06-07-2019, 03:45 AM
I just had a lengthy conversation with Lee Leavitt, owner of Lee's Marine in Hyrum. I and many others of us consider him the local premier source of knowledge on almost anything to do with boats and outboards.
His advice is to use a transom saver, on heavy outboards, for the following reasons:
1) If your hydraulics fail the transom saver will keep your outboard from letting the outboard hit the pavement.
2) Transoms are not designed to handle the vertical up and down movement that is put on it by a bouncing outboard. It can cause damage to the weakest point of attachment of the outboard, which is near the bottom of the transom.
3) The stress that is put on the hydraulics is far greater when one runs the outboard, in the water (both forward and reverse), than would ever occur while driving down the road.
4) The hydraulics are designed to give a little when the outboard hits something solid, which also saves damage to the hydraulics and the outboard and transom.
5) If you have an outboard with carburetors, you have to tilt the outboard much higher if just using tilt locks, instead of using transom savers and your carburetors can spill causing a mess.
He has seen a few transom savers damaged when they came loose, while driving down the road, but never seen any damage to anything else.
He said to notice how much your outboard bounces when you are going through waves, or similar rough water, and this is far greater stress on the hydraulics than it would ever experience on a trailer.
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His advice is to use a transom saver, on heavy outboards, for the following reasons:
1) If your hydraulics fail the transom saver will keep your outboard from letting the outboard hit the pavement.
2) Transoms are not designed to handle the vertical up and down movement that is put on it by a bouncing outboard. It can cause damage to the weakest point of attachment of the outboard, which is near the bottom of the transom.
3) The stress that is put on the hydraulics is far greater when one runs the outboard, in the water (both forward and reverse), than would ever occur while driving down the road.
4) The hydraulics are designed to give a little when the outboard hits something solid, which also saves damage to the hydraulics and the outboard and transom.
5) If you have an outboard with carburetors, you have to tilt the outboard much higher if just using tilt locks, instead of using transom savers and your carburetors can spill causing a mess.
He has seen a few transom savers damaged when they came loose, while driving down the road, but never seen any damage to anything else.
He said to notice how much your outboard bounces when you are going through waves, or similar rough water, and this is far greater stress on the hydraulics than it would ever experience on a trailer.
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