I came across these containers at a scrapyard, and the more I look at them, the more I like them! I'm very much considering using one as the bed of my Dubble A. I like the strong and industrial look of the tub, and think it'd make a cool bed as well. They measure 83" long, 53" wide, and 20" deep, and are designed with USAF palletized shipping in mind, as 8 containers will fit perfectly onto a single 463L pallet. If you know what a 463L is, let me know - we've probably be in the same places before, or handled the same freight before as well! Each container comes with a lid that latches securely around the sides and is designed to be vacuum sealed for whatever is inside. Unfortunately this means it is water tight as well, which means I have to fabricate a tailgate for it, but that is minor anyway. If anyone knows what these were exactly meant to be used for in the military transit system, please let me know. I'd like to look them up and find more information about them and what they were used for. I think they'd make a neat addition to a loosely themed military type build up.
no clue what they are used for. but i think they will make a great bed with some torch work.. you know.. make them fit how you want.. was the price right?
Haven't gotten it yet, but price will be right. I'm going with a fenderless setup for now, so I'm probably going to have to put a small 'skirt' around it to hide some of my rear suspension mountings, but overall it should work out right. It also just fits to the end of my frame now, which is perfect as well. My plans are to extend my cab eventually as well, so it should also still look right and fit well even if it overhangs the back end of the frame a foot. In fact, it'd probably even look better that way. We've got an old military trailer we saved from scrap awhile back that we're talking about pulling the axle and wheels out from under to turn one of these into a trailer to sell. Even without a tailgate but with a locking lid, these'd make a killer trailer to tow with a small vehicle for 'show' support equipment. Also, being waterproof and watertight, it should hold a helluva lot of beer too!
Looks really heavy... or is it aluminum? Not to discourage your creativity, but it has too much of a grain truck look to me. Gary
They're supposed to weigh about 400-450 pounds each, which truly isn't too much considering how much a bed could weigh. I figure if the rear is too light I won't be able to get any traction, so this might help fill that bill. As for a grain truck style bed, that's not too far off of a description as I'm hoping for a bit of an industrial sort of look anyway. The only rebuttal I'd have for the grain truck look is that these sides would be alot shorter at 20" rather than 3-4' sides of most grain trucks.
Well damnit - I paid for them once, I figure it's good that I can use them again for a better use myself! LOL I worked USAF Air Transportation for 9 years before I separated. Thing is, in all my time, I don't remember this type of container, and they're kind of small for a jet engine, but I could be wrong. I was wrong twice before... and divorced them both!
I did some shipping for the US Navy ... Saw a couple of these ... they contained electonics gear. All classified stuff. It had a pressurized gas sealed inside to prevent tampering and had GPS ... Joe
They would hold a vacumn? That's something, must have cost a fortune new. I could see evacuating the air out then putting in an inert gas under a little pressure, tho. Very cool The pictures really don't show the scale of them right. They look as big as dumpsters in the pictures. But the dimentions you give are nice for a truck bed or trailer.
That's REALLY heavy. The Brookville repop bed on my 27, complete with tail gate and bed wood, is heavy enough already. Just remember you will have lots of opportunities to take that big tub on & off the chassis during the duration of your build, cart it all over the shop and store it some place when not needed. Get yourself a good overhead winch and a sturdy dolly! Gary
My guess would be heavy ammunition.......(tank rounds, etc) Electronic fuses also is a possibility.... I think they would look killer on your project !! (No pun intended) Cheers.........
Those may have come from Tinker AFB? We used some like that to transport electronic equipment to and from the depot there. Scott...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/463L_master_pallet 463L pallet I don't think you'll need to be dropping the AA out of a C-130 though.
Basically, they are just plain and empty inside from what I've seen. Mostly though, as I've seen them, they had some sort of 'garbage' in them at the scrap yard. Mufflers, converters, aluminum hard parts, etc. THAT makes sense. I wish I knew the actual 'name' of the container so I could look it up better for more inclusive information. Just out of curiosity and for historical information for my own use. Know what I mean? I like the idea of a fitted cover for them. Makes it nice to secure your stuff and keep it dry. The only thing I'll have to really do is create a 'skirt' around the bottom of the bed to hide some of the suspension bracketry and dress it up a bit. The more I think about'em the more I dig these containers. The pic does make them look huge, but overall they're not too big. They'll fit the available area on this truck well, and will allow me to eventually (possibly) run fenders and such on it as well. I'd be curious to know what your bed - fully dressed - weighs as installed. I know this will be heavy too, but then again, there's about 100 pounds or so of 4x4s and extra angle iron I plan to cut off the bottom to lay it down flat against the frame better and look cleaner. I'll probably go ahead and have it weighed out when I pick it up, just so I can have an idea before I start messing with it. Dolly's are easy storage, and luckily I've got LOTS of room! Thanks for the +vote. It'd be my luck I'd get the one or two of them that had a pinhole in them. I'd set them up, and come back to find them sunk! Then for sure they'd be too heavy to move or mess with! LOL It is possible they came from there. Nice thing is this yard has lots of them. I know Tinker had a huge DRMO setup, and not everything they sold was junk. Some of these look new - thankfully! These I'm sure are designed to fit the 463L to a "T". Figure the working surface of the 463L pallet is 84"x104". These containers being 83"x45" allow two of them to be placed side x side. Being they'd be 90" wide, they'd allow for the alleyway to fit in positions 3 & 4 on the C-130 to allow for the wheel wells. I know my way around a C-130 as I've loaded one or two!
Those boxes are MICLIC containers,, its used to clear mine fields, it has a rocket motor that you hook up to it and then it shoots an explosive across the ground to blow up mines etc.. im almost home from a year deployment in an ammo company. I have seen more of these than i care to remember lol
I know this is a 3 year old post but I have been looking for ones of those containers for several years. Where is the scrap yard and do you have contact info for them? Thanks in advance