11. Cleo Betts on May 15, 2006

    Recently purchase a Bantam trailer Ser#2308. The rest of the ser# plate is hardly readable. I can see a T3-C and nothing else. I assume there was a B, but are would there be other characters or numbers in front of the B? Are side and floor panels available? Thanks, Cleo

12. Michael Boyink (Author) on May 16, 2006

    Hi Cleo -

    IIRC there is no B on the data plate.

    Floors are available from JeePanels Plus, I heard they were working on sidepanels but never confirmed.

    Look under the resources page here on my site.

13. eduardo melendro on September 15, 2006

    muy lindo, tengo un cj-7 -78, con trailer hecho por mi fiel copia.

14. Jerr ry on May 20, 2007

    I have a 1950 bantam It is need of restoration and don’t have the time is there anyone that does that sort of work in So.Cal.

15. Daryl on June 25, 2007

    I stated removing all the parts on my BT3C and now I am looking at what needs to be replaced. One thing is the floor. When I got the trailer the floor was cut out and most all of the indications on what the floor looked before hand are gone. I am going to replace the floor with some steel I have but without knowing what the floor looked like before I have a vague ideas on what to do. Can someone send a picture of a complete floor as it may look so I can copy. Thanks.

16. Richard on January 07, 2009

    Greetings.  I originally posted this under dataplate restoration, and then thought it might be better here.

    Thought that you and others might be interested in this new Bantam T3-C site that Art just put online yesterday resurrecting the data from John Hubbard’s database from the Yahoo Group that you have listed.

    http://48cj2a.com/bantamt3c.htm

    Be well,
    Richard

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