Jon Boat. Outboard motor bending back of boat a little

bw102087

Recruit
Joined
Oct 4, 2015
Messages
1
Hi,

I have a 14 ft jon boat. The boat says it can support up to a 20 hp motor. I bought a 5 hp outboard motor for it. It doesn't 'get up and move' but it gets me from point A to B. Today when I had it out on the lake fishing, i noticed the back of the boat where the motor sits is bending a little. You can see in a couple of spots where the aluminum is started to come apart from the wieght and pressure the motor is putting on it when in foward. How can i 're-enforce' the back of the boat to help take force of the motor?
 

MTboatguy

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
8,988
Does it have a wood transom in it? A couple of pictures would sure help on the road to recovery, if you are directly bolting it to the aluminum panel, then you need to put a piece of wood across there to stiffen it up to handle the motor. But get a couple of pictures posted if you can and that will tell us a whole bunch more.
 
Last edited:

robert graham

Admiral
Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
6,908
You can use a section of marine plywood and/or some 1/8 or 1/4 inch aluminum plate to reinforce the outside and/or inside of the transom....make the plywood/plates fairly large and bolt through in several places with stainless steel bolts and nyloc nuts and large diameter stainless fender washers....measure/design up using some cardboard for patterns to then cut your boards/plates....
 

GA_Boater

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
49,038
I'll wait for some photos before throwing out any ideas.

Welcome iboats, BW.
 
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