Adjustable motor bracket

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John C Pollitt

Anyone thought of, or put an adjustable motor bracket on their H26? I'd like to get my motor a bit farther out, and open up the well for storage. Would also enable getting the motor fully out of the water on the starboard tack. My concern is how much stress this would put on the factory bracket. Any other ideas to accomplish the same end appreciated. Fair winds, John
 
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Crazy Dave Condon

fixed

I assume you have the ole style bracket which is wood. Get rid of that for the other one. You want an adjustable. Ok, then you have to make a spot. Some would take the extended fiberglass brackets that the fixed motor mount is attached to. Alot of work and you best know what you are doing. However, if you can make a bracket to accept the other kind of raised motor mounts then that would be the way to go. Put it in the existing extended fiberglass brackets. make sure it is solid.
 
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John C Pollitt

errrrmmmmm

My factory bracket is flush with the transom of the boat, not extend out at all. I had thought to just bolt an adjustable (lifting) bracket to the factory one. It seems sturdy enough, but I was concerned because of the stress from the motor being further out from the bracket.
 
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Crazy Dave Condon

might be doable

I forgot that that was flush. I am loosing my marbles. There is aluminum encapsulated in the glass. If you do put one on, I would recommend thru bolt it with a large plate inside to distrubute the weight on the transom and you should be fine.
 
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John C Pollitt

Thanks

That was my plan, just wasn't sure how strudy to expect the factory mount to be. I'll try it and keep and eye on it to make sure it isn't too much stress on it.
 
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Bill Leathen

How big a plate would you add?

This is an interesting topic because I never thought about the added stress that an adjustable bracket may be putting on the transom. Especially when the motor is swung up and out of the way. I have a raisable motor mount and then I swing the Outboard so the shaft up out of the water. A very careful inspection of my transom on a 1988 H23 when I pulled it this fall reveals some very very fine hairline cracks on the inside of the boat where the motor mount is attached. On the outside of the boat, there is a hairline crack that follows the curvature of the inside of the fiberglass hull right along the edge where the side of the hull and the transom meet. It is about 8" long adjacent to where the motor mount bracket is. You can see a hairline crack in the gell coat on the outside of the boat and in rough surfaced gell coat on the inside exactly opposite the one on the outside. My spring plan was to use a dremmel grinder and cut through the gel coat and then replace the gel coat with something like marine tex. On the inside of the hull I was planning to fiberglass some addtional support around the bracket. Just pile on some more material. I was not planning to do any serious cutting or re-work. SO WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK? Good idea - bad idea. Thanks.
 
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Crazy Dave Condon

two things

The hull to deck joint is cracking. First lets tackle this sucker. It is marine filler between the hull and deck joints. Go get some good two part epxoxy. Clean out the joint with a dremel and then fill and sand. Put gel coat on. IF you need additional help, then get my email. What you are trying to do is distrubite the load on the transom which is why you need to have a plate or something so the transom can handle it. It should be long and wide to accomodate the bolt holes.Whatever you do then make sure you caulk very well outside. Any other question
 
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John C Pollitt

No cracking

There is no problem with the deck to hull joint, my concern is about the stress on the factory transom mount where it attaches to the transom. I'm worried that pushing at an angle instead of straight against it (as it would do if the motor where lower in the water and further out)might tend to weaken the upper bolts in the factory transom mount. If the factory mount is thru bolted though, it would seem to be okay. Not really sure if it is bolted on, or screwed on.
 
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Alan Long

Stronger mount

If the 26 is similar to the 23.5, the motor mount is threaded into an aluminum plate that is laid up in the fiberglass transom. It's pretty easy to buy longer, top quality stainless bolts so that they can be thru bolted with a nice, fat backing plate on the inside. My original wood motor mount cracked and I replaced it with one of 2" white oak. I think you could mount the motor the way you plan if you beef up the original and go easy on the throttle. Good Luck Alan
 
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Mike Pajewski

What is the new mount like?

Hi Dave, What does the "new" mount look like. I have a 1996 H26 and it has the wood mount, which requires regular refinishing every few years. Is the new one a synthetic material that would be maintenance free?
 
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