MattInOz

I ended up getting hold of one from Gumtree... a Shimano Charter Special 2000LD, with level wind and lever drag... and an unbranded but rather nice overhead rod, abt 5'6" long, with a roller tip... cost me $50 and he threw in 3 more lightweight two part spinning rods (no reels) for free. Gonna take the reel in and get it serviced then put some new mono on it and see what I can catch. 😉

I ended up getting hold of one from Gumtree... a Shimano Charter Special 2000LD, with level wind and lever drag... and an unbranded but rather nice overhead rod, abt 5'6" long, with a roller tip... cost me $50 and he threw in 3 more lightweight two part spinning rods (no reels) for free. Gonna take the reel in and get it serviced then put some new mono on it and see what I can catch. 😉

Sounds like it should handel most things, there's nothing wrong with going heavy with a trolling rod, stiff is usually best as its resistant to bending when the fish strikes and that can give you a much better hook set.

Hey again guys... here's an update to the update. Took the boat and a mate (and his 40kg rottweiler) up to Pumicestone Passage for the day. Put in at Bellara Boat Ramp and logged in with VMR Bribie Island. Spent about 5-6 hours buzzing around the passage and a couple of creek mouths, getting some lines wet and so forth. The boat basically didn't leak... got about 10 seconds of dribble when I pulled the bungs out and that was it. The trailer performed flawlessly, as you'd expect from a new trailer... and I'm learning how to use the fish finder.
The engine does have one minor issue... when you're trolling and running at low speed for an extended period it'll be fine for about ten minutes then start to struggle as if it's starving. If you give it a rev (either in gear or in nuetral with the fast idle) it'll come good, if not it'll die and require a few squeezes of the priming bulb before it'll restart. The water seperating filter bowl will still be full of fuel so I'm suspecting a minor air leak somewhere between the filter and the fuel pump, or the pump itself may need some attention. Other than that the engine pulled strongly and behaved itself... it's even stopped the enormous cloud of smoke it used to do when you first started it. Other than that I'm going to put a hydrofoil on it to get the stern up quicker as the boat's gotten quite stern heavy with the addition of the second battery and two extra seats in the aft... will probably go with one of the aluminium "OzPropellors" ones from up in Maroochydore to support local businesses (and because I like the idea of an aluminium one more than a plastic one).
We did pull in a few fish and I got an introduction to trolling, but more of that in another post.

The choice of gear will depend on what sort of trolling you are going to do. One of the big factors is the drag produced by different lures. If you are dragging a spoon behind a trolling board for mackerel you need a rod with a fair bit of grunt. I would say a 10kg rod as minimum. If you are trolling small lures for flathead in Bribie passage, then a light stick with lighter line is ideal. Around that 1 to 3kg rod, 10lb line and leader. You will often find the flathead are in very shallow water so try trolling on the bank with a flood tide and edge of the bank for the run out tide.
maybe keep using what you have for the lighter work and use the Penn outfit for trolling bigger lures in the deeper water? Unfortunately there is not really a universal setup that will cover all types of fishing, including trolling.
Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

Hey guys. As I mentioned in another post I got an introduction to trolling the other day. Pulled in a few taylor and had a great fight with something large that eventually got away before we could see it. All this was on an old (like 40+ years old I suspect) 7' Wilson rod I inherited from my step father with some fairly light braided line on a Shimano Hyperloop 4000FB reel, pulling a Halco "Laser Pro 120" lure that the boat's previous owner threw in with the boat. I've never tried trolling before and I had an absolute blast, but it's not really a trolling set up... more of a light casting rod, so I'm looking at getting a rod intended as a boat/trolling rod. The boat's too small (and the captain too inexperienced) to be crossing bars so I'll be fishing in Moreton Bay, Pumicestone Passage, and the Gold Coast seaway, so in waters from about 5-20m deep most of the time, and won't be pulling in Mako sharks or marlins so I'm not looking for anything too heavy. I've done a bit of looking around at the usual places and am fairly settled on one of the Penn GT 320 combos from Anaconda. It's a 6' single piece, graphite cored rod which the manufacturer describes as a "medium" boat rod suitable for 8-12kg and the reel holds 290 yards of 20lb mono, so I can put about 200 meters of 12kg mono on it, or more if I go braided. What do you think guys... is it a happy medium, or overkill for what I'll be doing? Would you suggest something else? I do want an overhead rod, just to keep the reel out of the way when in the rod holder without having the rod "up side down" so it's flexing the wrong way.
Oh and here's a gratuitous picture of one of our visitors the other day... he got to swim away and get bigger.
 

