Transom rebuild on 12ft sears

I picked this up for 250 bucks. Its a sears 12ft aluminum from the late 60's. I got one season out of the rotten transom. When the boat was getting onto a plain the whole transom would flex to the point where I thought it was just going to rip off. this is what I did...

Pressure treated wood is a no no on an aluminum hulled boat. The copper used to treat the wood will react in a bad way with the aluminum.

The paint on both sides may help to diminish the effects somewhat but as stated...not the best choice. Maybe you can change it out within the next few years?

hahaha, thats funny because I was actually lying about using pressure treated wood. I was searching high and low for a piece of pt but never found anything suitable. I just asumed that pt would be the best. But I just looked up the pt and aluminum combo on a house building forum, and it will actually cause the aluminum to descintegrate and turn to powder, even if its painted. good tip thought, thanks

I think I would have stopped the wood about 2-3 inches above the bottom so that it's not trying to soaking up water any time you have water inside the boat. I've also got an older sears 12' but it's built a little different than yours.

How big of an engine do you run. I've only got six horse on mine and i was wondering if i could go up to an 8 or 10 horse without it being too sketchy.

byronofcapecod said:

How big of an engine do you run. I've only got six horse on mine and i was wondering if i could go up to an 8 or 10 horse without it being too sketchy.

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I've only got a 4hp on it right now but have been looking for a good deal on an 8-10 also. I have no doubt that it could handle either one. As far as that goes, the older 10 and 15 hp motors weighed the same but I know I don't need 15hp and I'd probably do something stupid and hurt myself if I had that much power on a 12'. I've got a buddy that owns an older 9.9 that is in need of repairs. I'm planning to help him repair his this spring and borrow it for some test runs on my 12'. Then I'll know for sure which way I want to go.