So, we are out here, getting ready to launch the boat and just drove down a bumpy, ice-packed, snow-packed road. It got me thinking about transom savers. The back part of your boat where your motor mounts; that is your transom and that takes a lot of pressure. You've got a 500-plus pound motor hanging off of the back that is connected essentially by six bolts.
What you want to do is you want to minimize that bouncing so that it's not creating a bunch of stress on that transom and the best way to do that is with a really high-quality transom saver. The cost of this is much, much cheaper than having to replace your transom. DD26 makes the best one that I have found. It's the DD26 Fishing Mean Mount Motor Tote Hybrid Yamaha 4.25" & 4.8125". It's all aluminum, built right here in the United States, and super-durable. It's still lightweight, but effective. The cushion is a very dense kind of rubber / plastic mix that absorb some of the shock, but not too much. It's the best balance that I've found.
So, you just slide it right on your trim pins and trim it down and it's going to line up. The Yamaha one will fit both trim distances so, depending on which motor you have, you don't have to select a different one and they make it for pretty much every major manufacturer.
The other thing that is important to get are steering locks. The DD26 Fishing Mean Stop Gen 2 Steering Locks are my favorite ones. They're attached so that you don't end up losing one. They stay on the best out of any steering locks I've found. They are perfectly measured and built to fit onto the SeaStar system, which is what most hydraulic steering system are using. They are going to keep your motor from turning while you're going down the road, thus eliminating that side-to-side motion. At the same time, your transom saver is going to eliminate the vertical bouncing.
These two really important products will help you to get more life out of your transom.
--Brandon Palaniuk