What to Look for in a Tiny House Trailer (and Why It Matters)

What to Look for in a Tiny House Trailer

If you’re researching how to build a tiny house on wheels in Australia, start with the foundation — your trailer. In a new 12-minute educational video, Fred Schultz from Fred’s Tiny Houses walks through what to look for in a well-made tiny house trailer, and how clever design choices can save weight, increase strength, and make your build more efficient.

Connecting Your Tiny House Securely

Ever wondered what those steel tabs sticking up from a Fred’s Tiny House Trailer are for? They’re tie-down tabs — purpose-built connection points that make it easy and safe to attach your tiny house to the trailer chassis. In the video, Fred demonstrates how to use these tabs to create a lightweight, fully insulated and incredibly strong floor system, and why our Unified Construction Method® makes the trailer an integrated part of the house structure.

“We design our trailers to be as light as possible — so you can build more house,” Fred explains.

The A-Frame Drawbar: Where Strength Really Counts

In the video, Fred explains one of the most critical — and often overlooked — features of trailer design: the A-frame drawbar.

On a well-built tiny house trailer, the A-frame members extend all the way back to the front suspension hanger, not just to the front cross beam, or the chassis rail. This design creates a continuous, rigid structure that distributes towing forces evenly across the chassis and prevents flexing or cracking over time.

Fred also points out where to look for potential weak spots — particularly a weld line at the front of the trailer, where the A-frame meets the first cross member. A weld in the wrong place can actually weaken the structure. In a properly built trailer, this joint should be made in the direction of travel, which maintains the drawbar’s full strength under load.