Bracing Vegas Transom ??

[imq707s]

This is a question for all of you Vegas owners out there. When you start hanging heavy motors and large amount of setback off of your transom, how do you brace your transoms to keep them from cracking? I know that because of the factory splashwell, Vegas's don't have the full sized knee braces in the transom like most other performance hulls do. I've seen some people put tie bars that go from the motor mounting bolts to right in front of the splashwell, helping to relieve some of the stress from the transom. Anyone else done anything else like that? I've also seen some guys put big aluminum or SS plate on the back of their transoms to make them stronger. Any other ideas? Got pics?

[inspectorlance]

Good question, I would love to hear and see some picts of transom inprovements on the Vegas and Voyager.

Lance

[Rusrog]

are planning on putting back there?? Just curious...

V-8 OMC on a 12in plate???

Russ Rogers
Ft Worth TX

[imq707s]

Probably just a 2.5 Xri with 10" of setback. I've seen some boats with setups like this that have started to develop cracks in the corners of their transoms.

[dashrockwell]

I can only tell you what has worked for me soo far....
I have a 200 hp with 8" setback and no stress cracks yet in 17 years.

I have a solid 1/2" aluminuim plate running the full width of the splash well for the upper jackplate mounts and for the lower bolts I have a (4-1/2 ft) 1/2" aluminum L- plate across the whole width of the transom to spread out the weight distribution and reduce stress on the center of the transom.

Of course this is all inside the boat!!

Easy to build and only weighs an extra 12 lbs.

Mac.

[imq707s]

Can you post some pics?

[merklebob]

to my xtream voyager, i have a full .091 thick al on the whole outside of the transom. under a bobs jack is a 1/4 plate 1"larger than the jack.

inside there are two 1 1/2 angles horzonally. one ties to lower motor boats and the other to the tye down eyes. the connect to two Al knee braces. their as high as the motor well and 2' along the floor. this was all welded together. the tye down eyes bolt the top outside and there are three bolts thru the transom on the top angle. i also redid the floor and stringers. added two extra stringer and a al hard point at the 2' point to bolt the knee to.

i'm toying with a 2x3 angle for the top motor bolts the full width of the motor well. it will also be a mounting point for a ski bar.


all of the above was to tye the transom top in place. the extra ribs and a 1" floor under the transom are for reenforcing the transom bottom. and to take the flex out of the step back design area of the voyager

this is over kill i sure, but my transom will be solid.

[77STREAM]

Do you have any pics?

[pyro]

Here's mine, did it in the spring.
More pix here: http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56977

[merklebob]

well have pics soon

[77STREAM]

I'll be waiting!

[merklebob]

finally got some pictures of floor and transom repair. here is the rib layout. the outside ribs are new to the boat. the silver squares are hard point mount for the tramsom bace in next post. not shown are four 1" round ribs on the outside and inside of the outer ribs. they start 1foot forward of the rib and are 4 feet long. these help span the gaps between the balsa pads and tye them together

[merklebob]

this is the alumiun barket i built. i wanted to keep the 25 gallon gas tank ,so the knee bracing is toward the outside. i would have preferred to have the knees more to the center of the boat but being cheap i would have had to buy two new tanks. the knees are bolted thru the transom as well as the upper cross angle . the lower angle uses the motor bolts. the front[bottom] of knees are bolted to the hard points under the floor [as well lagged bolted to the floor using glue and ss lags].

note the floor at the transom is two laters of 1/2 plywood and the center 8" is three layer thick up to where the ski locker would have been. the ski locker addition iwas a source of weakness in the boat design so its gone.

the upper motor bolts will have a 2x3 angle full width of the transom. attached with motor bolts and the back ski bar attachments.

on the outside is .091 al plate covering the transom and .125 under the hoist. this is all glued, screwed and bolted to the transom.

this was over kill especially for racing, but its my son's ski boat. we wanted this to be the last repair and probably will give up 3 mph.

[77STREAM]

Looks like it should hold together just fine! I like the implimentation of the aluminum!
Pete

[bigbore]

alright i have been contemplating this dos`ndont`s for a while now and the knee braces in my opinion are a good idea,but its so inconvinient with the vegas its not even funny.the thing a guy has to consider is were the transom gets torn up on this boat,its not at the bottom its always at the top were the problem starts,and that makes sense cause thats were all the stress is being put at,mostly because of the splashwell not giving support to were all the stress is being applied the other point is were all running jackplates and with mine thats the issue.if you think about it first of all theres 400 pounds hanging off the back in most cases 8-12 inches of the back then you got the issue of trimming we all know that the vegas has to have bowlift so all the stress that comes from trying to pick the boat up from the very back in a pivoting way is going to put stress on anything.its unfortunate that this has to be done this way but i see no other option and its not so extremely inconvienent.the stress releif has to be done within the shell and thats unfortunate cause the shell is not exactly built out of nails to begin with,what im going to try is putting an alluminum plate over the back and have the plate bent over the transom then attatch it to bracing by the top tripod mount theres alot of ways to do this but im thinking the base of what im talkin about should take the main stress off the top of the transom.