Hey again guys... here's an update to the update. Took the boat and a mate (and his 40kg rottweiler) up to Pumicestone Passage for the day. Put in at Bellara Boat Ramp and logged in with VMR Bribie Island. Spent about 5-6 hours buzzing around the passage and a couple of creek mouths, getting some lines wet and so forth. The boat basically didn't leak... got about 10 seconds of dribble when I pulled the bungs out and that was it. The trailer performed flawlessly, as you'd expect from a new trailer... and I'm learning how to use the fish finder.
The engine does have one minor issue... when you're trolling and running at low speed for an extended period it'll be fine for about ten minutes then start to struggle as if it's starving. If you give it a rev (either in gear or in nuetral with the fast idle) it'll come good, if not it'll die and require a few squeezes of the priming bulb before it'll restart. The water seperating filter bowl will still be full of fuel so I'm suspecting a minor air leak somewhere between the filter and the fuel pump, or the pump itself may need some attention. Other than that the engine pulled strongly and behaved itself... it's even stopped the enormous cloud of smoke it used to do when you first started it. Other than that I'm going to put a hydrofoil on it to get the stern up quicker as the boat's gotten quite stern heavy with the addition of the second battery and two extra seats in the aft... will probably go with one of the aluminium "OzPropellors" ones from up in Maroochydore to support local businesses (and because I like the idea of an aluminium one more than a plastic one).
We did pull in a few fish and I got an introduction to trolling, but more of that in another post.

Hey guys. As I mentioned in another post I got an introduction to trolling the other day. Pulled in a few taylor and had a great fight with something large that eventually got away before we could see it. All this was on an old (like 40+ years old I suspect) 7' Wilson rod I inherited from my step father with some fairly light braided line on a Shimano Hyperloop 4000FB reel, pulling a Halco "Laser Pro 120" lure that the boat's previous owner threw in with the boat. I've never tried trolling before and I had an absolute blast, but it's not really a trolling set up... more of a light casting rod, so I'm looking at getting a rod intended as a boat/trolling rod. The boat's too small (and the captain too inexperienced) to be crossing bars so I'll be fishing in Moreton Bay, Pumicestone Passage, and the Gold Coast seaway, so in waters from about 5-20m deep most of the time, and won't be pulling in Mako sharks or marlins so I'm not looking for anything too heavy. I've done a bit of looking around at the usual places and am fairly settled on one of the Penn GT 320 combos from Anaconda. It's a 6' single piece, graphite cored rod which the manufacturer describes as a "medium" boat rod suitable for 8-12kg and the reel holds 290 yards of 20lb mono, so I can put about 200 meters of 12kg mono on it, or more if I go braided. What do you think guys... is it a happy medium, or overkill for what I'll be doing? Would you suggest something else? I do want an overhead rod, just to keep the reel out of the way when in the rod holder without having the rod "up side down" so it's flexing the wrong way.
Oh and here's a gratuitous picture of one of our visitors the other day... he got to swim away and get bigger.
 

Hey again guys... here's an update to the update. Took the boat and a mate (and his 40kg rottweiler) up to Pumicestone Passage for the day. Put in at Bellara Boat Ramp and logged in with VMR Bribie Island. Spent about 5-6 hours buzzing around the passage and a couple of creek mouths, getting some lines wet and so forth. The boat basically didn't leak... got about 10 seconds of dribble when I pulled the bungs out and that was it. The trailer performed flawlessly, as you'd expect from a new trailer... and I'm learning how to use the fish finder.
The engine does have one minor issue... when you're trolling and running at low speed for an extended period it'll be fine for about ten minutes then start to struggle as if it's starving. If you give it a rev (either in gear or in nuetral with the fast idle) it'll come good, if not it'll die and require a few squeezes of the priming bulb before it'll restart. The water seperating filter bowl will still be full of fuel so I'm suspecting a minor air leak somewhere between the filter and the fuel pump, or the pump itself may need some attention. Other than that the engine pulled strongly and behaved itself... it's even stopped the enormous cloud of smoke it used to do when you first started it. Other than that I'm going to put a hydrofoil on it to get the stern up quicker as the boat's gotten quite stern heavy with the addition of the second battery and two extra seats in the aft... will probably go with one of the aluminium "OzPropellors" ones from up in Maroochydore to support local businesses (and because I like the idea of an aluminium one more than a plastic one).
We did pull in a few fish and I got an introduction to trolling, but more of that in another post.

