Lund Ducker Transom update

[Mark W]

Thanks for the suggestions on a prior post on how to straighten my transom top piece. Tried heat, tried clamps and I finally just drilled out the old rivets and removed. I was able to pound it much straighter than it was but still not perfect but I'm not going for perfect.

Here are my questions.

I'm putting a 7.5 hp longtail off the back. Motor weighs about 40lbs and the stuff associated with making it a longtail adds about 40 more pounds. I've seen this done on other Duckers and there were never any issues but I may want to strengthen the transom. How best to do it is my question. The boards are 1/2' thick both on the outside and inside of the boat. Do I just make thee thicker?. If I took a 2' X 4' piece of plywood and cut it to 6-8"'s wide and cut the profile of the old board on the same piece (hope this make sense) and ran it across the whole width of the transom on the outside would this make a difference.

Just looking for ways to beef it up. I may also just buy a new piece of aluminum to replace what I removed. Would be cleaner and I can drill where I want to. Thoughts?

Mark

 

[NickR]

I would cut the inside plywood to fit the entire inside transom wall and the outside plywood to span the whole width of the transom. Start with that as a minimum and watch for flexing, signs of rivets getti loose, etc.

Mudmotors put a lot of pressure on a transom. The transom on my sportboat shows some wear and tear I assume is from the mudmotor and I think that transom is beefier than a ducker.

 

[Ed L.]

I sandwiched two 1/2"" marine plywood from Menards 12" high and covered the inside transom from side to side. Then I added a 1/2" plywood plate to a shape similar to what you show in your photo on the outside of the transom. My mudmotor is a bit heavier than yours. It's a Beavertail frame with a 6.5hp.