Building an off road boat trailer to take remote fishing
Owning a 4WD gives you access to some of the most amazing places in the world. We’ve been travelling WA for many years now, and have seen a huge number of these spectacular places. We love the coastline, and with 12,000km of spectacular coast in WA, you’d be hard pressed not to.
One thing we always missed though was having a little boat with us, just to get out that little bit off shore.
Spearfishing and fishing is a huge part of our holidays, and with all the gear you carry around, having a little boat makes it a real pleasure to get to the best spots with limited effort.
However, an ordinary tinny and boat trailer just wouldn’t cut it where we go, so something had to be done about it; operation 4WD boat trailer! We had to work out How to take your boat around Australia!
EDIT – We sold this when we took off on our Big Lap of Australia, but it was a heap of fun while we had it.


We wanted something light, easy to move and big enough to take out even when it was a bit choppy.
Something you could drag anywhere the 4WD went, including Steep Point, the rough tracks around Kalbarri’s Murchison House station and Kalumburu and Cape York one day.
We wanted something you could beach launch with a 4WD easily, and yet bounce around wherever we could tow it.
Operation tough boat trailer
We were looking for a boat under 4 metres, and a trailer that was already well built and in good condition to set up. After trolling Gumtree for many hours, I came across an older Stacer 3.75m boat on a brand new trailer that looked quite strong.
We went and looked at it, and despite a few issues with the trailer that could be easily fixed, picked it up fairly happily.
So, what was wrong with the trailer?
For starters, the boat was sitting entirely on the slides, with a good 10mm gap off the rollers, which should take the majority of the weight. There were only 4 keel rollers, and the slides were built out of electrical unistrut, with 1.5mm thick uprights.
Then, the rear angle supporting just the tail lights was 75x75x6mm, and only supported in the middle, allowing it to twist and fatigue. The drawbar was only 50x50x3mm RHS, and looked like it was very weak where it attached to the main chassis.
The outboard motor had no support, and the leaf springs were far too hard. Even if you jumped up and down on the boat you couldn’t get the single 600kg parabolic springs to flex, and I found out they were installed the wrong way around too, with the slipper facing forward.



It was a good platform to begin converting a boat trailer to off road, with a solid original structure that had been hot dipped already, and was built with steel that was well and truly overkill for the boat, but just had some significant weak points.
What does a tough off road boat trailer build need?
We had bumped into a group of guys along the Gibb River Road in the past, who had just come from an epic fishing trip to Kalumburu with their tinny, set up to handle the shocking (literally) roads up there.
I had a bit of a squiz at their trailer, and was impressed. Essentially, you need a bullet proof trailer that is going to take care of your boat whilst not falling apart. How do you do that?
I did a heap of reading online, and basically combined everything I read into this post. Hopefully it will make your lives easier!
Keel support
You want the majority of the weight of the boat to be supported by the keel, on the hull. The slides on the trailer touch the side of the hull and should be there to stop the boat from rocking and moving, not to take the weight of the boat.
We went from 4 to 8 rollers, and made sure the boat’s weight was almost entirely on the hull, and spread over a larger contact patch of rollers.

Slide quality
The slides on the side of your hull should be strong, and stop the boat from rocking one way or the other.
They can be adjustable, but it does increase the chance of them moving. It took a long time to get these the right height to match the rollers, but once they are fixed they aren’t going anywhere.
We removed the rubbish slides that the previous owner had made up, and replaced them with 50x50x3mm SHS.

Quality suspension
Your suspension is probably the most critical thing on your offroad boat trailer. It needs to absorb the bumps and corrugations as much as possible, so your boat doesn’t take the brunt of the shock.
It should be eye to eye shackle or independent suspension.
Slipper leaf springs are not ideal for offroad use. Shock absorbers are beneficial, but not entirely necessary. We purchased 500kg rated eye to eye offroad springs. Initially I removed a leaf, but found it was too soft so put it back in.
I used a block of linatex (heavy duty rubber) as the bump stop, which works very well.
Clearance
Your clearance under the trailer’s axle should be similar to your tow vehicle. You’d rather get hung up on your vehicle before the trailer catches. Consider the entry and departure angles too, depending on where you are planning on driving.
However, remember that the heigher the boat sits, the harder it is to launch. Initially I had the axle under the springs, and the top of the tinny was miles off the ground; it just wasn’t going to work.
I moved the axle over the springs, which drops the trailer by about 70mm, and although its still tall its not too bad.
Tie down points
We use a couple of the light duty ratchet straps, and we welded several tie down points on either side of the chassis.
The boat should be firmly on the trailer, but not pulled down with so much pressure that you damage the hull over rough roads.
Basically you don’t want the boat to be able to move up and down.
Something to bear in mind is the angle of the tie down’s too; if you go from one side of the trailer to the other and ratchet it up over the boat, you can squish the hull inwards, which makes it more likely to crack.