Hey guys. As I mentioned in another post I got an introduction to trolling the other day. Pulled in a few taylor and had a great fight with something large that eventually got away before we could see it. All this was on an old (like 40+ years old I suspect) 7' Wilson rod I inherited from my step father with some fairly light braided line on a Shimano Hyperloop 4000FB reel, pulling a Halco "Laser Pro 120" lure that the boat's previous owner threw in with the boat. I've never tried trolling before and I had an absolute blast, but it's not really a trolling set up... more of a light casting rod, so I'm looking at getting a rod intended as a boat/trolling rod. The boat's too small (and the captain too inexperienced) to be crossing bars so I'll be fishing in Moreton Bay, Pumicestone Passage, and the Gold Coast seaway, so in waters from about 5-20m deep most of the time, and won't be pulling in Mako sharks or marlins so I'm not looking for anything too heavy. I've done a bit of looking around at the usual places and am fairly settled on one of the Penn GT 320 combos from Anaconda. It's a 6' single piece, graphite cored rod which the manufacturer describes as a "medium" boat rod suitable for 8-12kg and the reel holds 290 yards of 20lb mono, so I can put about 200 meters of 12kg mono on it, or more if I go braided. What do you think guys... is it a happy medium, or overkill for what I'll be doing? Would you suggest something else? I do want an overhead rod, just to keep the reel out of the way when in the rod holder without having the rod "up side down" so it's flexing the wrong way.
Oh and here's a gratuitous picture of one of our visitors the other day... he got to swim away and get bigger.
 

Quick update... took the boat to a local welder (Scott, top bloke, works out of his back yard. Hit me up if you want his number) to get the broken welds on one of the floor ribs rewelded and he spotted my leak... the factory weld in the chine where the bottom bit of the hull joins the side bit (I'm sure they have real names) had what originally looked like an 8" crack along it. Apparently it opened up more when he got the tig onto it... by the time he was done it was closer to a 14" long repair. Glad that got fixed... will put it back in the river on sunday to see if we stay dry.
In related news I took the trailer out to R & M boat trailer repairs in Hemmant today... they made me a pair of bolt on tie down points - $40 for the pair (as versus the ones I saw on ebay for $75 each that I would have had to modify to fit!).  Very happy I am. Replaced the breather and filler fuel lines for the under floor tank too and in theory it should now be seaworthy... just needs the floor put back in after I prove it on sunday. Wish me luck. 🙂
 

Quick update... took the boat to a local welder (Scott, top bloke, works out of his back yard. Hit me up if you want his number) to get the broken welds on one of the floor ribs rewelded and he spotted my leak... the factory weld in the chine where the bottom bit of the hull joins the side bit (I'm sure they have real names) had what originally looked like an 8" crack along it. Apparently it opened up more when he got the tig onto it... by the time he was done it was closer to a 14" long repair. Glad that got fixed... will put it back in the river on sunday to see if we stay dry.
In related news I took the trailer out to R & M boat trailer repairs in Hemmant today... they made me a pair of bolt on tie down points - $40 for the pair (as versus the ones I saw on ebay for $75 each that I would have had to modify to fit!).  Very happy I am. Replaced the breather and filler fuel lines for the under floor tank too and in theory it should now be seaworthy... just needs the floor put back in after I prove it on sunday. Wish me luck. 🙂
 

Quick update... took the boat to a local welder (Scott, top bloke, works out of his back yard. Hit me up if you want his number) to get the broken welds on one of the floor ribs rewelded and he spotted my leak... the factory weld in the chine where the bottom bit of the hull joins the side bit (I'm sure they have real names) had what originally looked like an 8" crack along it. Apparently it opened up more when he got the tig onto it... by the time he was done it was closer to a 14" long repair. Glad that got fixed... will put it back in the river on sunday to see if we stay dry.
In related news I took the trailer out to R & M boat trailer repairs in Hemmant today... they made me a pair of bolt on tie down points - $40 for the pair (as versus the ones I saw on ebay for $75 each that I would have had to modify to fit!).  Very happy I am. Replaced the breather and filler fuel lines for the under floor tank too and in theory it should now be seaworthy... just needs the floor put back in after I prove it on sunday. Wish me luck. 🙂
 

