{"id":139304,"date":"2026-05-26T09:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/?p=139304"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:21:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:21:34","slug":"how-an-innovative-norwegian-trailer-solved-my-boat-hauling-headaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/gear\/how-an-innovative-norwegian-trailer-solved-my-boat-hauling-headaches-139304","title":{"rendered":"How an innovative Norwegian trailer solved my boat hauling headaches"},"content":"Life afloat brings you into contact with all sorts of equipment \u2013 and my fondness for it is evident from the amount of kit I carry on my boats. Naturally then, I closely follow the various kit reviews, not least here in MBY. But every now and then, you come across some boating gear that solves its task in such an innovative way that it\u2019s difficult not to speak up.\r\n

The problem<\/h2>\r\nOne of my core requirements for boating with Iron Explorer, my Iron 827 Coup\u00e9, is that it has to be towable at 80km\/h while remaining manageable and practical to handle, despite the weight of a 3.5-tonne trailer.\r\n\r\nThe bare boat weighs around 1,700kg, but once you add the engine and onboard equipment, plus water and fuel for both engine and heater, you quickly approach 2,400kg. A 3.5-tonne trailer typically allows a payload of about 2,600kg, and I have no intention of exceeding that limit and risking illegal towing.\r\n\r\nOver the years, I\u2019ve used several trailers: first for our Flipper 620, then for a Buster Magnum, and later we bought a trailer with an electric winch for Iron Explorer. It worked reasonably well. But the trailer we encountered at Iron Brothers in M\u00f6lndal \u2013 the one Iron Explorer sat on when I first came to inspect her \u2013 was something entirely different.\r\n\r\nIt was a Norwegian-built trailer from Svela, featuring a simple yet remarkably clever design. The name Svela is from the founder Sverre Larsen. To the best of my knowledge, they have no dealer in Britain, but I feel certain that will change.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_139305\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Multiple soft rollers of tilting axles help spread the load and adapt to fit the shape of the hull[\/caption]\r\n

The solution<\/h2>\r\nAt the rear of the frame sits an exceptionally long cradle, supported by a pivoting axle that tilts as the boat rolls up and down it. But the real stroke of genius lies in the support wheels. They are mounted in pairs on axles that rotate around a tubular shaft, allowing them to adapt to the hull shape.\r\n\r\nThe boat\u2019s weight is then distributed across many wheels, meaning each wheel carries far less load than on traditional trailers, where most of the weight is concentrated on a few pairs of much harder side rollers and two or three directly under the keel.\r\n\r\nOn my trailer there are five rows of paired wheels on each side of the keel, which are adjustable in height if the boat has a deeper keel. That\u2019s a total of 28 wheels sharing roughly equal load, making the boat remarkably easy to roll on and off.\r\n\r\nAhead of the main cradle is a smaller cradle built on the same principle, with four wheels mounted in pairs on individual rotating shafts, again adapting perfectly to the hull and adjustable for height. Right at the front sits a conventional bow support, which is adjustable fore-and-aft to achieve the correct weight on the trailer coupling.\r\n\r\nThere are attachment points for guide poles both fore and aft, but even without them, the winch pulls the boat straight if it comes in slightly off-centre. Perhaps the many low-load wheels help here too but, either way, the difference compared to trailers I\u2019ve used before is really striking.\r\n\r\nThe trailer comes with an aluminium box housing the winch battery, as well as tie-down straps to secure the boat. It feels genuinely cutting-edge \u2013 outstanding in performance, yet elegantly simple in execution \u2013 and when that happens, I can\u2019t help but admire it. So when the penny dropped, I sold my old trailer and ordered a new Svela trailer from Norway.\r\n\r\nThe model I use for Iron Explorer is the Svela B35 MAXE9. It\u2019s rated for boats of up to 32ft, with a payload of 2,565kg and a weight of exactly 3,500kg. And just to underline my satisfaction, when my son Martin later bought his Iron 907, he too ended up with a Svela trailer!\r\n\r\n
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","excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life afloat brings you into contact with all sorts of equipment \u2013 and my fondness for it is evident from the amount of kit I carry on my boats. Naturally then, I closely follow the various kit reviews, not least here in MBY. But every now and then, you come across some boating gear that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":139307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300],"tags":[2538,1593],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":[""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139308,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139304\/revisions\/139308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139304"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=139304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}