New trailer

Just picked up a bantam trailer sn 11670. I was told it was a 1947 but I did not get any paper work with it any idea what year it is ? Also it is painted green/blue but it looks to have red paint under the flaking/peeling paint would the original paint be red ?

 

Is it really RED paint or is it just red oxide primer? Most military vehicles were primed with red oxide primer at the factory before being painted. If it really is red then most likely it belonged to a fire department at one point. It might have been a military fire department or a civilian one. A LOT of military vehicles were surplussed by the military and turned over to various city and county fire departments and the Forestry Service. It's COMMON to find red paint (FD usage) on ex-military vehicles from the '40 through the '60s. If it was a fire department vehicle it's possible that you'll find green paint under the red but not always since some of them stripped them completely before repainting them red.

 

This is a clearly late production T3-C "Civilian" not a military trailer. Tell tail signs are the angled frame box supports vs a "V" notch, and the squared front frame corners vs the angled ones and the ones that still had a hole for a black out light switch. They were only available in Red and Green unless dealer painted. The earliest ones could have had some OD Green paint or painted over since they came from surplus parts until they were all used up.

Not always the case but remove a wheel and see if they painted the hubs entirely. I have two trailers right now with nearly perfect original paint on the hubs (one green and one red) that I plan to remove and visit a good auto paint store for a scan and hoefully a paint match to determine the exact colors.

Visit my site and seach the items I mentions in serial numbers before yours and the database were I have been trying to pin point when the production changes occured.

None the less you have a very nice trailer to use as is or restore...Congrats!!