OK,

I have a jon boat and 25 HP Honda...the 25 HP Honda 4 stroke is heavier than any motor I've ever seen....This is a tiller steered outboard, and its got manual ways to lower (trim) the motor up and down and lock it into position...

How are guys towing smaller boats with small outboards? Do you use a motor toter thing or how are you securing the outboard from bouncing, and maybe even unlocking and going to the down/drive position while in tow?

Are there good motor toters or solutions for trailering small (but heavy) outboards on small boats/trailers?

MP

I asked this same question a while back when I got my 15hp Yamaha. Several people told me that even though it was a manual trim, I could still use a standard transom saver. This is not exactly true...

If you search for 'transom saver' on cabelas.com and click on the Swivel-Eze transom savers, you can see that they look like they would work, but they way they adjust, there are only a couple holes that you can stick a pin through.

So if you tilt your motor down to the desired position, and the length of the transom saver does not match up with the spot where the hole is, the length will be wrong and your motor will bounce up and down anyway. On mine, it turned out that by pure luck the hole was in the right place. I still get a little bit of wiggle, but not much.

You could perhaps drill a hole in the transom saver at the correct spot, but you never know about modifying a piece of equipment like that.

I have seen people do things like inserting a piece of hard foam between the transom of the boat and the shaft of the motor, then strapping the motor to the boat using various straps, bungee cords, etc. It looked ok, but I don't know if you can get the parts to really fit your setup correctly very easily (think random trips to the hardware store trolling the aisles for appropriate pieces of foam).

Basically, I wished in the end that I had bought the 20hp Honda with electric trim. So much easier to just pop the transom saver in place and trim down to it. With my setup now I have to brace myself under the motor, holding it up very firmly while positioning the transom saver and slipping the pin in.

Someone will assuredly post now and explain some very simple method for preventing the motor from bouncing during transport with manual trim motors, but I don't know what it is....

My manual for my 20HP Honda recommends putting the motor in the drive position (all the way down) when trailering if you have the clearance. I do so that is the way I drive with it. I did use a transom saver at first (I have the electric trim on mine) but wasn't happy with it still moving around back there. My boat is so light that I get a lot of bounce in my trailer going down the highway. I got a "transom saver" that basically is a dense plastic block that fits around the hydraulic shaft and I trim the motor down onto it if I'm going over speed bumps or backing around curves. I used to put that in once I got to the lake because of the speed bumps but I have found that I have enough clearance that I don't need to do that anymore.

Hmmmmm, I appreciate the feedback Rob and Ken.

Mine is a manual trim, and leaving it all the way down in drive position makes me nervous, since there isn't a ton of clearance and the way that little boat bounces, I'm worried about ripping off the lower unit or grinding off the skeg.

OK, college students, engineers, and inventors...there you have it....the business case:

Develop an effective universal motor toter or solution for small manual trim (and maybe electric trim) outboards that secures the engine from up/down and side to side bounce as its being trailered on the back of a boat.

I could see a bracket that attaches to the trailer or the transom of the boat itself that could do the trick. I'm just a sales guy, so if you develop the solution and it works, I'll help market and sell it with you! I just can't handle structural engineering, fabrication and all that that!

MP

I think Ken touched on it a little. With the weight of these smaller aluminum boats you are never going to completely eliminate bouncing at the motor. I would not worry to much about bounce as long as the transom is not flexing.

Matt, I've had 25hps almost my whole life. THere is a shallow running mode that has latch that kicks out under the motor that rests against the motor part that goes over the transom. This holds the motor at about 1/4 tilt. This gave you PLENTY of clearence to tow your motor without worries of dragging the skeg. What most do is put a bungy cord from one handle on the transom across the back of the motor to the other handle on the transom. If the bungy cord was too big I tied knots in it until it fit tight to keep it from bouncing.

Mike

The key is a triangle. If you look at the the bracing for tresle bridges, the support structure for a domed stadium, or numerous other things you always find triangles. You need to form a triangle with the 3 sides being 1) the transom, 2) the motor, and 3) the transom saver.

Next you need to secure things. I've used a swivel-eze transom saver on my 12 ft aluminum boat with a 15hp outboard with manual trim for over 10 years with no problem. The key things were to 1) adjust the length of the transom saver so the motor is at an angle of about 45 degrees to the transom, and 2) secure *both* ends of the transom saver.

For my boat I used rubber straps with hooks on the ends. The motor end is easy, it just goes around the motor just above the port and hooks into holes on the transom saver. The trailer end is a bit trickier. The transom saver has a semi-circular end to fit on a roller, so I added a roller that is not in contact with the boat specifically for this purpose. I then hook one end of the strap to the trailer frame, pull it tight, wrap it a few times around the transom saver and then hook the other end to the trailer frame on the opposite side of the transom saver. This keeps the transome saver pegged to the trailer and keeps the motor from bouncing.

On my new boat the back end of the trailer is so far under the boat, the standard straight transom saver won't work, but cabelas has a model that is extra long and has a bend in the middle. It is a frame mount type, so the trailer end has a bracket that boths to the trailer and a quick release pin so you can remove it.

Pete