Cort wondered if anyone knows the manufacturer of this trailer. It appears to be a cross between a Ben Hur (the sides are Ben Hur-esque) and a Sterling Machine & Mfg trailer (note how the interior of the top rim slopes into the trailer).
From 1941-1945, the Ben Hur (G-518) trailer was built by numerous companies (according to this page), including American Bantam, Ben Hur, Century Boat Works, Checker, Dorsey, Gertenslager, Henney, Hercules Body, Highland Body & Trailer, Hobbs, Hyde, Mifflinburg Body, Naburs, Nash Kelvinator, Omaha Standard Body, Pke, Queen City, Redman, Steel Products, Strick, Transportation Equipment Corp, Truck Engineering Corporation, Willys Overland, Winter Weiss, Baker, Covered Wagon Co., Keystone, And Streich. When the war ended, some of the companies must have had extra trailer parts. My theory is that this could be an early prototype of the Sterling Machine trailer, but build from left over Ben Hur parts. After fiddling with designs and/or using up the leftover Ben Hur parts, maybe Sterling decided to make the trailer smaller (see the green example below).
Trailer examples:
Sterling serial number 2 from this page (slightly different from later Sterling trailers). Note how the rim slants inward.
1943 Ben Hur trailer:
Other trailer links:
Sears/David Bradley HD model, perhaps. I had one similar and that’s what I figured it was.
I started the thread noted above on the Early CJ5 site about the Ben Hur / Sears David Bradley trailers, and am very curious about the trailer Cort sent photos of. I think Dave’s theory that left-over WWII 1-ton Ben-Hur trailer parts may have been used to build it might very well be correct (the most visible example perhaps being the fenders).
If you look at the first photos pictured in the initial post in the Early CJ5 thread (http://www.earlycj5.net/forums/showthread.php?74865-The-Sears-David-Bradley-Trailer), you’ll see an earlier post-war trailer made by Ben-Hur that was sold by Montgomery Wards in 1946-47. Note that the side rails of this Montgomery Wards trailer, like the trailer Cort sent the photos of, slope inwards. This particular characteristic was not seen in the slightly later civilian trailer that was also made by Ben-Hur (and subsequently marketed by Sears under the David Bradley name), which had fairly large horizontal side rail caps all the way around, similar to the Ben-Hur 1-ton WWII military trailer.
My best guess is that the trailer Cort is asking about may have been manufactured by Ben-Hur, using leftover parts from their wartime trailers, and perhaps as a larger, heavier-duty version of the smaller initial post-war civilian Ben-Hur trailer sold by Montgomery Wards. These two trailers do seem to share some definite similarities in any case. That said, it is also possible that Sterling could have been the manufacturer.
Thanks for those insights Maury.
– Dave
I can’t thank you all enough for looking into this. I wanted to make sure this wasn’t a trailer that had a special value before I turned it into a mobile tiki bar. My search now will be to find the correct axle and tires that will fit. What is on there now is just not right. If someone just has to have this, let me know. I can always find another trailer for my projects.
Thanks again
Cort
My husband just purchased a 1953 David Bradley trailer… He wants to sell … It is in great condition…. If i post pics can someone up here tell me what it might be worth? I would greatly appreciate it
Hi Sylvia,
Feel free to email me some pics at d@ewillys.com. Based on other Bradley trailers on the site I’ll give you a rough estimate. Thanks,
– Dave