Strengthening my transom

[dmangi]

I am going to try to strengthen up my transom for the existing motor bracket that is already on there. You may have read me talking about this a couple weeks ago, but the fiberglass is only about 1/4" thick right now where the bracket is mounted and they just had a couple strips of 1/4" plywood behind that. Anyways, I am going to take some 3/4" and cover as much area as I can in there (all the way to the corner of the boat to where the trasom is thicker where the stern drive is mounted) and then fiberglass the new wood into and around both corners. Actually, where the stern drive is, there is some plywood running perpendicular to the trasom, so I was going to fiberglass it into that to give it the strength from that. Does this sound good or am I missing anything? I have an OMC mount with the hydraulic that is rated up to 15HP 2 stroke. I showed it to a couple of dealers and they said it was a real good bracket. Anyways, this will give me a couple extra days to decide on what motor to get too!

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Strengthening my transom

Sounds good. Use epoxy and you'll definately be in good shape. Good luck....

 

[dmangi]

Re: Strengthening my transom

Yeah I got epoxy. I've never done this before but the guy at the store kind of explained it. So would I cut the board to fit in the area to go as close to the corners as I can, then put the sheet of cloth over the whole thing, then coat on the expoxy? How many coats do I put on it? I am going to need two boards probably because in the middle of the area, the bottom half goes outward a bit, it is not one flat level piece. But the epoxy around that should make it strong. As far as the bracket that I mentioned in the first post, a couple of dealers said it should hold 70-80 pounds. If I get a motor that weighs 80 pounds, is that going to be too much?

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Strengthening my transom

Dan, Can you strengthen the inside of the transom? Appearance will not be a factor there, and it should do as well. Also, you can use some 2X4's glassed in on edge to add strength to the inside of the transom, if you desire.

 

[quantumleap]

Re: Strengthening my transom

You need to epoxy the board in place before you glass it over w/cloth. Did you check out Jason's link to his project? There are some good pics.

 

[dmangi]

Re: Strengthening my transom

Ok, I have everything sanded inside there really good so I might start tackling this project today. So first I need to epoxy the boards in place. Does epoxy work like contact cement where I need to put it on both sides and let it tack up? Then I thought about putting a couple angle brackets on each end of the board tying it to the existing plywood on the boat, then fiberglassing over the whole thing. So how many coats do I put on, and do I need to wait for each one to cure first? Is 3/4" plywood enough? I think it is, but one dealer that was going to do it talked about putting a double layer of 3/4", that seems a little excessive. I thought about putting a piece of aluminum backing plate besides after I was done with this. And once again, if anyone is familiar with this motor bracket, let me know if it will hold 80 pounds. Its the white OMC bracket with the wood mounting area and the hydraulic, rated at max 15 HP 2 stroke. One dealer said I shouldn't put 80 pounds on the back of this boat like that or it would weigh it down or set it off balance or something. But its only 20 pounds more than the motor he was pushing me to get, and the battery is back there on the opposite side so that kind of balances it out. I dont think its any different than having someone sit back on one side or the other. Ooooh so many decisions. Well thanks alot guys for putting up with me. I'll be posting again in a few days probably when this is done before I make my final motor decision to get one last set of opinions. Have a great 4th of July!!