Can the transom take it?

I want to put a gas kicker motor on the back of my aluminum, but how can I tell how much weight the transom can support?

I was also wondering if the kicker motor stays on the transom during transport. I would think that the bouncing of the motor would put a strain on the transom as well.

Unless your boat is an older one, it should have a sticker on the boat some where that tells what size motor it's rated for. And yes, if you have a heavy motor on the transom, it will strain the transom during transport, especially when hitting any bumps. You can pick up a transom saver and that will prevent the transom from being damaged. Here are some examples.
https://www.cabelas.com/transom-savers-tiedowns.shtml

Frankly, I always thought that the rigors of operating an outboard put way more stress on a transom than simply trailering the boat and motor around. Assuming you are not dragging the outboard of course which would be the case with my outboard since it hangs so low. Your trailer springs and tires take up nearly all the rough bumps on a street compared to the prop of an outboard pushing 20 inches below the mount point (archimedes levers come into play here) at 50hp (or whatever). If a transom cannot handle the trailering, I do not see how it is gonna handle the operating stress.
Tim

The boat is an early '70's model, and whatever stickers were on it are either missing or so faded that I can't read it.

I didn't think of the transom savers. Thanks.

earl60446 said:

Frankly, I always thought that the rigors of operating an outboard put way more stress on a transom than simply trailering the boat and motor around. Assuming you are not dragging the outboard of course which would be the case with my outboard since it hangs so low. Your trailer springs and tires take up nearly all the rough bumps on a street compared to the prop of an outboard pushing 20 inches below the mount point (archimedes levers come into play here) at 50hp (or whatever). If a transom cannot handle the trailering, I do not see how it is gonna handle the operating stress.
Tim

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In a perfect world, that might be the case but if you've ever driven down some of the "county maintained" gravel roads like we have around here, you'd change your mind very quickly. :lol: I know that's not the case for everyone so my take on it is it's better to be safe than sorry. I probably tow my boat as many miles on gravel as I do on pavement. And I couldn't begin to guess at how many times I've hit pot holes, chunks of truck tires, 2x4's and any number of other things on nice paved roads. I've seen many transoms with broken welds on boats in this part of the country but I've never seen one with broken welds when the owner used a transom saver, so there has to be more to it than just the torque of the engine during opertion.