This was a pretty easy and inexpensive addition, but from what I read around different forums, an important one to help protect your transom, motor and mount. Transom mounts are very commonly attached to the roller on the back of your trailer, but since I don’t have any rollers, being fully ‘bunked’, I got a bolt on version.

The ‘Bolt on Transom Saver’ that I got from Gander Mountain is quite simple to use. I just drilled one 1/4″ hole in the rear cross member of the trailer, and bolted the attachment point to it with included hardware. A pin than passes through the bracket and the transom saver itself to hold that end in place. On the motor end, rubber pads on the ‘mouth’ cushion the motors lower end. Before I installed the tilt/trim unit, I had to use a ratcheting strap to hold the motor down against the transom saver, or else it would have the potential to pop out when you went over a bump and the motor bounced. With the tilt/trim unit in place, I can now just used the included rubber ‘bungee’ strap to hold it in place, and then put a slight downward pressure with the tilt/trim unit. Note that most of these transom savers say that they are for use only with a tilt/trim unit for this reason.

The transom saver bolted to the trailer cross member

Full view of the transom saver in use