Thread: How to beef up a transom

Chris, the only thing I can think of right off the top of my head would be to brace back to the rear seat, depending on where your fuel tank is. You wouldn't want to trap it in there.

Hey Chris, We can take it to Ketcher's. They can do anything to a boat. They did my livewell and have put floor and decks in other boats for me. Welded them up. You name it, they can do it. I will be happy to call them for you or meet you there.

They are making me a 4 ft fire pit right now. Ladder rack on the work trailer.

Be happy to help you with that. We can maybe to something to your trailer to put a bar for the motor on.

Thanks for the input guys. The space in the back seems to be the limiting factor. I'll probably just leave it as is...at least until the motor breaks off.:D

Go to a salvage yard, scrap metal place or a fab shop and look for a pice of aluminum angle as heavy as 1/4 in.X3''X3'' or bigger if you can find it . Make it as long as the straight part of the transom . Drill 2 holes to match the top mounting of the motor with angle being on the inside of the transom. This will make it at least as strong as it ever was. Hope this is not to confusing.

Thanks for the tip, paw paw. That sounds like it would work well with my current set-up. I'll have to get on the hunt for the aluminum angle.

Originally Posted by ceb

Thanks for the tip, paw paw. That sounds like it would work well with my current set-up. I'll have to get on the hunt for the aluminum angle.

The transom on Darryl's Kenner (my old boat) was bowing out some and seemed a lot weaker after he had the new Suzy installed. We found a piece of aluminum channel at Dewy Cook's scrap metal place. It's about 4-inches wide with 2-inch flanges. We cut it to fit and bolted it up and it straightened the transom right up and really made it strong. The transom used to have a lot of give on take off but I don't think there is any noticeable give in it at all now.

My "Prop Guy" suggested I put a "Washer Bar" on my Blue Wave if I intended to keep the boat a long time to keep the motor mounting bolts from pressing into the transom and to help support the transom. I found a piece of flat Aluminum at the same scrap metal place that's about 5/8" thick and about 3" wide. I drilled a couple holes in it and ran the top bolts through it and that worked out real well.

Something like either of these projects would probably make your transom a lot stronger and possibly prevent stress cracks.

I think you can use a transom saver even without Trim and Tilt if you use some heavy bungees to secure the motor to the trailer.