Trailering with Motor???

[tgrass462]

I'm taking delivery of our 'new' H-260 this Thursday. We'll be trailering down to Kentucky Lake (about 200 miles).

My dealer assures me that it is OK to trailer the boat with the 8 HP 2-cycle O/B attached to the transom. In the past I always removed my motor for trailering ... but this new motor has remote controls - it is more involved in installing than was my older motor on Grasshopper II.

What is your opinion? Do you remove your motor? Do you trailer with it mounted to the mount? If you do - do you strap the motor to the Stern Rail seat to take on some the weight?

Thanks for your help.

Tom Grass
Grasshopper III
H-260

 

[JoeWhite]

Take it off. I trailered my H25.5 with 9.9 4 cycle and its mount broke after I towed it for 40 miles. Fortunately I did not loose the engine. Remove the remote control levers panel from the hull, it is not all that difficult to do. It will be much more expensive to buy a new motor and if it falls off and runs into the vehicle behind it may not mch fun specially considering that you have travel 200 miles.

 

[Jesse21835]

Tom
I've trailed mine 500 miles to coast and back several times and no problems. I have wheel steering with controls mounted on pedestal but control lines to motor can be qwik disconnected at motor easily. I do watch mounting bracket for trounble signs but so far no trouble!

 

[Bob15530]

Look below for answers for your same question

Look further down the list of previous small boat topics for answers to your same question.
I have trailered mine many times with the motor in the down position.

 

[Benny]

It has been my contention that the forces exerted by an outboard motor on its mount and bracket are far larger at sea than those experienced by trailering on our highways. Motors don't float so when the boat is in the water the engine weighs just as much as when the boat is sitting on a trailer. A boat underway may be experiencing thrust from the prop as well as torque forces if the engine is running, in addition a boat can dip or raise easily in the range of 2-4 feet while it can easily roll 30 degrees on either direction. The roll on a trailer is probably around 10 degrees max and the up and down travel can be measured in inches. The acceleration and braking forces will have negible effect. 200 miles is a chip shot as you are only looking at around 4 hours driving time. When you go on a sailing trip that engine will hang back there for days at a time. There is always the question of unecessarily exposing the engine to a road accident but some think that if an accident trashes the boat let the engine be trashed as well and included in the insurance claim. New boat, don't want to be messing around with removing control cables, short distance I would leave the motor on.

 

[Michael15707]

I always trailer with the motor -- one time more than 400 miles.

I've never had a problem.

 

[George H260]

I'm with Benny --

I've trailered my boat over 8000 miles with the engine on. I always secure it from bouncing and have never had a problem. There was a very tiny gelcoat crack near the mount when the boat was delivered from the dealer 6 yrs ago but it has not gotten worse. I remove it for sevicing every couple of years and it typically takes me 30 minutes to remove it and about an hour to put it back on because of the remote controls. The biggest problem is that it weighs 93 lbs and at my age I just don't sling it up over my shoulder and march off with it

There have been some reports of early H260 engine mounts bending but that is easily fixed with a replacement from Hunter.