M1101 trailer for expedition use. Experience and advice needed.

[Jwknutson17]

I just picked up a 2010 Silver Eagle M1101 trailer from a guy online. I plan on using this as an expedition trailer for off-road camping and hunting trips here in the CO high country. I started looking at these trailers a month ago on the gov planet site and decided shipping/recovery, auction fees, and bidding without eyes on, was not the way to go. I found a almost mint 2010 about an hour and half south of me and decided to go take a look. This trailer looks to be unused besides a small ding on the canopy strap hook on the pass side, and spot weld broken on the gas can holder up front. Tires still had knobs on them! First impression is this thing is massive, and could take anything I threw at it. It had been converted to the standard 4 wire plug and was plug and play on my ride.

I know a lot of guys here have probably used these trailers in the service. What kind of things should I be aware of? It towed straight on my way back and kept it at 65mph. Tires were at 23psi upon pickup. Thinking 30 might be better for my application, but I have no experience with these trailers. The ride height is what concerns me the most. My ride, GX470 V8, lifted 3 inches with complete Old Man Emu kit, all air parts removed and coverted to coil springs. Tubular control arms, 285/70/17 tires, etc etc. I bought a drop hitch pintle mount and flipped it to give me an extra 4 inches. Rear gate still opens and it's not the crazy tall 12 inch that people run. Thought about converting the luinette ring with surge brakes on the front to a slight drop, 2.5 ring, and convert the brakes to electric with parking brakes. How much rake it desired on this trailer? I would like to get it as close to level as possible, but realize this might not be possible. The center of the pintle on my truck is 21.5 inches. Trailer height to center of ring is 29.5. If I got rid of the surge and dropped the ring as stated above, I would be at 25.5 trailer and 21.5 truck. Only other way I can see getting it close is put a set of 6x5.5 hubs on it for 200 bucks and run the same wheels and tires as my ride. That will get me within 1.5 of level.

Anyone else have one, and what did you do? Lifting my truck more is not an option. Wife's truck sits at 24.5 and considering just only towing it with that, but it's a 2014 Tacoma and doesn't have near the power my V8 has up in the mountains. But I could keep the 37s on the trailer then.... Putting on 33s with same wheels as the tow vehicle would make it easy as I wouldn't need to buy another spare 37. Could use tow vehicles in a pinch.

Input is appreciated. And if you already did one, and wish you did it differently, what would you have done. Keep the surge brakes? Go electric? Keep or replace the 37s? Pintle or ball? I like pintle for off-road... Thanks in advance.

Photo is from pickup.

Attachment 40427

[Chipper78]

You need to check out ih8mud.com and expedition portal. They have tons of threads about guys using these for expedition rigs. Ih8mud in particular has a trailer tech section.
http://forum.ih8mud.com/forums/trailer-tech.98/

[Co-gnARR]

I almost bought a similar model locally. The things I see people doing are converting from 24vDC to 12v DC, which allows you to run the trailer lights from a regular 7 pin connector. A motor head I am acquainted with claims surge brakes are fine, if they are well maintained. Personally I can't tell you much about surge brakes, so my proposed build would have the electric brake upgrade. You might need a brake controller if you go that route. The hub upgrade obviously simplifies logistics if the trailer can use the same wheel as your truck/jeep. Regarding the pintle, the major concern is matching the lunette to the pintle. If there is a mismatch in size I think it gets very noisy; IDK if it compromises function/durability.

[Jwknutson17]

Thanks for the link. Trailer has already been converted to 12v and runs on the 4 wire to 7 adaptor on my truck. It has all LED markers for they also work on the 12v system. The pintle I purchased says for use on 2.5 or 3 inch rings. I was going to go on the smaller side for the ring (2.5) as I would assume less play / noise?? I have a brake controller already that I can just install, so going the electric route would be easy. Don't think I will ever submerge drums/shoes in salt water, so electric I see could be the best / easiest solution. The 37s just give this thing the wow factor, but not very user friendly for me. Weigh 150 each and will cost some coin to get another spare for it. Feels like I would be sacrificing ride quality leaving the 37s on there. I know I would on the highway for sure.

[M4Guru]

Hell yeah, that's a nice trailer. They're super durable, really well made, and there are tons of resources for modifying them.

The 1101 is the route I am going to go over the winter.

- Convert to 12V
- Convert to 6.5 hubs for my Tacoma
- 2ft rack, move my Tepui to over from the camper
- Coated nylon bed topper (similar to the RTT cover)
- Spare mount off front of rack

I'm between Denver and Boulder if you need a hand

[Jwknutson17]

Hell yeah, that's a nice trailer. They're super durable, really well made, and there are tons of resources for modifying them.

The 1101 is the route I am going to go over the winter.

- Convert to 12V
- Convert to 6.5 hubs for my Tacoma
- 2ft rack, move my Tepui to over from the camper
- Coated nylon bed topper (similar to the RTT cover)
- Spare mount off front of rack

I'm between Denver and Boulder if you need a hand

That would be cool. Always interested to see others vision on something like this along with the ideas I came up with in my own head. Down in Parker so probably about a good hour drive in no traffic. I'll shoot ya a PM.

[Honu]

another good forum for info

http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ition-Trailers