Best Transom Saver EVER | Myths and Truths

All right. So, you're gonna tow your boat down the road, you're ready to go, and you need to put your motor up. So, what's the best thing to do? You wanna use one of these? Do you wanna use one of these, or is there a better method for supporting your motor as you're trailering down the interstate? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about today. I think the best way to start here is what not to do. Okay? Let me put this down for a second. What you do not want to do is, you know, these motors here, they've got a tilt trim mechanism in them, right? So, why not just tilt them up and go on down the highway that way, right? No. Don't ever do that. Your tilt trim device is not designed to support your engine as you're trailering down the road. You're gonna ruin the seals, you're gonna ruin the whole tilt and trim apparatus, and you're gonna end up damaging your engine and your transom, and all kinds of problems. So, don't ever trailer down the road just by supporting it with your tilt trim.

The other thing is, you see this little device right here? Yeah. It's like a little kickstand. That kind of supports your engine, doesn't it? Right? No. Don't do that. That's not designed for trailering. Matter of fact, your owner's manual probably even tells you, "Don't use this to support your engine while you're trailering down the road." First of all, it doesn't even bring your engine up high enough off the ground. So, your lower unit is gonna...it's gonna drag on the ground anyway. So, it's not gonna do the job. But also because of the road and vibration, that's gonna fall down, and now your engine is gonna slide down, and you're gonna cause thousands and thousands dollars worth of damage. Just don't. Don't ever use this little kickstand here to hold up your engine while you're trailering down the road.

So, what is the best way to support your engine? Well, before I get into that, guys, we need to blow away a couple of the misconceptions here. These devices here, you know, like this, they're called transom savers, they're called motor toters, that kind of thing. The inference is that they support your engine, and take the weight off the transom, so that your transom doesn't flex and bend and crack or anything like that, especially being an aluminum boat. No. Nothing can be further than the case. Guys, these engines these days, they weigh, you know, over 600 pounds up to 700 pounds nowadays. These little devices are not going to support the weight. That's not what they do. Let's blow that out of the water right now. What they do is they're designed to keep the engine and the tilt trim, the transom, the boat, and the trailer, everything, all working together as one unit. That's the key. They work together, and that way they don't move in like this. That's what causes the problems, is when they're shaking independently. The best example I can give you is Dave Davis from DD26 Manufacturing. I talked to him a lot before making this video to help me out, and he gave a great example. I have to give him credit for this. This makes a lot of sense, guys.

Take a carton of eggs, and put it on the back of a flatbed truck with a lid open, and now drive down the road. When you reach your destination, you're gonna have a bunch of busted eggs all over the back of the flatbed there. It's gonna be a hot mess. Go get yourself another carton of eggs. Keep the lid on it this time, and strap it down to the flatbed. That's what you wanna do. Strap it down, so it's good and tight. Now, drive down the road. When you get to your destination, you're likely gonna have a bunch of intact eggs. Well, why is that? Well, that's because the carton of eggs now works together as one with the flatbed. And you're using the tires and the suspension of the vehicle to take all the vibration, take that all on. And this isn't bouncing all around, causing a lot of extra vibration that wasn't even there, to begin with. So, everything works together in harmony, and you're not gonna have any issues. So, that is the key concept. You have to grasp that concept of what these devices do, and what you're trying to accomplish. You don't want this bouncing all around independent of this, or independent of the trailer. That's the key thing here, guys.

By the way, what we're doing here, this is a bass fishing channel. So, what we're talking about is bass boats. Okay. So, we're talking about freshwater boats that are designed for bass fishing. We're not talking about saltwater boats, we're not talking about jet boats, we're not talking about ski boats, okay, we're talking about aluminum boats and fiberglass boats that are designed for freshwater fishing without board motors. That's the key thing here. So, the key thing that we're talking about is we wanna keep everything working in sync, in unity. The first thing it starts with the trailer. You've got to have the boat working together with the trailer as one unit. Now, the best way to do that, guys, is strap this puppy down to the trailer as tight as you can. You don't want the boat moving around. I've seen too many guys going down the road, they don't even have the straps attached, or worse yet, they just put the straps on like this. They don't ratchet it down. You guys, you gotta ratchet it down and tighten it down, and get that boat on there good and tight, so that the trailer now and the boat are together. The boat's the carton of eggs, it's gotta be working together with the trailer. Today's trailers, the suspension system, the torsion bars, some of them even come with shock absorbers now. The trends over the last 20 years have made great strides in improvement, and they dampen most of the vibration of the road these days, and the tires. Boy, tires just in the last five years have made huge improvements. Trailer tires specifically is what I'm talking about. And they're designed to take on the shock and the bounce of the road. Let them do their job by making sure your boat is firmly attached to the trailer.

