My new Water Trailer
 

This trailer has been languishing at my favorite scrapyard for as long as I have been going there. The military demilled it by cutting the front draw bars off. I had spotted the drawbar in another area of the yard years ago and the owner kept them together since.

A recent fire in the neighbors yards gave me the incentive to grab the trailer to save it and perhaps keep it full of water for the summer months. I recovered it a couple weeks ago and the spare water tank yesterday. Took a couple hours to sandblast the drawbars where they attach to the trailer, and weld them back together.

The tool box was one I bought from Dennis Walker a few years ago. He said it was one from a generator trailer, but it seems identical to other boxes shown on water trailers here on MLU.
The license plate will be original from the army (they used civilian plates back then) as are the removal of the pumps and filters, and replaced with a rack for jerry cans on the back. I will be leaving that rack there. The army also cut off the original small ring lunnette and replaced it with a standard size one that works with the M-series vehicles. The lid for the tank is inside the tank.

I'll be removing the tank to sandblast the frame eventually, but the project can sit for now. At least it is on the property, so won't be going anywhere.

Lovely purchase Rob; congrats!

It's great to see another Canadian trailer saved.

Thanks Alex.

Normally a trailer is a quick restoration. But since the front of the chassis was buried into the soil, there is some severe rust to deal with that is more than we usually see around here.

Funny thing was that after sitting in the field for almost 60 years, the tires still have air in them. There was some blistering of the metal lockring, so I won't be filling them to proper pressure. I may just remove the hub adapters and go back to the standard CMP rims as opposed to the Budd wheels.

Awesome water buffalo Rob ! Another one saved !

Enlightened self-interest:

1. a chance to spread some cash to your favourite junk yard
2. save a wartime artifact
3. an easy restoration project
4. a portable water source for the yard
5. a resale asset for the Great Rob Love Disposal Auction and MLU Get Together

In your part of the world, having a wildfire fighting rig is like carrying a first aid kit. Attack the problem when it's small while the professionals are able to respond with bigger and better equipment.

180 Gallon Water Trailer
 

Rob, what a nice find and since you already have the licence plate, an excellent opportunity to restore it back to its post-war configuration prior to when it was replaced by the M106A1 1½ Ton 330 Gallon Water Trailer.

I did do that once....it was a divorce sale. I needed a way to pay off the ex and pay off the mortgage so I could retire. At the end of the sale I had one compressor trailer and one rifle left. That was 20 years ago.

My plan is that the next time it happens it will be an estate sale and I won't see it.

In general the 2 wheel trailers with 16 CMP rims were rated 15 cwt and those with 20" commercial patter as 20 cwt.
When you get around to the restoration, the parking brake handles are Ford parts, either the standard (near straight with push button on the end) for CMP trucks or the handle (looks like the civilian, under dash with squeeze release) used for the winch brake on FGT (including the mounting bracket originally used to attach to transmission or floor respectively). The straight handle sticks up as shown in the 15cwt illustration in the vehicle data book while the FGT style projects sideways below the right side of the tongue. Do you have access to the parts list/maintenance manual to see which parts are common to other uses in the period?

I think I let my water trailer manual go to Chris Vickery when he bought my first water trailer back at the divorce sale. I do have one or two other CMP trailers around the yard, so can use them for examples. Now that I think of it, there's 4, but two of them are 4 wheelers. Then theres the 6 wheeler recovery trailer.
I'm starting to wonder if I have too many trailers.

Rob, congratulations on the trailer and you can never have too many. It's great that you have the coveted, impossible to find taps. Score. :thup2:
Barry

The one large center tap is missing, but yes, the small ones are all there. For some reason I think I have one or two hiding somewhere, but have not seen them in a lot of years. They well may have been some of the plumbing off the second tank I got.

The scrapyard covers many acres over three or four sites, but if you look long enough, everything is somewhere out there.


Edited to add: I stand corrected. I went to retrieve the lid from the tank and the large tap was in there. What wasn't there was the smaller cover which bvolts onto the tank, and some of the clamps for the lid are bent. This is where the spare tank will come in...it will have all those. The water trailer was also used for waste oil at some point in it's life, so after I retrieve the old oil filter and some rags out of the bottom, I'll fill it with water and laundry detergent and let it sit in the hot sun. I'm going tohave to get onto that cause we don't have a lot of hot sun days left here in Manitoba.

Can the tank be pressurized......
 

.....and loaded with draft beer????

Nice trailer and a little hard to find. Two thoughts however, the several trailers I have seen and owned were incredibly over built and heavy, you may not be able to prevent the destruction of less pristine examples as scrap prices head well over $400 ton. Second I always thought the most difficult items to locate were the hand pumps and filter assemblies, have you got some stowed away?

No pumps or filters, but I won't need them. They were pulled during it's post war service and the jerry can bracket built in it's place. I'll grab a half dozen of the NOS water cans next time I am out at the surplus yard to fill that rack.

My first water trailer had most or all of that stuff. I have seen one or two more floating around Manitoba.

Nice find!

And interesting to see how it was altered in postwar use. The Dutch changed out the wheels on some of them to make them compatible to other postwar trailers, but left the filters in place - see Canadian 180-gal 20-cwt water trailer info

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