New Transom Saver!!!

I was at the boat show last night in the Minneapolis Convention Center at Frankie’s Marine booth and I discovered for the time a new transom saver motor support invented by Mark Raveling. This very handy little light weight 8-3/4″ long rubber (EPDM) support eliminates the hassle of dealing with the big clunky, greasy, mechanical transom savers that are out on the market today. It fits over the tilt/trim piston on your outboard and withstands all the load your motor ever sees when on the trailer taking all of the everyday’s roads elements and abuse.
Mark has alot of time invested in this product with testing and R&D development and has proven to be flawless in any conditions a motor can deliver when trailered.
Currently this product fits most all larger 3 ram tilt/trim system outboard engines right now. According to his brochure it fits the following;

Yamaha- 135hp-250hp
Mercury- 135hp-250hp
Honda- 75hp-225hp
Evinrude/Johnson- 88special-250hp/ Johnson 4 stroke-60-140hp
SuZuki 4 strokes- DF60hp-DF140hp

Soon in 2003, mywedge will be availible for smaller outboards with single arm power tilt systems.

for more info, see http://www.m-ywedge.com

Attached is a pic from the show last night with this product in use!

DeeZee,
How does the price compare with the other style?
Don

I paid $30.00 for this piece. Seems to be a little cheaper to other transom savers that are on the market today and alot less hassle to deal with. So small, it tucks into any storage compartment in the boat or the truck.

Pretty innovative.

Also saw these in December at the Ranger Factory meeting – Mark had them down there. Great product! Wonder if they will become standard equipment when buying new boats???

Now I need to think of something like this…

ted

Hi The only thing I can see is you are still putting the presure on the transom instead of the trailer.Any other opinions?

DeeZee, I have the same question as Phillip about the presure on the transom although the transom may not be the component needing releive but rather the motor pistons.

My thoughts on this seem to all come back to the point that this support slides down over one of the piston rams. You then load the motor up a little to secure it. THe transom bracket on the big motor is bolted to the transom of the boat so that becomes the fixed end of the pressure. It seems like the motor would not react any differently if the transom saver went down to the trailer. You still are loading up the motor in a fashion similair to the other style. Maybe its the whole lower unit being unsupported that you guys are questioning?
Is that it? If thats the case, I need to try this one and see if there is any movement during normal conditions. I have zero experience with this product, but definately has gotten my attention enough to buy one. I think I will need to get some time on them.

Ted,
Mark mentioned that Ranger has reviewed them and are considering them as a component. Maybe I can get Mark to come online here and give us all some testimonials to back these questions up. All in all, I like the concept of a small greaseless component that can be stashed easily in the boat or truck and it very easy to install.
Hmmmmm…..

This sounds like a great product and it sure beats getting grease on everything. Thanks DeeZee!

I have a built in motor support on my Johnson outboard [90hp.] and Nate also has a built in one on his Evinrude 150hp. They both just flip down and work great. These are original with the motors, not add ons, but sound similar and work great. Bill

It looks like it would do a good job of protecting your hydraulics, but my concern would be that the weight of the motor is still fully supported by the boat transom, and when you’re bouncing down the road, that could be a lot of stress that with a normal saver, the trailer would be absorbing.

Not sure how much of a worry it would be, but those big V6’s sure do pack in the pounds.

I would think that as long as the motor doesn’t bounce that the transom isn’t going to be flexed. Once upon a time I used a 2×4 under the motor to accomplish the same thing. But that product looks a hole lot nicer. My current motor also has the factory lockdowns on the motor.

I got a voice mail from Mark Raveling (creator of m-ywedge) and evidently he had some trouble replying to the questions and concerns here. He proceeded to type me an email to see if I could post his thoughts on every one’s questions.

He writes,
“Hi Steve
i looked at the comments on the m-ywedge product.
here are a few thought
trailer shock is common when you use a transom bar for
support, this is when the boat leaves the trailer on
bumps, the main people that make the transom bar
actually talk about this when they introduced a new
product last year for the mercury v6 motors they said
that trailer shock was not good and there new product
would get rid of that problem. Ranger boats did give
me the go ahead on bring m-ywedge with there name, and
it would be offered as a option and in there catalog.
there engineers have sign off on m-ywedge, other boat
companies that are looking at it are triton,lund
crestliner and honda marine is looking at it to be
shipped with there motors. As for stress on the
transom the old omc motors all use the flip catch on
there motors and they don’t have problems with
trailering, all the boat company’s said that there is
way more stress on the transom when your going down
the lake at 50 mph than you would ever have trailering
hope you can post this on the web site i couldn’t
reply for some reason
thanks”
mark raveling

Hope this helps everyone!