Guys....
this is sometimes the problem with Internet chat, two guys who have the same intentions, getting a little lost in the verbage - you're both on track, methinks.
BigMike - I was wondering if your boat is a OB, or IO, and if OB, do you have the single wide, or double wide motor cutout ?
Also I wanted to point out that there is alot of difference in brackets - for instance, my bro converted a 23 Sea Bird from IO, to bracketed OB - he used a single engine Armstrong bracket, which at the point it connects to the transom, has a fairly small footprint, not that much bigger than an OB's attach footprint. Conversely, a double motor bracket, and especially something like the Hermco/Potter bracket, has an even bigger footprint.
The bracket attach footprint is important - because that directly translates to spreading the load out over a greater area, which results in reducing the forces, and functionally strengthening, the transom.
In my brothers boat, it had an old OMC first generation oudrive, and a 350-V8. He pulled the motor, pulled the outdrive, and then plugged the original hole in the transom, with plywood and fiberglass. Then they went inside, and glassed in a big plate of 3/4" plywood, covering probably 2/3 of the transom area - much, much bigger than the plug put into the old outdrive hole. Then bolted up the armstrong bracket, thru the transom and support plate, adding a beefy pice of aluminum angle iron inside the transom - further spreading the load uniformly across the transom. He's been running this boat with no problem in the seas off MV for the last three years, since doing the conversion, and I can attest that it scoots nice with a single 235 on the back.
I'm not familiar with the bolt up pattern of the Hermco bracket, and in the early stage of this thread, BigMike mentioned something about possibly fabricating his own bracket - either way, I think remembering the key element of spreading the load out across the transom will be significant - and if it were me, I would be adding probably two, or maybe three knees, to further spread the load forward and down, into the hull/ stringers, as well - probably depending on whether I was going to hang a single, or twins, off the bracket.
and Mike - given what you said about nasty trailering conditions, I'd also keep in mind an idea about using a transom saver support rod, or two, for the trailering - though that might be a bit difficult to rig up with bracketed OB's.
just some stray thoughts.
Bill
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