Quick update... took the boat to a local welder (Scott, top bloke, works out of his back yard. Hit me up if you want his number) to get the broken welds on one of the floor ribs rewelded and he spotted my leak... the factory weld in the chine where the bottom bit of the hull joins the side bit (I'm sure they have real names) had what originally looked like an 8" crack along it. Apparently it opened up more when he got the tig onto it... by the time he was done it was closer to a 14" long repair. Glad that got fixed... will put it back in the river on sunday to see if we stay dry.
In related news I took the trailer out to R & M boat trailer repairs in Hemmant today... they made me a pair of bolt on tie down points - $40 for the pair (as versus the ones I saw on ebay for $75 each that I would have had to modify to fit!).  Very happy I am. Replaced the breather and filler fuel lines for the under floor tank too and in theory it should now be seaworthy... just needs the floor put back in after I prove it on sunday. Wish me luck. 🙂
 

Quick update... took the boat to a local welder (Scott, top bloke, works out of his back yard. Hit me up if you want his number) to get the broken welds on one of the floor ribs rewelded and he spotted my leak... the factory weld in the chine where the bottom bit of the hull joins the side bit (I'm sure they have real names) had what originally looked like an 8" crack along it. Apparently it opened up more when he got the tig onto it... by the time he was done it was closer to a 14" long repair. Glad that got fixed... will put it back in the river on sunday to see if we stay dry.
In related news I took the trailer out to R & M boat trailer repairs in Hemmant today... they made me a pair of bolt on tie down points - $40 for the pair (as versus the ones I saw on ebay for $75 each that I would have had to modify to fit!).  Very happy I am. Replaced the breather and filler fuel lines for the under floor tank too and in theory it should now be seaworthy... just needs the floor put back in after I prove it on sunday. Wish me luck. 🙂
 

Quick update... took the boat to a local welder (Scott, top bloke, works out of his back yard. Hit me up if you want his number) to get the broken welds on one of the floor ribs rewelded and he spotted my leak... the factory weld in the chine where the bottom bit of the hull joins the side bit (I'm sure they have real names) had what originally looked like an 8" crack along it. Apparently it opened up more when he got the tig onto it... by the time he was done it was closer to a 14" long repair. Glad that got fixed... will put it back in the river on sunday to see if we stay dry.
In related news I took the trailer out to R & M boat trailer repairs in Hemmant today... they made me a pair of bolt on tie down points - $40 for the pair (as versus the ones I saw on ebay for $75 each that I would have had to modify to fit!).  Very happy I am. Replaced the breather and filler fuel lines for the under floor tank too and in theory it should now be seaworthy... just needs the floor put back in after I prove it on sunday. Wish me luck. 🙂
 

Hey guys... it's been a while so here's a quick update. The boat now has new floors, and a second pair of (removable) seats in the aft with the front ones replaced with Quintrex seats on posts that fit in the standard spigots (thanks much to Ellicat), and built in battery box and rope locker in the stern. Have got the engine running nicely (it was stalling and farting on idle previously - new plug leads and richen the idle mixture a bit fixed that), and I've fully rewired it and put in a dual battery system with an Auto Charge Relay so I don't have to think about which battery I'm switched to. Got my boat licence (thanks to Stephen at AllState boat licencing... had fun), and passed my Short Range Radio Operator's course... just waiting for the radio licence in the mail now. There's a minor leak but I think I've located it so either some JB Weld or actual welding will fix that and need to get one of the ribs that hold the floor in place rewelded, and I think I need the trim ram rebuilt as it won't trim up under power... then I'm about ready to start actually using it. I've had it in the river a few times... did a quick blast from Fig Tree Pocket to UQ and back, runs nicely. It's smokey when you first start it, but it's a 2 stroke so that's normal.
I've also bought a new trailer for it (Stonegate Trailers) since the old one was made of swiss cheese and rust, which I'm reasonably happy with. Took the boat to the local ramp and put it in the water yesterday to swap trailers (amongst other things)... took me and a friend about an hour and a bit to adjust the new trailer to suit the boat and I reckon it's pretty close... maybe just need the boat an inch or two forward for a bit more tongue weight as it's clunking around a little under tow.
This leads me to my next question (well, two really) however... the old trailer had tie down points on the sides and a strap across the gunnels but the new one has them right at the rear, looks like they're intended for boats with mounting points on the transom which of course mine doesn't have. I could get some loops welded to the trailer of course but that'll stuff up the hot gal dip so I'd prefer a bolt on solution. I found a mob in Victoria selling these "Bolt on tie down bracket suits 75mm x 50mm" (I'll attach  a pic) that look like they'll work but my trailer box section is only 70 x 50. Is the extra 5mm going to be a problem? Should I pad out the difference with some rubber, or plate steel, or something?
Next question... the old trailer had a bracket on the rearmost crossmember for an outboard support strut... but the new trailer's rear cross member doesn't go all the way across... it has a gap in the centre (for outboards, inboards, stern drives etc I assume). I could put a strut bracket on the next crossmember up but that's about a meter in and I'd need to get the support lengthened and possibly curved and it would be a pain to get on/off. Do I actually NEED to use a support strut on the outboard? Is there another option such as supporting it from the engine mounts on the transom etc? I'll try to attach a pic of the rear of the trailer too.
Thanks guys
Matt

