Trailering My IO

[TyeeMan]

Hi All,

Got the boat for the first time this year, woohoo! As I was running down the road and occasionally looking in the rear view mirror to check out my honey (the boat) I was noticing the steering wheel moving, and so a question popped in the mind.
Is there a bracket/rod/stabilizer on the market that one could connect one end to the outdrive and one end to the boat or trailer to keep the drive from wangin around every time you take a corner? Or would that not be a good idea and just let it swing? The steering wheel has a friction adjuster on it but it doesn't work, yet. I would rather secure the out drive any way rather than rely on the whole steering mechanism to keep it stable.
Thanks in advance everybody.8)

 

[freelunch]

Re: Trailering My IO

Well I know there is for my 1972 sea ray with a pre-alpha stern drive and there should be one for yours as well. What year, model drive system do you have?

 

[RandyJ]

Re: Trailering My IO

Depending on what kind of outdrive you have...there may be a little hole on the top you can hook to that you can chain up the outdrive to keep the pressure off the cylinders...and there's the possibility of taking a rope or other device to tie the steering wheel in place. For outboards there's the things called "transom savers" which may work on I/O drives. Lots of gizmos for that sort of thing.

 

[QC]

Re: Trailering My IO

This bugs me too although I have never done anything about it. You could easily run a strap from each side of the drive to the stern eyes instead of some sort of bracket. Securing the wheel doesn't seem like an issue, remember it is the "steering mechanism" that you depend on under power . . .

 

[Bondo]

Re: Trailering My IO

You could easily run a strap from each side of the drive to the stern eyes instead of some sort of bracket.

You should already have a Stern Line on each rear corner anyways,.... Use those....

I have an Auto-Pilot,..... It turns reasonably Hard all the time.......

 

[waterdog85170]

Re: Trailering My IO

i use a bungee around the steering wheel and windshiels supports. i'd like to find something a little more "proper" though.

 

[SteveNix]

Re: Trailering My IO

I just take a ratchet strap, hook it onto my Ski eye, down around the top of the lower unit, and back up to the eye. Tie the extra strap up out of the way.