Suitable tyres
We were pushing to run the same tyres (285/75/16’s) on the trailer as on our Land Cruiser for spares and convenience.
This did cause some issues though, as they are massive tyres to have on a tinny. Second hand Goodyear tyres were purchased, and put on rims we had at home. The main issue was ensuring enough clearance was available between the top of the tyre and the mud guard, and then the mud guard to the tinny.
Running such big tyres is fantastic for rough roads; you can let them down hugely, and because of the lack of weight on the trailer they just work fine.
Tyre pressures
If you’ve done a fair bit of 4WDing you’d know its imperative to let your tyres down. The bigger the tyre, the more support it has and therefore the less pressure you need to run.
For high speed gravel driving, we run the tyres at around 9 – 12 PSI. On the really rough sand tracks out to Steep Point, we let them down to 5 PSI and they bagged nicely, but not nearly as much as expected.
The benefit of this is two fold; the trailer floats nicely on the tracks, but it also absorbs a huge amount of the vibrations and bumps through the tyres, without even needing to use the suspension.

Strong chassis and drawbar
This is the heart of your trailer, and you want to be happy with it. Overall the chassis on our trailer was pretty good, but the drawbar was an obvious weak point, as was the rear angle bit that the lights were attached to.
We welded in extra RHS to support the rear angle, and a second RHS length under the existing drawbar. The mount for the hitch was also removed, and replaced with a massively over engineered version.

Winch and mounting points
The winch plays a pretty important role while you are travelling; it keeps the boat in position on your trailer. The upright was replaced, along with the winch mount, and a brace installed to stop the whole post sliding along the drawbar.
Ultimately this is the only thing that stops the boat moving forward and backwards, and you want it done right.

Solid mud guards
If a normal boat trailer is taken off road, the first thing to break is always the mud guards. The sheet metal mud guards crack easily over vibrations, and will let go very quickly. If you support them properly they are fine, but after searching for suitable guards to cover the big tyres and coming up short.
In the end, we decided to make our own. 50 x 3mm stainless flat bar was used, and just bent around between 2 angles off the chassis, with rubber conveyor belt to seal it all up. Not the prettiest, but its simple, rust proof and solid as.

Axle and bearings
The trailer came with a non standard size axle, and weird bearings/hubs. We ditched the whole lot, and replaced it with 45mm square axle and parallel bearings.
Wheel track matching
This is not an absolute must, but it is handy. If you can match the wheel track of your 4WD to the boat trailer, its worth doing. In our case, we were replacing the axle anyway, so it was just a matter of getting the right size one.
With the -22 black sunraiser rims on the trailer, the wheel track is within 30mm of our Land Cruiser, which means it tows better and stays in the same ruts.
Offroad Hitch
Again, not something you ‘must’ do, but an off road hitch will make the trailer ride smoother (without the rattle from the towball), and does give you better ability for sharp angles, where a tow ball would just jam at maximum angle.
Initially I picked up a chinese copy of the Tregg hitch from Martins Trailer parts, but I wasn’t happy with it.
The finish quality looked suspect, and it wasn’t stamped as they are supposed to be. Despite some resistance from the guys that sold it to me, and a desire to conserve the funds, I went ahead and swapped it for a genuine Tregg Hitch, and welded it on.
If you are installing an offroad hitch on a light trailer the Treg or Trigg is OK. If its much heavier than this though, get a D035 – they are so much better. You can read more here – Why I’d never buy another Treg Hitch.


