MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- Maintenance Center Barstow aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow has a commitment to refurbish 289 M-105A2 military trailers. The “pack mule” trailer has been in use by every service at U.S. military installations at home and abroad for nearly six decades.
Its basic design has gone virtually unchanged since it was first introduced in 1952. Debuting at the same time as the equally commonplace military 2 ½ ton truck, the “deuce and a half,” and the M-105A2 were literally made for each other. Among the features of this sturdy, heavy duty steel trailer are an emergency breakaway system designed to actuate hydraulic brakes automatically if the trailer should become inadvertently separated from the towing vehicle, according to the 200-page U.S. Army technical manual issued with the equipment. This prevents a runaway trailer. It also has a manual hand brake to secure it when the vehicle is stopped or parked.
The M-105A2 trailer also is capable of being fully submerged with no ill effects, such as while crossing a river.
Military field kitchens use the M-105A2 to transport equipment during field operations. The trailer frame can also be outfitted with a water tank for use off road, as a flatbed, or as a wooden stake bed with a cover to haul nearly any kind of supplies. It also can handle radar and satellite transportation, or kitted up with a generator to provide power in the field. In any of the configurations of the M-105A2, the vehicle is capable of hauling 3,000 pounds of material in the field, or as much as 5,500 pounds on the highway according to technical manual specifications.
A 10-person crew at MCB is responsible for completing the work on the trailer, according to Marty Ulibarri, a division head for the tactical support branch at Cost Work Center 725.
“We have a commitment to deliver 289 trailers by the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30),” the Belén, N.M., native said. “Most of the completed trailers are going to Iraqi security forces,” he said.
The procedure being used at CWC-725 to build the trailers is called the single piece flow method, Ulibarri explained.
“We preposition all of the material needed to work on the trailers,” he said. “That saves time rather than having to stop to find the parts we need.”
Three trailers a day can be turned out using the method that uses the assembly line approach, Ulibarri noted. That means five crews of two people each performing a different job on each trailer, one after the other.
“Before, with the stall method, two people would be working on a trailer in a stall or bay, and it would take them fifty hours to do it,” the 39-year veteran of MCB said.
“It’s a pretty good method,” Charles “Butch” Gomez, a 35-year veteran of the MCB, said. He has seen many assembly line repair processes tried out during his tenure at the Maintenance Center. “It needs a little improvement, but it works,” Gomez added.
“It feels good knowing we’re doing something good for the war fighter,” the native of Jerome, Ariz., said. “That’s the name of the game right there.”