homemade transom saver

Chris S.

Chris S.

Well-known member
I am in the process of redoing the motorboard on my BBSB. The one that was on there was to low for the right settings. I am also beefing it up with thicker mahogany. I will be putting it on with epoxy then through bolting it with four 3/8in stainless steel bolts. So I know it will be plenty strong to hold my 80lb 15hp 2stroke.

My question is do most of you guys use a transom saver? Is it a good investment? I was thinking of getting one or welding one up at the shop. Have any of you guys made your own? Any pictures of homemade ones? Thanks for the help.
 
Chris,

I use a motor support ONLY if I need to angle the motor for road clearance. Otherwise I trailer with the motor in the down position. I have never had any problems doing it this way. I will say that all my motors have hung directly from the transom rather than a seperate mounting board.
 
Last edited:
I use one. I do believe it takes a good bit of abuse from the transom. I bought mine a Wally World for probaly $20. It is extendable and would be easily modified if you needed to shorten one for your BBSB.

__________
 
I too use a transom saver. Good piece of mind. Got mine at Wal-mart I believe. Can't make one cheaper unless you have materials already on hand. Far too easy with the store bought unit.
 
Thanks dave. The fact that I have to have a motorboard on a BBSB that is why I think a transom saver will take some weight off the motorboard. The way my motorboard is I have it at a 15 degree angle so it pulls on the transom and hitting bumps makes it worse. I have enough ground clearence. I trailer the sneakbox with the motor in the down position to my local ramp 1.5 mile trip. This season I plan to travel more so that's why I was thinking about and wanted some input on transom savers.
 
Last edited:
Hey remember I showed you mine your a welder you could do one yourself like I did. 2 pieces of angle iron and galv pipe but you gotta mitre cut the pipe
 
hey chris i have one that needs bracket made for trailer that you can have rubber on it is good let me know if you want it thanks rich
 
Hey remember I showed you mine your a welder you could do one yourself like I did. 2 pieces of angle iron and galv pipe but you gotta mitre cut the pipe
Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking something like what you had
 
hey chris i have one that needs bracket made for trailer that you can have rubber on it is good let me know if you want it thanks rich
Click to expand...

Rich,
Yeah if you are not using it I will take it. Thank you. I can weld up a bracket real quick. If you can bring it to tuckerton that would be great. I think that will be the next time I will see you before the season starts.
 
I use a transom saver and believe it has saved my transom. I look at it this way. The next time your driving down the road stick out your arm holding something up. Think about what happens to your shoulder every time you hit a bump and how much more stain is on it than when you are not moving. Now if you could prop your arm up with something how much strain would that take off your shoulder. Well that's what a transom saver does. It makes a triangle so the motor cannot bounce up and down on your transom every time you hit a bump. Maybe you drive on nice smoothly paved roads and don't go over speed bumps or anything. Some of the roads I travel are far from smooth. My buddy who just rebuilt his transom after watching his motor bounce around on the back of his boat for several years just got one. I know there are people who disagree with me on this but that's my take. It's cheap piece of mind. I will end with this, I think the bigger the motor the more critical it is to have one.
 
Neal you bring up a very good point. Even though my motor is only 80 pounds it is still better to use one like you said for the piece of mind. Thanks for info and thoughts
 
I always just threw the motor on at the ramp especially on a long haul. Transom saver or not, a motor on a wood transom bouncing down the road is never good
 
Phil N. and I had an interesting conversation at LaCrosse regarding "transom savers" , he took the name literally as something to save the transom. I guess that makes sense but my experience as an outboard mechanic made me think of it as a device to save the motor bracket. Way too many people trailer a motor on the tilt bracket and that puts an awful lot of pressure on the weakest point of the motor bracket. I built some brackets that transfer the weight to the bottom tilt pin position. Different points of view, I guess I never worry about the transom, maybe I should !:-). I like the motor tilted up at least as high as the trailer ground clearance, lower units have a hard enough life in the water.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top