Independent Australian editorial · Workshop practice, not showroom copy
Issue desk · Custom trailers
Independent long-form reporting on Australian custom trailers: ATM and tare, galvanising, ADR 38 brakes, boat ramps, horse floats, plant tags and the rust that starts at the drain hole. Written for buyers, builders and towers — not for a sales floor.
Lead feature
Builds and materials · 7 min read
Zinc is sacrificial, powder is a barrier. Australian trailers fail when those jobs are confused, when boxed steel cannot drain, and when a pretty coat hides mill scale.
Sam Keating · 25 August 2025
Desks
Before you sign
Specify, budget and interrogate a custom trailer before money leaves the account.
Steel, finish, wire
Chassis choices, galvanising, flooring and wiring that survive salt and corrugations.
The right shape
Box, car, boat, horse, camper, plant and cage trailers specified for Australian work.
ADR and registration
Compliance, brakes, lights and state-by-state registration for custom-built trailers.
On the bitumen
Match the trailer to the vehicle, then keep the combination stable and legal.
Keep it on the road
Service intervals, bearings, tyres, brakes and rust prevention for Australian conditions.
Towing and safety · 6 min read
The legal combination is the lowest of ATM, GTM, GCM, the vehicle’s tow rating, the towbar and the coupling. Towball download of about 8–10 per cent is how that combination stays on the road.
Morgan Blake · 12 November 2024
Trailer types · 7 min read
A tradie box trailer is a mobile workshop. Spec it against ATM, payload and a real week of gear — not a Facebook Marketplace size.
Riley Hart · 18 April 2024
Buying guides · 7 min read
A Gold Coast boat ramp at dawn is a better specifier than a catalogue. Match ATM, finish, coupling and wiring to salt, corrugations and the tow vehicle you actually own.
Riley Hart · 19 February 2024
Outback trailer wiring fails at earths, junctions and abrasion, not at the globe. Route the loom for corrugations, specify the plug, and give yourself a field repair.
Cage trailers are a cubic-metre versus tonne problem. Mesh contains volume that wet clay and concrete will overweight — spec ATM and sides around the heaviest material, not the green-waste day.
Trailer floors fail from trapped water and tired fasteners more than from the deck material. Choose chequer, timber or composite for drainage and replacement, not for the photo.
Profile choice and drawbar geometry decide fatigue life on Australian corrugations. Heavier steel is not a design. Drain paths, joints and ball height are the job.
Plant trailers fail on ramp angle, tie-downs and people who treat ATM as payload. Spec the trailer around the machine’s wet mass and the clay driveway, not the brochure deck length.
Rust on Australian trailers is a washing and drainage problem as much as a coating problem. Galvanising buys time; trapped mud, timber floors, salt and coastal parking take it back.
The publication
Custom Trailers is a long-form editorial desk. We are not a manufacturer, a classifieds board or a directory of yards. The Wayback Machine had nothing usable for the old customtrailers.com.au, so we rebuilt the publication around the work the domain always pointed at: specifying and keeping custom trailers on Australian roads.