Re: transom tie downs
About 20 years ago I was following a guy with a boat on a trailer, I'm not sure of the make, but I'd guess maybe an older MFG or similar about 18' long. I had just noticed that his boat was moving around on the trailer when all at once it was sideways in front of me at about 50 mph with no time to react. I was driving an early Toyota FJ55 Land Cruiser with a winch bumper and brush grille and when I hit the boat, all I heard was a loud pop sound and very little impact. I pretty much just drove right through it. When I pulled over, there was no boat to be found, just debris all over the road and an outboard and a pair of seats. I found only one dent on the hood, which we figured to be from either the windshield frame or maybe a seat. The outboard was still spinning in the road when I got out of the truck. The car behind me, a police car, also got covered in glass and debris. The driver was going ballistic over loosing his boat when the police put him in the back of the car with a warning that it was all his fault and that even the officer had seen that the boat was not tied done in anyway.
The best I could figure was that the boat was only held on by the winch which was wound with clothes line and tied directly to the boat with no hook.
Either the rope broke or his knot didn't hold and the boat had taken off skyward when he gained enough speed.
The truck I was driving was my fishing truck, so another dent or a few scratches didn't matter much to me, we actually thought it was pretty funny that all that was left looked a lot like feathers on the road.
It wasn't a case of not tying it down properly, he didn't tie it down at all. I don't remember the exact list of tickets he got, but he got at least 5 in all.
I would guess "Loaded to spill" and "Failure to maintain control" were among them. All in all it wasted an afternoon that could have been spent fishing on my part, but those in the truck with me didn't stop laughing all day after that and still bring it up after all this time.
So long as the straps are rated to handle which ever is lighter, the boat or trailer they should be fine. the worst case scenario would be a collision in which the boat is thrust forward. In most cases though, the transom eyes would fail long before most straps. A good bow tie down turnbuckle will do more to keep in on the trailer than the rear straps in a collision.