Just went through this replacing the floor of my 4.3m runabout. Spoke to a guy from "Plywood and Panel" here in Brisbane (guess what they specialise in?) and asked about marine ply. Apparently they used to supply ply to Quintrex and he recommended regular old structural ply with"marine bonding" (means the glue's not water based) and 2-3 coats of water based acrylic paint on all surfaces to seal it (apparently oil based paint messes with the glue). Important thing to remember is to drill/cut all the holes (including screw holes) notches etc before painting, as the edges are the most important part to seal up. I then covered it with marine carpet from Bunnings, glued down with artificial turf glue (which is designed for outdoor use and amusingly is bright green) and stapled on the rear with stainless steel staples. You can get the staples from Whitworths in Brisbane (and probably many other chandlers), and Kennards have an electric upholstery staple gun that fires them (they don't fit in regular old manual staple guns). The other thing to note is that you'll need to screw it down to the boat, and that stainless steel screws in aluminium will cause galvanic corrosion. The solution is to drill the holes in the ply large enough for the screw to pass through, drill the holes in the aluminium to suit the self tapping screws, and coat the screw threads with tefgel or duralac before you screw them in. (Duralac's toxic, use rubber gloves... or just use tefgel).

Having just bought a new one to replace the old one made of swiss cheese and rust, I fully support this... nice job. Wish my trailer's previous owner had done the same thing a year or so ago.

Just went through this replacing the floor of my 4.3m runabout. Spoke to a guy from "Plywood and Panel" here in Brisbane (guess what they specialise in?) and asked about marine ply. Apparently they used to supply ply to Quintrex and he recommended regular old structural ply with"marine bonding" (means the glue's not water based) and 2-3 coats of water based acrylic paint on all surfaces to seal it (apparently oil based paint messes with the glue). Important thing to remember is to drill/cut all the holes (including screw holes) notches etc before painting, as the edges are the most important part to seal up. I then covered it with marine carpet from Bunnings, glued down with artificial turf glue (which is designed for outdoor use and amusingly is bright green) and stapled on the rear with stainless steel staples. You can get the staples from Whitworths in Brisbane (and probably many other chandlers), and Kennards have an electric upholstery staple gun that fires them (they don't fit in regular old manual staple guns). The other thing to note is that you'll need to screw it down to the boat, and that stainless steel screws in aluminium will cause galvanic corrosion. The solution is to drill the holes in the ply large enough for the screw to pass through, drill the holes in the aluminium to suit the self tapping screws, and coat the screw threads with tefgel or duralac before you screw them in. (Duralac's toxic, use rubber gloves... or just use tefgel).

Having just bought a new one to replace the old one made of swiss cheese and rust, I fully support this... nice job. Wish my trailer's previous owner had done the same thing a year or so ago.

Just went through this replacing the floor of my 4.3m runabout. Spoke to a guy from "Plywood and Panel" here in Brisbane (guess what they specialise in?) and asked about marine ply. Apparently they used to supply ply to Quintrex and he recommended regular old structural ply with"marine bonding" (means the glue's not water based) and 2-3 coats of water based acrylic paint on all surfaces to seal it (apparently oil based paint messes with the glue). Important thing to remember is to drill/cut all the holes (including screw holes) notches etc before painting, as the edges are the most important part to seal up. I then covered it with marine carpet from Bunnings, glued down with artificial turf glue (which is designed for outdoor use and amusingly is bright green) and stapled on the rear with stainless steel staples. You can get the staples from Whitworths in Brisbane (and probably many other chandlers), and Kennards have an electric upholstery staple gun that fires them (they don't fit in regular old manual staple guns). The other thing to note is that you'll need to screw it down to the boat, and that stainless steel screws in aluminium will cause galvanic corrosion. The solution is to drill the holes in the ply large enough for the screw to pass through, drill the holes in the aluminium to suit the self tapping screws, and coat the screw threads with tefgel or duralac before you screw them in. (Duralac's toxic, use rubber gloves... or just use tefgel).

