Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hi Everyone,
No doubt this topic has lots of varied opinions and there are arguments that go both ways on this.
To that I pose a question... have you ever taken a paper clip, bent it open, then sat there and bent it back and forth until it breaks?
Reason I ask that question is this: When you raise your motor up, you essentially change it's center of gravity and in many cases it stays pretty close to being over the transom...that is a good thing when the boat is not moving. The stress on the transom is really no more than when it is in a down position.
But...now take that boat and put in on a trailer moving down a road that creates vibration and you start adding stress to many parts....most notably the transom of the boat!!! What you cannot see from the driver's point of view is how much that motor will bounce as you go down the road. Even on a smooth, recently paved surface there are variances in the road grade, which is only amplified by a trailer that does not have shock absorbers. Now...if the transom of the motor is not supported but in a somewhat upright or fully upright position (which is where it would be if you use the lever on the motor to take the stress off the hydraulics but does not prevent the motor from going up higher) all that weight of the lower unit is now back further from the transom....essentially making one huge "lever" that can easily be pushed up and down. Then...as you go down the road, all that weight will bounce as well, which although it may not affect the bracket on the motor, it has a HUGE impact on your boat transom...that boat transom will give way (in other words..it will flex even if you cannot detect it by vision). Over time, that puts a substantial amount of stress on the the main supports of the transom, which with the large motors of today can still have a major effect even on the beefiest of transoms.
What the transom saver does is take all that potential vibration/flexing and transfers that energy to the trailer. It makes it so the motor cannot flex....it all stays together and bounces in one fluid motion.
The loss of paint on the motor I would say could be due to where you place the saver, but a little paint loss I would wager is much better than somehow damaging your transom and much cheaper to have a little paint applied than rebuilding a transom..if it is even possible...
If your motor turns to one side, there is a little plastic piece you can get at cabelas that goes over the main connecting rod which would prevent the motor from turning sideways....
Again, my opinion here...I just don't want to take the chance of having something that could be potentially catastrophic happen if I can prevent it... That's just me, though...
Steve
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