Engine transit support revisited

[Red Fox]

OK here is my engine support for transit with the engine down on the hydraulics and supported should they fail. It leaves the prop clear of the ground and the engine travels more upright.

[Bill S]

Mark,

So you have gone with a rubber 'block of wood' approach then?

I have not been able to find that spare roller (must tidy that garage soon), so I'll buy one next time I'm at the chandlers, the I'll let you know how the 'clip on' experiment goes....

I'm wanting another weekend at NEB soon - but they have changed my car on me, I've now got a Volvo (which does not have a towbar) but apparently this car is temporary, so I'll wait and see what happens - just wish things would hurry up - the sea is calling!

C'ya later

Bill

[Naked Dave]

Nice one Red Fox!

Just goes to show that the simplest ideas are usually the best.

Hope you don't mind if I steal it for my own rig?

[Bilge Rat]

Red Fox

I'm thinking of making something like this for mine, from looking at the excellent pic you attached i can see your using a bungee cord to keep the chock in place, would it not be better to attach some form of clip to each end and a lenght of rope thus tieing the contraption in place, this way if the whole assembly bounces up and down you wont loose the entire lot, just an observation and i'll let you know how i get on with my attempt this weekend.

Of course any advise you can give would be most appreciated !

[Red Fox]

Nip the bungee up tight and use the nut to keep it on with a locking nut to keep that on. Good idea.

[Bilge Rat]

RedFox

I tried to buy a roller tonight at my loacl chandlers, all they had was the coned shape ones at £12 a shot ouch !! and they didnt look as though it would be long enought to reach across both sides of the engine support.

Where did you get yours and what sort of roller is your ?

Had one other idea looking at yours, i could buy one and cut it in two, then bolt each piece at the correct points along the shaft to marry up to the supports as the engine is lowered down.... would this work, alternative is two rollers bolted back to back on the shaft !! but this is gona cost more and still might not work out right

what do you suggest

[Red Fox]

Boat side roller 8" cost £4.95. As you say, it was a bit short so I cut it in half, put a bit of 2" foam pipe insulation between them, threaded the lot onto a treaded bar, nuts on either end and voila! To cut the roller I used a hacksaw and just kept rotating the roller to give me a straight line to cut on...easy.
And here's one I took apart earlier!

[Bilge Rat]

Ok i might give it a go tomorrow, i've trepidations about cutting a £12 roller in half but i suppose if it works then its the answer, solution would be to find an old roller from somwhere or even swap one of my old one's of my trailer and put the new one on the trailer and cut up the old one, then if it all goes Pete Tong i wont feel so bad i'll let you know how it went and take a few photos as the project progresses

Thanks for your help though.

[Bill S]

OK guys, as promised....... here are some pics to show how my version of a 'trailering support device' worked out.

First off, a couple of pics to show how the manufacturer's (Force) device works...

[Bill S]

As you can seefrom above, there is still a lot of piston shaft showing, with the result that the skeg is too low when lowered onto the device.

So - I took a standard keel roller, cut to length to fit the piston shaft, and cut a 'V' slot in it so it would clip round the shaft....

[Bill S]

Unfortunately, when the engine was lowered onto this, the device deformed (the rubber is too soft at this length) so that was no good...

Next I cut a smaller version....

[Bill S]

Then clipped both the new device and the original to shaft...

and lowed the engine down ........

It works fine, and keeps the skeg of my outboard well clear for trailering,
but I think in futere I would use a nylon roller rather than rubber, then there would not be the same deforming problem.

The best thing about it - no bungees or tie-downs - it just clips on!
I hope this is useful to someone....

[Bilge Rat]

Following on from last week i had an abortive attempt at making a chock on Saturday and gave up after snapping the control clip for my hydrolic lift from the handle, so i found myself with the engine hanging in mid air unable to lift it up or lower it down and spent the rest of Saturday afternoon scouring the southeast for type specific part, eventually i sourced one from Wayne maddox marine at Margate and refitted the clip.

After this i gave up......... Bills block around the piston looks like the best idea, so where would one purchase a nylon roller to fit around the piston ?

[Windchill]

Unless cesigned to be travelled on the hydraulics, even with an additional chock, I would suggest that this set up creates a lot of unecessary load on your rig.

Johnson/Evinrude use braket on some of thier engines, whilst Mercury / Mariner suggest a "crutch" from trailer to skeg. In fact, in the manual for the last Opti I owned, trailering on the hydraulics was a definite no no! A block of hardwood, clamped between the "jaws" of the o.b bracket is a good, structurally safe alternative I think.

[Bilge Rat]

Winchill

I was attempting to make up a woodern block to fit between the jaws on my rude on Saturday when i broke the hydrolic clip i'd given up the cut up roller idea of Redfox as the roller i needed was expensive and loathed to chop up a good roller anyway !!

My engine had the brackets you mentioned both sides, one side kept breaking so i had it properly welded back on but now the other side has broken and disapeared somewhere, in conclusion i considered an alternative to the supports whilst in transit.

[Windchill]

Mercury/Mariner have only one mooring type support, so you can imagine the forces using that alone would generate through the relatively brittle cast bracket when subjected to trailering loads.

A decent lump of Kapur/Keruing is what I used, machined to give a comfortable height above the road for the skeg, whilst keeping the engine as otherwise vertical as possible.

[Phil Davies]

Originally Posted by Windchill

A decent lump of Kapur/Keruing is what I used

Available at a sustainable Malaysian rain forest near you or, in case of difficulty, Anglesey Timber in Holyhead.

Richard, how long would you recommend seasoning kapur for, since I understand its moisture content can be extremely variable? In the case of keruing one should be aware that there can be issues with the high silica and resin levels present in this particular wood and to this end it would perhaps be circumspect to use only tungsten carbide saw blades.

[Windchill]

Ho bloody ho!!!

Its about time I bought a boat isn't it!!!

[Phil Davies]

Originally Posted by Windchill

Ho bloody ho!!!

Its about time I bought a boat isn't it!!!

Bloody right - you can't afford to miss another Anglesey summer RIBless

[arn.george]

I simply use couple of rubber rollers placed horizontally under engine and lower engine onto them. No problem.