Thinking about fitting tyres and rims that will interchange with the GQ Patrol to my unbraked boat trailer also looking for better clearance as the package will be heading off road around the cape region occasionally.
I was wondering if anyone can think of any disadvantages to doing this compared to the 13 inch standard setup, apart from launch/retrieve problems I will put up with those negatives.
Your thoughts appreciated,
cheers fnq
make the trailer fairly high, I have 14" under my 12' tinnie and you nearly have to sink the car to get the rear trailer roller under the water. Thats not a problem because I just lift the tinny onto the trailer and drag it up without the winch. So maybe higher would be a problem BUT you could always build a step down axle to lower the boat between the wheels a bit and try to achaive a happy medium. Love the idea about having all the spare wheels interchangable.
cheers
blaze
Thanks Blaze, a step down axel could be an answer, the boat is light so winching up is not much of a problem. One other disadvantage I guess is the added attraction to oxygen thieves although I cannot let this alter my choice.
Just don't want 3 months down the track to decide it was a stupid and costly idea, one thing for certain it would tow nicely over corrugations with the pressure down.
Nothing ventured nothing gained, think I might make the probable mistake and try it.
Cheers fnq
I have the similar problem for same reason about changing the tires and rims to mach the patrol, but also thinking about doing in the old silde leaf design spring for a better, softer spring. Somehting that takes the inpact better. Finding it hard to find someone to give good advice on the subject??? In my local area of caboolture
gday mate
I put the old tyres off my hilux on some ally rims and stuck em on my trailer before we went to fraser last year.
the boat is a 4.55m quinnie and it was a bit hard to put back on the trailer on the beach but at a ramp it is pretty good if ya dunk it fairly deep.
I am a bit worried because the new axle and spring setup weighs a bit more than the old ones and on the rego papers it sait it weighed 749kg with the old axle. I am going to put the old axle setup back under it because of this reason.
I had a 13 foot tinny before this one and it was bloody great with the big tyres and 2 wobble rollers at the bach for easy retreivle
cheers anyfish
Thanks Anyfish, nice setup you have there, sounds like a thumbs up for large tyres if you were not so borderline on weight. I will be lucky here with about 100-150kg to spare.
The trailer has those 9 inch pram wheels fitted and every single time I travel serious corrugations the hammering breaks the rubber outboard engine mounts and is a boring pain to replace each time. I will skip the planned 13 inch upgrade and go straight to the top.
I noticed super cheap sells the cruiser hubs with ford bearings fitted fairly cheap under $40 each, there are 2 different diameters of hubs one is 150mm and the other is 200mm, anyone know why
cheers fnq
yrrbab, I am no trailer guru, the slipper springs are fine for everything you will need to do although they can be noisy at times.
Measure the current number of leaves and the thickness this will correspond to a weight range then ask the spring retailer what is the next or x2 weight range down and go with them (if that weight range suits your trailer weight). They will take a few km to break in.
Lighter spring will everytime relax faster than heaver springs but with saltwater dunking it probably will not matter.
Your only other option for a nicer ride is to increase the tyre diameter, I would go new slippers from what you said, on light rigs the eye to eye style of spring don't have any advantage (weight rating for weight rating) in ride that I am aware of.
cheers fnq
Originally Posted by yrrab
Mate, there is no such thing as a softer riding spring. The only other option is something like AL-KO Indepent suspension. The stubs are rubber mounted into the axle. There are no springs and they are set up like a drop axle - giving you a lower trailer.
More expensive than springs though, but worth it IMO.
Mark
This is my first time on here so please bare with me.
I have just finished setting up my redco trailer for off road. It is now on spare rims off my patrol. It wasn't a simple project. I actually removed my whole guard spring assemblies and made new assemblies so I can always change it back. I chose light long springs for heaps of travel and then used gas struts for better ride and more load carrying. The main problem with the patrol rims is the offset. The new rims don't allow enough clearance between the tyre and spring. Possibly their is a different offset rim that would solve this problem. I got around it by widening my axle 200mm which suited better for stability as the boat is now sitting about 16 inches higher.
What about putting a tilt mechinism on the trailer with a safety chain so it doesn't tilt to far
Hi I can see the benifit of the stud pattern and the advantage of the larger diameter rim and the disadvantage of launching the boat but what intrest me is which is better the wider wheel with plenty of drag whilst towing or a thinner wheel that would have less drag on the beach as it wouldnt be pushing as much sand whilst being towed. What do you think? as I am also thinking of a trailer and this is an issue I am considering as I have been told the old VW went better offroad on the beach with really skinny tyres on the front as they produced less drag.
G'Day mate I had a dune buggy for a few years when I was a rev head. The reason for the skinny front wheels is so that they dig in and steer the rig, wide wheels float way too much.
On the back skinny wheels just sink the rig. If you have a trailer that you would like to travel over soft sand, the larger the diameter and width is without doubt the best setup, spread the load.
cheers fnq
Thank you FNQcairns.
im going threw this as well found a mobile guy who is going to do the job for me this week going to replace the gards and thinking about the axle as well just to besafe its a light weight boat. let u know how i go
I built my own offroad boat trailer a few years back for a 13ft v-nose. Used landcruiser rims and tyres same as what I had on the cruiser so I could use the spares on either the car or trailer. Would not recomend the split rims though as they will rust around the ring. For springs I used front leaf springs out of a landcruiser and just removed one leaf to get a soft ride. Also fitted some small diahatsu shock absorbers. Bloody thing used to ride better than my old cruiser.
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