Now, as experienced as we all are, there are times when we don't get the trailer quite on the...the boat quite on the trailer, right? I mean, here's the trailer, and the boat be kind of eh, right? We've all done that. Sometimes you get a strong crosswind at the launch, or you've got a bunch of boat wrecks [SP] you're dealing with, and you try as hard as you may to get the boat on that trailer squared up. It doesn't quite make it. Well, what I do is, typically, at a boat launch when you're leaving, there's usually a speed bump. And I'll whack that thing pretty good. What I wanna do is bounce it. The boat will slide into position, and lock into where it's supposed to be when you do that. If you look underneath, you'll see the bunks. They line up perfectly with the stripes [SP] of your haul [SP]. And they interlock when they're together. And your boat is not gonna move. The trailer is designed specifically for your haul, and it's designed to keep your boat from moving around. Well, bounce it, it'll slide into place, it'll be good to go. And you'll just pull over now, tighten your straps down again because they're gonna be loose because it shifted. So, tighten it down, and then go down the road. If you don't have a luxury of a speed bump, then drive down the road a few miles, find a place to pull over. I promise you, just that vibration going down the road, your boat will have slid into place where it's supposed to.

Now, your straps will be loose, so tighten them back down again. Now, you're good to go. I promise you, if you don't do that stuff right there, you get it on forums and stuff. You ask guys, "Look, which is better, you know? Is it this device, or is it this device? Which one is best for my boat?" Well, it's like getting Hatfields & McCoys together, man. It sometimes gets into a long debate and argument about which is better, and the other one is worse. And you get these, you know, people on both sides. A lot of times the problems the guys have is because how they're using the devices, not because of the design of devices. And one of the primary factors of failure is what I just told you. You don't have the boat attached correctly to the trailer. So, no amount of device that you have is going to...it eventually is gonna fail. Metal fatigue, what have you, you're eventually gonna have a problem if you're letting that boat bounce all around down the road like an egg carton. So, can't blame the device for that.

Now, let's talk about these devices, these transom savers, if you will, and how they work. The basic premise is that they brace the engine, so that it moves together as one unit with the tilt trim, with the transom, with the boat, with the trailer. Everything works together as one. So, they're designed to stabilize the engine and keep it working in concert with everything else. That's the concept. They both go about doing it a little bit differently. So, let's talk about this one here, first of all. Let's talk about which one. Actually, the pros and cons of both to see which is the right one for you in your circumstance. So, let's talk about this. This is a more common one. This design has been around for decades. The premise, what it does is essentially, the one part of it braces up against your trailer, and then the other part. This is where your lower unit slides into. And it braces your engine against your trailer that way.

Now, some guys will say, "Oh, now you're getting vibration from the trailer, and it's going up to the motor, and it's causing all kinds of problems," yada, yada. Not if you have the trailer. If the boat is strapped down to the trailer like it's supposed to, and then everything is working as one, that renders that whole point moot. It's gone. Okay. If you got everything strapped down the way they're supposed to, you're not delivering any extra vibration to the engine using one of these. Okay. So, it braces the engine basically against the trailer. That's how that works. Now, some people say, "Well, you're up against the roller there. See that? And that roller, well, it's got cushion to it and it'll vibrate." No. If you got the engine braced hard against it like you're supposed to, so the engine doesn't go any further, that roller is not going anywhere. Okay. And the way that you know that you've got the engine braced properly is to listen for this sound. That sounds like the engine. That's what it makes when the engine can't go any further, and it's braced fully against it. Now, here's the thing though, guys. If you've got an aluminum trailer, if you see my trailer, it's a steel trailer. That crossmember is solid. But if you have an aluminum trailer, or one that's made out of a thin gauge steel, or something like that, if you bring your engine all the way down this, and you look at that crossmember, and you see the crossmember bow in, that's not a good thing because now that's gonna flex and move as you go down the road. And yeah, then you are going to introduce vibration. And that is going to cause problems. So, be very wary of that. Watch when you press this against the crossmember, and make sure it doesn't flex. If it doesn't flex, you're good to go.

