Best way to support leg when towing?

[fender22]

Hi, I have a Merc 135, 87 model. It has a little lever support thing supposedly to support the motor but doesn't really offer much support. Apart from the extendable legs that attach to the trailer, does anyone have any other ideas for supporting the leg? It looks like you could wedge a wood block in between the bracket (attached to the transom) and the leg itself away from the trim.

Would this be safe?

[PinHead]

I have a H frame on mine.

[Hamish73]

IMO the idea of a leg support bracket is to save the transon as much as it is to save the tilt/trim components. Therefore a frame off the trailer is the only effective means of doing this.

[Spaniard_King]

here.. have a L@@K at this system

http://www.m-ywedge.com/instructions.htm

[Mac_Attack]

A block off wood sat on the bracket and lower the leg onto it never had any probs with my old 115 merc doing it that way! and its cheaper to ;D
Cheers Nick 8-)

[ozscott]

Nice Garry - that solves the problem of not having any support areas on a drive on trailer like mine. I have had my Yammy 115 on its own little brackets all the tiime - its a 94 model. It has never broken a bracket, so I reckon thats proof enough.

Cheers.

PS. There are 2 schools of thought about the need for a seperate brace - but has anyone owned a motor where the manufacturers little brackets have actuall broken...or is it the fear of it happening that drives the desire to get a brace?

[fender22]

The fold down bracket on my 98 Johnno 70 was the bees knees, a proper, strong bracket that locked in. I loved the idea of having a tilt switch on the leg too, save getting in and out of the boat. I now have a 87 merc 135 with a little tilt down bracket but not worth a damn. I must admit, now I think of it, a trailer bracket probably is the way to go to take some weight off the transom. There must be an awful lot of upward and downward force on the leg on the road and must flex the transom. I'm gonna buy one today

[Noelm]

by far the best way, if you have power trim and some ground clearance, is to trailer the Motor in the down position, it cops heaps more out in the water jumping over waves and chop, full power, hitting sand bars etc, than it will ever get on a trailer on the road.

[Fed]

I think up is better because it balances the weight of the motor directly on top of the transom rather than having all the weight hanging on the outside trying to flex the transom.
Tilt it up, flip the little lever support thing, tilt it down until it's snug is all you need to do.
Aftermarket support brackets to the trailer???
If they're loose they do nothing, if they've been tightened up by tilting the motor back down then they're trying to lift the weight of the boat up off the trailer and against the tie down straps.
The manufacturer's of the motors know what they're doing IMO.

EDIT: Aside from the last sentence now I have to really suck it up and post this on here.:-[
I found this on the official Mercury Marine Website FAQs.

What precautions should I take when trailering my outboard powered boat with the engine attached?

Trailer your boat with the outboard tilted down (vertical operating position). Shift the outboard to forward gear. This prevents the propeller from spinning freely. If additional ground clearance is required, the outboard should be tilted up using an accessory outboard support device. Refer to your local dealer for recommendations. Additional clearance may be required for railroad crossings, driveways and trailer bouncing.
IMPORTANT: Do not rely on the power trim/tilt system or tilt support lever to maintain proper ground clearance for trailering. The outboard tilt support lever is not intended to support the outboard for trailering.

[ozscott]

I read that in my book when I had my merc 60....but I cant see that in the Yammy book so I dont worry about it + 15 years on and the Yammy has not broken a bracket - and I trail 130k round trip

[Dirtysanchez]

I had a support brace on my old DT60 Suzy and it was fine, it was a decent thickness piece of steel plate and was reliable for years.
With regards to that info Fed put in there from the Mercury website, why the hell even have the thing then is what comes to mind when I read that ?

Russell

[FNQCairns]

I use a boat roller, red for a bit of give, cut one end away to give the correct overall lenght, slide the still wide end over one of the tilt rams and shape the other end to fit snug and square under a little compression on the part of the outboard that tilts down to meet it.

Works very well bit like the one in the link above in idea, they must have copied!

cheers fnq

[ozscott]

I would genuinely like to hear from someone who has done damage. Apart from my experience I have a mate who had a 150 Black Max Merc for some 20 years and never had a support brace - trailed it tilted and sitting on the little brackets that are built in like most motors...

Cheers

[Hagar]

Each to his own I guess . I have always used a block of 4 x 4 timber carefully positioned near but not touching the trim pistons and then the motor trimmed down hard onto it . Puts the load of the heavy powerhead back onto the mount brackets down low on the transom . Cheap and effective . Follow a trailed boat with a big outboard sat on the tilt lock bracket over a few bumps and you might rethink it's suitability .

Chris

[onerabbit]

Fully with Hamish,
it's more about protecting your transom than anything else.

Muzz

[Mark Lynch]

Gidday fello fisho's
I use a block of wood under the honda 90, trimmed down to apply light pressure and support, never had a drama, ends of wood painted fluro to catch the eye at the ramp

I dont like travelling behind other boats on trailers with the engine bouncin and jumpin on the bushed pivot, also being a mechanic ive have been taught never to trust oil as a support device (i.e. Carjack etc) always block the item to avoid possible cost and anger

Lynchy

[mromanis]

In addition to the bracket, I've always been told to tow the boat with the tilt trim pistons in the fully down position. Is this still the practice? I imagine it was to protect the tilt trim system in case the bracket gave way.

[charleville]

There is heaps written on this subject on several fishing and boating websites around the country with all sorts of strong views but I have never actually seen anybody report any sort of a breakage irrespective of how the motor was supported.

The wisdom that I took notice of was that firstly, the little support lever thing on the motor itself was unreliable to trust. I would think that this would be especially the case on long trips.

The second bit of advice that I took notice of was that boats just don't sit still on a trailer as it flexes and moves along a bumpy road. Especially mine as I don't bother to tie down the back of the boat any more after the first year or so of ownership - I just got lazy.

So this means that a motor that is supported on a bracket fixed to the trailer could get damaged as the boat and trailer move not as one. Follow any boat on the road and you will see the boat shake and move around on the trailer - perhaps more so for aluminium boats where the weight is supported on the keel and the side slides don't actually support the weight and therefore may be ill fitting.

Accordingly, the block of wood support as described in other posts would seem to be a better idea than supporting the motor on a trailer based bracket.

I did that for a while but always worried about the block of wood slipping out so I bought a bracket from Springwood Marine that supports the motor against itself against the transom. See the pix below. I have been using this method for about five years with no problems.

http://img.skitch.com/20080213-t3jg5583rxp83qebmrjq2bbkny.jpg

http://img.skitch.com/20080213-tubytar9xi4tqm15ficss39gu5.jpg


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[aussiebasser]

I had a support brace on my old DT60 Suzy and it was fine, it was a decent thickness piece of steel plate and was reliable for years.
With regards to that info Fed put in there from the Mercury website, why the hell even have the thing then is what comes to mind when I read that ?

Russell


Not all motors have power trim and tilt. How would you keep them up? I've been involved with Merc's since they were white, and we've always supported them. The light weight tilt brackets on small motors have a habit of breaking or bending. Having the skeg hit the road at 100 k's is not a pretty thing. I use the spring loaded one from BCF for my 150. At about $65 it's cheap insurance. I'd hate to break the transom, and I have seen this happen. I've also seen a 909 4 stroke Yammie that broke off the boat due to vibration. It was dragged for a couple of k's by the electric wiring and was a complete write off.

[rumy1]

In the Suzuki manual (140 four stroke) it says not to use the little motor support as a travel support as it's only designed as a service/safety choke.
I use the power trim and that's it !