No 5 army trailer
 

Hey guys

I’ve got a trip to Morton island at the end of next year and instead of buying a bigger car I’m going to be building a camper trailer out of these old army trailers and tow it behind the tj.
What I can’t seem to find is if there fitted with brakes does that mean you get the full 500kg payload to bump it up to 860kg gvm. Everyone seems to just leave them without brakes and put up with the 750kg gvm. The extra 110kgs will come in handy and still keep it legal with towing it behind the tj.

I will be doing a build thread on here so just out of interest This is what I’ll be doing to it

500mm draw bar extension
New axle with brakes to keep the same track as the tj
Fridge slide box onto the front of the trailer
Dust proof lid with allowance to put a large roof top tent on top
Water tank underneath
Probably put the leafs under the axle to keep the height down

I’ve worked it out to be doable with the 860gvm but pushing it with the 750gvm

Sounds like a great plan, the ex army trailers are a perfect base for a very solid camper.
Just keep in mind the load limits for unbraked trailers are there for a reason - yes the Regs are conservative but you need to be able to stop safely. One nasty jack knife can really spoil your holiday!
Just a thought, if you’re replacing the axle, why not go the whole hog and work in override or electric brakes?

In my opinion they are really, really well built and would make a great camper base. They will put up with any abuse you can throw at them.

As you already asserted they are very, very heavy for such a small trailer, they may even be made from in part from lead lol. Because the trailer itself is heavy it really limits what you can put in / on it and stay within GVM, especially loaded up with water, food, beer, beer and beer. At least for a poor lil TJ.

Wish you the best of luck on the build, i had the same plans in mind and did buy one from auction. But, i ended up getting a bargain buy on a real camper with all the fruit so the poor #5 is just sitting in the backyard getting rusty these days :p

There are a few threads on here from people building up ex army trailers so you'll be able to get some ideas on how to go about it.

I don't believe they come with brakes however I could be wrong there as they are a very heavy trailer.

If they don't, it's not a great deal extra to fit a set of electric ones.

Both the old #5 and the 750 do not have any brakes at all, the smallest that does is the hallmark pt2-2, hell of a trailer. They are hydro/mechanical not electric. Have stabilisers, great chassis and weigh in at 750kg with an atm od 2000kg. Led lights, stabilisers, dual axle, lift points, usually a great canvas frame and cover. However they at least 4x the price and a little big for a TJ...

Thanks for that. I thought that was the case but had a bit of doubt in my mind when typing.

If the hub pattern is known, you can purchase electric brake kits for around $180 online.

A mate that bought my old camper trailer converted it to electric brakes which was pretty easy to do.