For those of you who have bunk skids for trailering your aluminum boat(mine is a 14' with 15 hp motor), make sure that the transom of the boat is up past the end of the bunk skid. I learned the hard way that if you don't after a while the aluminum will crack adjacent to each inside corner of the bunk skids due to the weight of the motor bouncing when using rough surfaced ramps. The transom of my boat stuck out about 2" past the end of the bunk skids. All the stress was on the bottom of the boat at a small area adjacent to the end of the bunk. Putting the transom past the end of the bunk distributes the stress properly across the transom which has the structural strength while the bottom of the boat does not.

Good tip ... while I can't say I'd ever given that much thought. It makes sense and may save someone much heartache!

do you use a tansom saver to support some of the weight of the motor? it may help. my boat was made in 67 with a 20 horse on it and has no problems but it has a transom saver bar.

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I'm the NRA.