Recently upgraded my old Fatty knees 8 dinghy trailer. (It's a home-modified by previous owner 6x4ft box trailer) 10 years has passed since buying the FN8 and the motivation was to add a winch and aft roller because of a bad shoulder during 2022. Everything has to be made a bit less strenuous as the body gets older, so injuries don't re-occur.
Picked up a second hand dinghy winch locally online for $25. It has about 5m of flexible galvanised wire with stainless hook on the drum (so is probably rated for a 3-4m long "Tinnie" = Australian aluminium dinghy).
Then towed the trailer to the wyloyard for the loud dirty work. Fabricating the winch post/base and installing an aft cross-beam with 6" trailer keel roller welded on. The leftover's stockpile minimised expenses. Used a leftover black (Teria) roller, and bought high tensile bolts/nuts/washers/springwashers (four M10's 30mm long) to bolt the winch on (probably overkill but thats the maximum size the winch base holes could take)
The holes in the winch post base were drilled on my big drill-press. First a small pilot hole and then larger diameter bits used. Drill oil was put on the bits so they cut through without effort.
The aft beam was made from scrap 4x4cm box section with 2-3mm walls.
Final metalwork was straightening a bent mudguard corner.
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| Workshop |
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| Clamping components into position |
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| Welded up, 10.5mm holes for M10 winch bolts |
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| Winch test fit |
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| Metalfix converter/primer |
The trailer needed some rust treatment and painting too. Used scraper, wirebrush and "metalfix" (converter primer). Then spare grey "Rustkill" primer paint, leftover acrylic primer and grey exterior paint from a house renno for the wooden cradles. The winch and welds got zinc primed.
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| Painted, aft beam with 6" roller bracket and it's roller pin |
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| Winch fitted |
The 10 year old pool noodle pads for the cradles were disintegrating. So bought two 4ft pool noodles at big W ($24), slit them lengthwise on one side, parted them and squeezed them onto the wooden cradles. 30cm zip ties secured them on.
Final touches. Fixed number plate light wiring connectors. Silicone sealed holes here and there. Drilled an oil hole and squirted some car engine oil into the aft beam box to reduce internal rusting out.
The Fatty Knees 8 (stored on protective heavy cardboard and neoprene rubber pads) was winched on from the concrete floor easily and the aft roller seemed to work ok. The trailer is not a marine one, so never gets immersed in seawater. It's not hot-dip galvanised, the previous rust repair/treatment painting i did after first purchase lasted 10 years.
Final test was hitch the dinghy on trailer up to the ute. The clearance for the utes tailgate when lowering and the winch base was just 1 cm, enough for now.. It's far easier to back the empty trailer down a boat ramp with the tailgate down as its in full view from the driver's cab. (almost impossible with view obstructed by tailgate up). 12V lights still good too.
The old trailer coupling was a bit loose and rattles because the adjustment screw never worked. It is welded onto the frame. Got the measuring callipers out and the inside witdth of the couplings ball-cup was 50mm.
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| Old coupling, no ball-fit adjustment screw |
So bought a new 2" coupling at RTM for $34 with M12 HT galv bolts/locknuts $6 more, but it will need a fabricated base with boltholes (as it's not allowed to be welded on, according to a stamp on it's side).
Tested it on the Ute's towball and it fit perfectly (adjusted the ball-fit screw so there was zero loose movement but with good swivel ) Another job for another day at the wyloyard workshop, (might add a 30cm extension towing tounge to mount it, but still use existing length 12V light wiring plug lead). The 2000kg coupling weight rating very strong, 6x4ft trailers are usually rated at 750kg's and Jai dee's trailer is only about 250-300kg's fully loaded. Plenty of bush-engineering safety margins there.
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| New coupling and 2 high tensile locknut bolts |
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