It took 3 days,  but my old trailer came up pretty well after some TLC .
Dropped the boat off the trailer ,onto some old tyres , in the back yard on Wednesday.
Stripped all the rollers and skids off.
Took it to a welder , and had the last three  rusty cross members replaced .
He charged  $350 which I thought was quite reasonable.
Got it home and degreased it , and then gave it a good hit with a gurney.
Then gave it a generous going over with Cold  Gal. 

Followed up by a spray inside and out with a product called Lanotec Steel Seal that I had sitting in the back shed.
Replaced 3 worn rollers , Cleaned the rest up  , and re greased the roller pins ,  then refitted them all . Refitted the skids and gave the contact surfaces  a spray with some silicon.
Big Job , but hoping it will extend the trailers life a little longer , and make it a little easier to get the boat on and off.

Now sitting on the lounge hoping I can get up tomorrow  to check the bearings , brakes , and put the boat back on the trailer and adjust the skids and rollers.
 
Regards
Neil
 
 
 

Hey guys... it's been a while so here's a quick update. The boat now has new floors, and a second pair of (removable) seats in the aft with the front ones replaced with Quintrex seats on posts that fit in the standard spigots (thanks much to Ellicat), and built in battery box and rope locker in the stern. Have got the engine running nicely (it was stalling and farting on idle previously - new plug leads and richen the idle mixture a bit fixed that), and I've fully rewired it and put in a dual battery system with an Auto Charge Relay so I don't have to think about which battery I'm switched to. Got my boat licence (thanks to Stephen at AllState boat licencing... had fun), and passed my Short Range Radio Operator's course... just waiting for the radio licence in the mail now. There's a minor leak but I think I've located it so either some JB Weld or actual welding will fix that and need to get one of the ribs that hold the floor in place rewelded, and I think I need the trim ram rebuilt as it won't trim up under power... then I'm about ready to start actually using it. I've had it in the river a few times... did a quick blast from Fig Tree Pocket to UQ and back, runs nicely. It's smokey when you first start it, but it's a 2 stroke so that's normal.
I've also bought a new trailer for it (Stonegate Trailers) since the old one was made of swiss cheese and rust, which I'm reasonably happy with. Took the boat to the local ramp and put it in the water yesterday to swap trailers (amongst other things)... took me and a friend about an hour and a bit to adjust the new trailer to suit the boat and I reckon it's pretty close... maybe just need the boat an inch or two forward for a bit more tongue weight as it's clunking around a little under tow.
This leads me to my next question (well, two really) however... the old trailer had tie down points on the sides and a strap across the gunnels but the new one has them right at the rear, looks like they're intended for boats with mounting points on the transom which of course mine doesn't have. I could get some loops welded to the trailer of course but that'll stuff up the hot gal dip so I'd prefer a bolt on solution. I found a mob in Victoria selling these "Bolt on tie down bracket suits 75mm x 50mm" (I'll attach  a pic) that look like they'll work but my trailer box section is only 70 x 50. Is the extra 5mm going to be a problem? Should I pad out the difference with some rubber, or plate steel, or something?
Next question... the old trailer had a bracket on the rearmost crossmember for an outboard support strut... but the new trailer's rear cross member doesn't go all the way across... it has a gap in the centre (for outboards, inboards, stern drives etc I assume). I could put a strut bracket on the next crossmember up but that's about a meter in and I'd need to get the support lengthened and possibly curved and it would be a pain to get on/off. Do I actually NEED to use a support strut on the outboard? Is there another option such as supporting it from the engine mounts on the transom etc? I'll try to attach a pic of the rear of the trailer too.
Thanks guys
Matt

Not much... if it's more than about 10° up from vertical it clears speed bumps etc.
Uhh? Don't know. It's a 4.3m aluminium runabout with a 40hp hanging off it and a splashwell built into it. It doesn't fall off or flex when I use it. How does one test the strength of a transom... other than destructively?
Yeah that's why I wanted to avoid the built in tilt lock, coz it's up at maximum tilt. From what you say I should be ok with one of those plastic dohickeys that Another Wazza recommends. Just want to keep the stress off the hydralics really.