Nylock nuts x 2
Corrugations are the nastiest thing for trailers. Nylock nuts were used where possible, and doubled if the thread allowed. Where nylocks weren’t available, we used 290 Loctite. You can’t be having nuts vibrate loose on rough roads.
Outboard motor support
The back of your boat is put under huge strain when it has an outboard hanging off the back, and is bouncing up and down.
The best way to travel is with the motor trimmed all the way down (which we could easily do due to ample clearance), so I made up a support that locks the motor to the back of the trailer, and a ratchet strap stops it from bouncing around.
Linatex was used again to look after the motor, and its working perfectly.

Light weight
Our boat trailer now probably weighs under 100kg. With the boat and a bit of gear inside, I’d say the total setup would be under 400kg.
One thing to be careful of is the amount of weight you put inside the hull; they break most often when people overload them! We carry a maximum of 60L of fuel inside, a spare tyre, a couple of empty eskies and a few other light weight gear; bulky stuff that doesn’t weigh much.

Upgrading the motor
Our tinny came with a 15hp Honda 4 Stroke, which initially I was excited to see. However, it would barely plane with just two people (the one at the front had to lean forward to make it get up and plane) and replacing the propeller/messing with hydrofoils just didn’t seem economical.
I looked around for ages, and found second hand motors were only a few hundred less than a brand new motor with a 3 year warranty, so I sold the Honda and purchased a brand new Mercury Seapro 25hp (made by Tohatsu with a great reputation).
I knew it would be louder and use more fuel, but wasn’t too concerned about that side of it.

Steel and other trailer specifics
Drawbar – 50 x 50 x 3 SHS doubled on top and laminated
Chassis – 75 x 75 x 6mm angle upside down
Rollers – 8 x red boat rollers with stainless pins
Springs – 715mm length, eye to eye offroad 500kg rated
Axle – 45mm square
Hitch mount – 10mm plate top and bottom, bolted together and welded to the drawbar with the Treg hitch welded on top
The trailer is absolutely overkill for the weight of the boat and where it is taken, but I’d rather that than have it breaking on us in the middle of no where.
The maiden run
Asides from a quick beach run down to Preston one afternoon, the trailer had done little work before our trip up north. In fact, the outboard motor had only been run at the shop, and put back in its cardboard box.
We headed out to Carrarang Station, and spent several nights there and a full day out at Steep Point.
Overall, the trailer was flawless. The only thing that broke was the stainless wire holding the mud guards back off the tyres, which we kind of expected to happen. I’ll have to beef it up with something else.
We towed it everywhere, including some very rough tracks around False Entrance and in Murchison House Station, and were impressed with how soft the suspension was, and how well it handled.
UPDATE: after 3 years
We’ve had the tinny now for 3 years, and are still loving it. Majority of the time it sits there, doing nothing, but when we want to head away near the coast it comes with us. It’s done Steep Point twice, Carrarang Station, Murchison House Station and just recently the Gibb River Road.
Nothing has broken or caused us issues, and we ran it at 9 PSI down the Gibb River Road.
If you are looking for off road boat trailer plans, you’d be pretty safe basing it on the above design. It’s built, tested and tried and I have no issues taking it anywhere I’d take the 4WD.
How easy is it to launch?
You probably notice the boat sits up quite high, and that does make it harder to launch; there’s no two ways about it.
The only way around this is to fit air bag suspension, which I didn’t want to mess with. On normal boat ramps and beaches where the water drops off reasonably, you can launch it easily. The boat is so light that with a few guys you can shove it off the trailer even with a bit of a gap between the trailer and the water and it just slides in.
If any water gets over the back the bilge pump gets rid of it quick smart.
On beaches where the water gets deeper very slowly, things are a bit harder; normally we unhitch it from the vehicle, and push the whole trailer into the water, then lift the drawbar up and slide the tinny off.
Retrieving the boat is done in the same way, and we use a strap to pull the trailer up the beach to hook it back on the 4WD.