Another thing about these is sometimes I see them, you can get the shock absorber here. It's got a little spring, it's supposed to absorb impact. No. And that means it moves. What are we trying to do, guys? We're trying to keep it from moving. So, don't buy one that's got the spring in it. It still goes totally against the grain of what it's supposed to do. Okay. Now, about these, I hear some common complaints. You see up here, you've got some rubber pieces here. Well, that's not designed to dampen anything. It's not shock absorbing, but it's designed to grip the lower unit and hold on to it firmly. And it does, it grips it really good. The problem is, in my opinion, it grips it too good because when you now remove it, you've got to wedge it back and forth and back and forth to get it off your lower unit. Well, what happens over time is these little rubber parts, they'll wear out. Sometimes the rubber breaks off of it or there's a, you know, these are connected by, like, a rivet. And sometimes the rivets will break. Worse yet is over time, by rubbing it back and forth like that, you can actually rub the paint off your lower unit. Well, I solved all that with one very simple cheap trick, a rag.

Yeah. Just take a rag, fold it in half, take this, and you just stuff it right down the middle just like that. Now you've eliminated all of that friction that that rubber creates. It doesn't peel off any paint on your engine, it doesn't grip it too hard. So, nothing breaks at all. This will last forever. The rag will last you 8 to 10 years. And when it wears out and gets all holes and stuff in it, just grab another 20-cent rag, and start all over again, you're good to go. Simple, easy fix guys. So, don't be alarmed. Easy to take care of. Now, these kind of devices act a little bit differently. These actually brace your engine against the tilt trim housing. The key thing about it is that it takes the pressure off the pistons, and it just braces the weight of the engine against the transom housing. And again, you press it all the way down, your engine is not gonna bounce around anymore. And it firmly holds it into place and you're good to go. This one is for a Yamaha. So, you can see the holes here. This is where it goes over your pistons. That's a key thing. If you have a mercury, typically, they've got some holes on each side, on the tilt trim mechanism, and you've got these little pins that you slide in, and it's held probably by springs, and it holds it in place that way. But the concept is the same. It still braces the engine against the housing.

Now, this kind of devices haven't been around for as long as these, so some people will, you know, "This has been around for decades, and it's always worked for me. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it," right? I get that. I see that. That's fine. At the same time, these, they're newer, but technology changes, things evolve, things get better over time. And I haven't heard of anybody having any problem with this kind of devices. It braces a little bit differently, but at the end of the day, it still does a good job. So, these cost two to three times more than these. That's a key deal. Also, as I mentioned, this, if you've got it on a trailer that bends, it's not just as strong. Definitely, these aren't a good choice for you. So, you kind of have to weigh between budget and functionality of what's best for you. Okay. Now, that's where the similarity ends. Here, the way that they're built is completely different. A lot of manufacturers make a lot of these in different alloys, in different ways of doing it. And I'm telling you, guys, it makes a big difference. DD26 is probably the premier ones that are out there for a good reason.

Number one, this is aircraft-grade aluminum. Solid, absolutely solid. This is strong, it's super strong. Here, the black parts, these aren't rubber. That's important to note. Rubber will flex and bounce, and it will deform. Over time, it will lose its shape. And therefore, it's not going to...over time, it will lose its effectiveness. These here on the DD26, this is the same material they use in vehicles are used to dampen vibration in the frame, and where pieces touch each other and, you know, keep your frame from going through the gas tank, for example. This is an automotive-grade material designed to absorb and minimize vibration. It doesn't bounce and flex. Because of that, these cost a little bit more than some of the other ones that are out there, the competitors. But this truly is one of those things where you get what you pay for. So, shop around, you gotta be careful. Make sure you don't get anything with rubber components, and make sure it's all solid. This is all solid one unit. This one for Yamaha doesn't have any welds on it at all.

All right. So, now you can put them on your boat. You're good to go, right? Done. No. I wish it were that easy. Listen, this is where we get back to the Hatfields & McCoys arguing with each other all the time. Again, it's how you use it. You can run into problems if you don't use them properly. And that's what we're gonna go into now is some key things. It absolutely is critical that you use them properly. You've got to do this, guys. First of all, these devices, they do a good job of supporting your engine, so it doesn't go up and down, right? Not so much side to side, you know, the engine turning. They don't do a good job of that. And if your engine is leaning over to one side or the other, you're putting a tremendous amount of pressure on that device. And it can cause metal fatigue over time and can cause failure. And you know, you're going down the road, you look behind you, you can't tell looking through rear view mirror. You can't tell that big head of that engine. It looks fine, but below, it's tilted quite a long way. So, what you need to use are steering stops. Something like this. Steering stops. What they do is they lock your engine in place and prevent them from going side to side. That's a critical component. Again, we're trying to keep everything from moving, while you're trailering down the road. And without the steering stops, you're not doing that.

