#’s on safety chain tab

[zoro]

Just noticed there are numbers stamped or etched into the driver side safety chain tab on my M416. Could these be the serial number of the trailer?

[sjalbert]

Post photo's. Possible, but not likely. More often numbers were stamped onto the frame prior to a rebuild.

[zoro]

Here's the photo.



Where would those serial numbers be stamped after a rebuild? Any idea what the numbers on the chain mean?

[sjalbert]

Most frequent spot is on the front lip near the e-brake, but they've also been found stamped on the frame rails near the drawbar casting.

[zoro]

Didn’t see any numbers in those spots on the tongue.

Did some cleaning of the number I found and it reads: 1C924579

[zoro]

Ended up doing some more digging and found out that 10924579 is the part number for the safety chain tabs. Bummer

[sjalbert]

I thought that might be the case. Those looked like they might be original chains. That also means your trailer probably didn't go thru a rebuild.

[zoro]

I thought that might be the case. Those looked like they might be original chains. That also means your trailer probably didn't go thru a rebuild.

When I got the trailer the chains and hooks were MIA, just the tabs in place.

I'm curious, what work goes into the rebuilds?

[sjalbert]

I don’t know. I’m not sure that there was a standardized rebuild for the 416. For the MBT/BT3 WWII trailers there was a depot in Japan that rebuilt a bunch for use in Korea. Most of the trailers that I’ve seen (or heard of) from that program ended up with a rebuild tag and a mix of Bantam & Willys features.