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Ideas on Traveler motor mounts
Posted by Michael Strahan on Apr 05 2006
Frank,
The Traveler is an excellent HUNTING rig (thanks, Mr. Burbs!) and an outboard is a nice addition.
This should be a pretty simple process. You could try 3/4" electrical conduit (a lot of raft frames are made out of that stuff). You'll have two issues... well... you may have more issues than that, but I don't know you that well. Er.. but... well, um... anyway, you'll need to brace the transom plate (which could be made from plywood if you like, U-bolted to the conduit). The transom plate needs to be braced two ways; top and bottom. This is to keep it from spinning on you. If you're using an outboard in the 2.2 class or so, you might be able to just through-bolt your transom through the pipe in addition to the U-bolts and may not need anything more than one pipe going back there. But if you need a larger outboard, you have to double-brace it top and bottom as I said... gee, is there an echo in here or am I repeating myself? Hmmm.
You might be able to do the top bracing with one ten-footer by bending the pipe into a big U shape, with the bottom of the "U" sorta flattened out to receive the transom. Make sure you secure the transom on the BACK (AFT) end of the pipe, not on the "boat" side. This will give you better support for the wood. Otherwise the forward thrust of the outboard may rip the wood loose. The bracing on the bottom is the tricky part. You may have to have something welded. All you really need (contrary to what the Beatles said) is a shorter U-shaped pipe, welded at an angle off of your top bars. This U should be flattened like the othe one, and secured to the transom too. As an added bracing, you might want to weld two vertical bars from the top brace to the bottom one too. One thing I don't like about this setup is that it only gives you about three feet of attachment to the boat. I'd rather have those top bars run up to around the midpoint for better support, with a cross-bar connecting them in front. At that point you now have plenty of metal up there to attach oar locks, a rowing seat, a place to secure your mast for sailing, a base for your airboat prop and a possible tiedown point for a gazebo.
If you're handy with tools and can weld, you might be able to save some money. My guess is though that by the time you get done fooling with this, you might be better off just to buy one pre-made. It could be a lot of work. Being basically lazy, I'm always up for saving a little work.
-Mike
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