Now, I made the mistake when I first got steering stops. I got myself a pair of rubber ones because I'm cheap. I don't have a big budget, so I got rubber ones. I'm like, "Cool. Plop them in. Good to go. Yay." No, not so much. Look at this, guys. Look at the gap that it has. You know, these clip over each side of the steering mechanism on your engine. Look how much gap is there. These aren't doing a bit of good. With that much gap, it's allowing that much free play of the engine back and forth. But not only that, after one year of use, look at how warped these are. These have really lost their shape just after one year. Again, going back to my point, you don't want rubber components in these devices. It's not gonna last you very long. It's not gonna, you know, and of course, these also flex. So, even if you go beyond the gap that's there, it'll still compress against these. And they're not doing a good job, period. These here are better. These also are from DD26. And you can get there's a lot of competitors out there that make them out of different alloys. But again, shop around, makes a big difference. I think these are some of the best you can get for a couple of reasons.

First of all, again, here's the black parts. It's not rubber. Again, it's that material used in the automotive industry. So, there's no give to it. It actually helps dampen vibration, but also it doesn't mar anything because of the materials made. It's not gonna scrape anything, but here's the key thing about these ones, guys. Look at that. Look at the tolerance. None. There's no gap. These fit really, really snug. That is critical. That's gonna lock your engine in place and keep it from moving as you go down the highway. They make them in different sizes, and even, you know, you've got a little thing here. You can swap out if it's the wrong size. You can get a different size of these black pieces here, and change them out to get the exact fit that you need. Typically, it comes with the right one, but if you need to customize it, they're customizable. But that's the key component is making sure that it locks your engine in place. Now you've got your motor toter, whatever you wanna call it, it's supporting your engine from up and down, and you've got your steering clips from going side to side. Now your engine is locked in place and protected. So, you're good to go, right? No. No, we're not done. No. What I'm about to tell you guys is a true story, embarrassing, but.

Now that you're using them, you've got to incorporate them into your launch and load routine. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, when you get ready to launch your boat, you have to, you know, make sure the plug is in the boat, and the straps are undone, the ice is in the cooler, right? You got this list that you check down before you launch. You have to make sure you remove these before you launch the boat. I'm telling you what? If you've got one of these still attached to your engine, or the other kind that I was showing you, oh my goodness, it is a bad situation once it's in the water. It's very difficult to remove the kind that brace against your tilt trim. You can do it, but you're gonna get wet, and you might drop it in the water while doing it. It's difficult to remove. You've gotta get down underneath the water and, you know, reach down and get to it. It's awkward. It's hard to get to it. If it's the kind that's strapped to your lower unit, well, you know, when you launch it, it's below the water line. You don't even see it. You don't even know it's there. And the only time you find out when it's there is when you take off, and you're starting to go down the lake, you're starting to get up on plane. The water resistance finally gets up to the point where it folds up underneath the engine, and the prop hits it and it's bam and you're like, "Huh, what was that? What was that?" And you look back, and you're like, "What did I hit? I had to have hit something." You can't see anything. You're looking, you're scanning the water, there's nothing, not a log or a rock. You don't know what's going on, then a thought runs through your mind, "Man, did I damage my lower unit? Is my prop okay?"

So, you start to tilt the engine up, and that's when splash right down next to you is your transom saver. It's been in the air this whole time. I'm not kidding you. The prop can launch that thing hundreds of feet in the air. And you're darn lucky that it landed in the water instead of on you or your passenger. That's definitely a pucker-up moment. Don't ask me how I know this, okay, but take it from experience. You wanna make sure that you've removed them before you launch the boat. And it's the same thing with those steering wheel clips. I'm telling you, guys, nothing is more scary than when you get out of the marina, you take off and you gotta make a turn, or you're gonna go into the river bank on the other side, that's when you realize you can't turn. That is definitely another pucker-up moment. Don't ask me how I know this. Okay. So, make sure you remove these devices as part of your launch system, your launch list, whatever it is that's in your head, but make sure you have them removed before you launch your boat. And the same thing is true when you're getting the boat ready to go and trailer down the road. Once you have it all done, and your boat is all tightened down the way it's supposed to, these devices aren't gonna do you a bit of good unless you use them. But once you do, you're gonna have plenty of years of trouble-free trailering. I hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.