[hsbob]

this is what i did

[bigbore]

thats lookin good hsbob,thats almost exactly what im trying to say,let us know if that holds up,and dont be afraid to beat the boat.after all it is still a modified tunnel you have got a good situation there so,you know dont kill it but let us know how that relieves the stress on the transom.the only other thing im thinkin is conecting that alluminum plate to the shell so the transom cant flex when you trim.

[imq707s]

This is what I did. I put two aluminum tie bars in that connect upper jackplate bolts to the section right in front of the splash well. After the install, I took Randy (AQUAhollic) for a ride. He sat in the back and put his hand right in the corner of the splashwell where the Vegas's seem to always start to crack, and he said that we couldn't feel any flexing at all....and that was when I was running pretty fast through some nasty chop. Keep in mind, that's with that heavy looper hanging 10" off of the back of the transom. I ran it that way all last summer and it seems to be working great.

In addition to the tie bars, I also pulled out the gas tank and put a piece of 4"x24"x3/8" thick SS plate on the inside of the transom where the lower jackplate bolts bo through. I figure that should spread out the load better than the stock washers.

[imq707s]

Here are some pics of the underside of the tie-rod mounting brackets I made, and also a pic of the piece of SS plate I put behind the gas tank.

[hsbob]

i tried to post this yesterday and got the wrong pic. this brace is screwed into a double thickness floor [only under motor well ] as well as the metal plates between stringers. its a little over kill and too heavy for racing, but fits my son usage go fast- ski.

[imq707s]

That looks like it should work really good.....but where do you put the gastank? Mine butts right back against the transom.

[THE HOGG]

I Put New Stringers In And Ran Them All The Way To The Top Of The Transom, Then Cut "c" Notches For The Gas Tank.but, As You Can See I Didnt Have The Splash Well Problem To Deal With. Although You Could Still Do It, Just A Little More Cuttin' And Fittin'. Hard To Explain, But Maybe Pics Will Help.

[pyro]

Ian, doesn't your ski pylon mount to the floor? That's why yours is set back further. Also, battery position (and oil tank for people with injection.)

My battery is behind the gas tank (what a b1tch!) and my oil tank WAS beside it before I removed oil the injection. My knees stick forward about a foot, but it all still fits in there. I had to move the gas tank forward an inch or two. My gas tank is right up against the back seat base now.

Here's the knees with the battery installed next to them. The knees are painted gray along with the rest of the interior, so they're a little hard to see in the photo. The base of the gas tank is right up against the knees where they go though the floor.

[imq707s]

Yep...my ski pylon mounts right to the floor. My battery and oil tank are right next to the ski pylon mount.

[pyro]

Yep, that's why your gas tank is right up against the ass end.

Hey, speaking of the paint thing we discussed in the other thread before:
your seat base appears to be constructed like mine, but mine is covered in clear resin and yours is painted black. Funny...

[hsbob]

the braces are spaced outside a 25 gal tank. i would have preferred to have the braces more centered . that configuration would have required a new [or 2] tank/s. i therefore doubled the floor thickness and set the bracket inside the ribs thus spreading the load back to the center.


my ski pylon is a bass boat version that mounts to the front of the motor well. i put a 1/2 bass boat seat receiver on the top and re-enforce the well under it across the boat width. the loading is vertical at the front and at the transom it is like the motor. across the top motor hoist bolts, will be an alumium angle, that the ski pole bolt thru.

[imq707s]

Pyro....I'm not sure why it's black. The previous owner might have done that. :confused:

[pyro]

Yeah, my pylon also mounts to the deck in front of the splashwell (but not to the floor below), with arms that mount to the rear corners. This allows the forward mounting position for the fuel tank.
My pylon has a thick piece of wood thru-bolted on the underside of the deck to reinforce the pylon mount, although this design transfers about 70% of the pulling force to the support arms.

[bigbore]

well that all looks extremely good guys,i cant see how anyone of you could have problems beyond that point.