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Towing A M105 Trailer?

godzilla

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I just won a m105 from gl. I'm going to be towing it home with a f250. My question is, can it be towed without the air brake lines hooked up, didn't know if these trailers have spring brakes like commercial trucks. And is the lunette size the same as the m101's? Thanks in advance!
 

Shizzlemah

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Portland ME
Yes you can tow with no air.... Although without air you will have no trailer brakes - assuming they'd even work.

Same lunette / pintle.

You should be good to go.
 

jeepin

Member
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Vermont
Every M105 I have seen is air over hydraulic with hand lever op parking brakes so you should not have an issue. Biggest problem I have when towing with a pickup is that you need a lot of height on your pintle or the back end of the trailer is high up, likely over the legal bumper height in some states.
 

SCSG-G4

PSVB 3003
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I pulled one from Montgomery, AL to Columbia, SC with an f150. Cruise control, 60 mph. Lunette might be a bit thicker than a 101, and my pintle was raised up about a foot above the hitch. I let the tailgate down and attached magnetic lights in the back.

One caution, check the wheel bearings to make sure they have been lubed before you get far, or check the hub temp about every 10 miles, and make sure the wheels are at full air pressure - if so, it should be a piece of cake!
 

KaiserM109

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There have been a couple of threads recently about towing M105s, but I’m not going to try to find them; I have school work to do. Basically an empty M105 weighs in at 2700 lb., easily handled by your F250. As you can see in the pictures below, they can be towed EMPTY fairly easily. That empty trailer with no active trailer brakes was right at the limit for the Bronco which doesn’t do well in a panic stop, anyway.

As jeepin points out, the tail end of the trailer might be a little high for legal limits. In two 95 mile trips pulling M105s behind my Bronco with the trailer’s posterior stuck up in the air like a baboon’s butt, I was passed by several state and local police. Use stick-on lights and you should be okay.

There are 2 solutions to the trailer height, 1) Turn the lunette over, that will give you about 5 inches and 2) use some type of hitch that raises your pintle. I didn’t do either and my hitch is probably lower than your F250’s, so that is probably worst-case. You might want to consider a permanent solution if you are going to pull your M105 with your F250 in the future.

A friend, Bushman5000, recently pulled an M105 500 miles from Ft. Riley, KS behind his Jeep Cherokee with no incident. He found that dropping the tailgate so that it didn’t form an air dam made it tow smoother with much less drag.

If your trailer is of the newer persuasion and has an air tank and relay valve, you will definitely want to drain the air tank before you start. If they have any pressure, they can lock up your brakes for you, thinking that it is an emergency situation where you have lost your air lines. It could have low pressure that would not set the brakes until you hit a good bump.

Good towing and welcome to the M105 faction; I have 2 plus an MKT-85 and am eyeing another M105 in a farmer’s field.

Arlyn
 

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JAYHAWK 1962

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tijeras, nm
Mine towed great behind my 2500 gmc hd. If you need the pintle plate and pintle hook i bought mine through northern equipment and saved big$$ compared to the local trailer supply. They have the large pintle plat e about 14 inch rise and a few different pintle hooks i think i went with the 25 ton was just about the same price as the 15 ton one. It fit the lunette pretty well
 

nhdiesel

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Milan, NH
This is the hitch I made for behind my Durango. Looks scary, but I welded it well and designed it to be SOLID. After the M105 recovery I've used it to tow a heavy load of scrap steel to the recycler, no issues.

01.jpg

And the tow of the trailers. With less tongue weight the trailers tow level, so the hitch is right. 300 miles with this setup from northern Maine. The Durango had a newly installed 4bt Cummins and 5-speed NV4500.


08-1.jpg

Jim
 

emmado22

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Make sure you bring a jack so you can lower the lunette on to the hitch once you release the landing gear on the trailer. Or SEVERAL strong friends. Dont count on just loosening up the castle nut on the lunette and flipping it. Every one I have seen was rusted in place, and took lots of penatrating oil and some beating on with a sledge hammer to get it to turn after several days.
 

glcaines

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I towed an M105A2 950 miles from Ft Riley with an F-150. I purchased a raised pintle hitch from Northern Tool and the result was an almost perfectly level trailer. The F-150 strained a little in the mountains with the 5 liter engine, but otherwise it pulled fine. I was actually amazed at how well it pulled.
 

Trailboss

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Norwood LA
I also used an F150 to tow one 450 miles. Took off the cover, bows, front and rear stakes, and dropped the tailgate to put the 12v magnetic lights from walmart on the end of the bed. Left the side stakes up.
 

Mark2X2

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Washburn, WI
There are 2 solutions to the trailer height, 1) Turn the lunette over, that will give you about 5 inches and 2) use some type of hitch that raises your pintle. I didn’t do either and my hitch is probably lower than your F250’s, so that is probably worst-case. You might want to consider a permanent solution if you are going to pull your M105 with your F250 in the future.
Arlyn[/quote]

Arlyn,
Good luck turning the lunette over at a GL yard, without a torch, and a big impact! At least on any trailer that has been run in road salt. Been spraying my 101 & 105 weekly with penetrating oil. Going to lower lunette on 101 & raise on 105 when I change the Deuce to 11.00-20 singles.
 

nhdiesel

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Milan, NH
I thought the same thing when I went to pull my ring off (wanted to check it out for use on another project). I pulled the cotter pin, put the wrench on the nut (not much fits in there!), and put my 300+ lbs. on it. It moved pretty easily! In fact, I turned the nut about 1/4 turn, and was able to spin it off by hand! One quick rap on the side of the ring with the wrench and it broke free and pulled right out.

I know I just got lucky. If I had to do that in a GL yard somewhere I'd still be there trying to get it off! Oh, and my trailer is from the 60's. :-D

Jim
 

godzilla

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Location
Selinsgrove,Pa
Thanks for all the input guys. I'm going thursday to pick it up, euc was finally approved. I'm going to bring a hilift, pbblaster, big adj wrench and a bfh, wish me luck. Luckily I only have a 45 minute trip to bring it back. Does the tongue stand fold back like on the 101's or does it detach?
 

nhdiesel

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Milan, NH
They fold back. I don't know if an adjustable will fit in where the nut is. I can try to remember to check the size of the nut in the morning so you can bring a wrench.

Jim
 

srodocker

Well-known member
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Location
Lacey, Washington
My 02 v6 ranger pulled it just fine...braking was fine just give tons of room and pulled about 55mph. my m103a3 i found only weighs 1650 according to the data plate. but it does have a giant box on it so that was like a windsail hahah
 
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