Future trips
We are heading back to Steep Point in the next couple of months, and will be taking the tinny up with us. It will come to Port Gregory, and to the Pilbara next year. Wherever there is a need for it, someone will tow the boat.
It makes life a lot more adventurous, and I don’t need to be concerned about something breaking and causing us grief.
Hi Allan,
In theory its the best position, but you’d take the whole outboard out on the first obstacle off road, because they are right at the back and hang down so low. On a motor so small I don’t think there’s any downsides to having it trimmed up
All the best
Aaron
Hey Aaron, great info, as always.
Looking to do something similar, but would have thought that the motor fully tilted up and leg supported was the best way to tow the trailer, not leaving it hanging down. What have I missed?
Hey Daniel,
Cheers mate; you are very welcome. We actually sold this a few months ago, to travel around Australia as it was too hard to take with us, and the camper trailer.
You might see us around, and you might even see the old build around somewhere too!
All the best
Aaron
Thanks for the great info of your build and pictures mate. Maybe see you out in our travels
Hey Dalton,
You’re very welcome
All the best
Aaron
Hey Doug,
Thanks for the comment, and questions. Sounds like you’ll end up with something a bit more comfortable to head out in than our tinny. People often laugh when we have 4 guys and dive gear heading out into the rough swell.
I like the idea of the brake back trailer, but I was told you can’t buy them anymore due to legal issues. Might be something worth looking into, but it would certainly make it much easier to launch.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with extending the side rails (but you’d want them taking the vertical load of the very rear of the boat), providing the keel takes the majority of the weight. If you make a heap of the boat weight be taken by the side rails you’ll likely have issues with cracking, but if its just the rear it should be fine.
I guess the other thing to really consider is how the rear of the boat is attached to the keel and hull; it might be worth getting it braced by someone who can weld ally nicely. No point having a nice trailer if the weak point is the back of the boat.
On that note, if you have the boat motor down locked onto the support, it should be pretty solid. I just used Linatex inside to give it a bit of movement as needed.
All the best on the build; I’m sure you’ll end up with a beast
Aaron
Mate, thanks for a really helpful article – well written, useful pictures and a good design.
I am looking to do the same roads/tracks that you built your trailer for, however I’ve gone for a much heavier 4.2 Quinnie dory with a small centre console and a 40hp 4 stroke. I have swapped the original trailer for an older one with zero rust and a stronger, heavier build, and I am now in the process of converting it to being more off-road capable. I’ve bought a 45mm square axle and 60mm off-road springs. The draw bar will be increased in size to 75 x 75 mm box so it can be a bit longer. The plan is to change it to a tilt trailer to make launching and retrieving easier, and to save me having to go in so deep. The spare wheel will drop down for beach launching, but it will probably be too heavy to push into the water, so I may possibly need a fold-away extended draw bar. Hope not.
A question: my boat will be hanging 30+ cm behind the rear bar and I am concerned about the motor weight not being supported. I will have 8 rollers on a ladder going to the back of the boat. I notice that your side rails did not extend right back and agree with your comments saying that they shouldn’t have too much weight on them. Do you reckon that to be safe I should extend mine back to the actual rear of the boat and let them take some of the overhang weight?
I liked your outboard support and will use the same design.
Thanks.
Hey Bradley,
I’d always go with HT tyres, and just run them at a lower pressure. It is certainly an interesting question though, and one that would require some more science to answer it. We run our boat trailer tyres at very low (6 PSI for high speed gravel) and never have any issues.
I think more important than the load rating would be the sidewall puncture resistance, and the number of ply is not always relative to this.
All the best
Aaron
Hi Aaron
Good info in these articles. I’m building up my tinny (old time Savage Snipe MkII 15hp) trailer and I’ve got some matching rims (Pajero 2008 running 265/60/18) for the trailer. In your travels have you seen that AT tyres are better than HT tyres for light boat trailers? The Paj has Dueller 697s at the moment, so they are 114 rating (nominal 8 ply equivalent) vs most HT tyres that are 110 rating, the tyre shop guys says these are about 6 ply equivalent. Given the boat/trailer is at less than 500kg fully loaded, what is your opinion on tyre options to give a safe and soft ride to the boat?
Cheers and happy travels
Hey Doug,
No worries mate. It’s been a lot of fun to have with us.
All the best
Aaron
Really helpful post – thanks for taking the time to write something up!
Hey Kade,
Yep, there isn’t much off the shelf unless you are prepared to pay mega money.
Might see you around one day.
All the best
Aaron
Hi mate good info as I want to do something the same. I also go on some shitty tracks and need a trailer and only way I can find to do it is make one ya self.
Ya in wa and go past my place on ya way up north I wouldn’t Mind checking this trailer out if we could possibly do that on ya way north