Ok guys, you talked me into the idea that I need to have some transom bracing for the lowe with the 32 pd on the back.

Now I am curious if I should brace with welded aluminum going from just off center of the transom to the sides by the rear seat, or if I should look at using steel and bolting it to the boat.

Or am I way off the mark totally.

Anyone have pics to share?

Add knee braces. Two 2x2 pieces coming from the transom down the floor at a 45 degree angle. Not really the floor, hopefully you have a brace on the floor to weld to.


And now I just sit back and wait for my boat building FE award to come in the mail. Crews, please send it ASAP.

This set up held up to 150 hours of abuse. The rest of the boat didn't though. It looked like a skif when I was done with it.

PD w Bracing LS.jpg
PD w Bracing FRONT.jpg

There are a number of ways to go depending on your boat..

You might need to add some aluminum plate across the back as well.. It depends on the thickness and sturdiness of what is there....

The pic BK posted should work fine..

Not a fan of attaching to bottom unless there is some re-enforced plating there. You can sometimes get a crack in the original aluminum around the weld if your brace is stronger than the bottom and you won't want that problem out on the water.... (just had that happen where the brace from floor to transom cracked..but it cracked at the transom end....cracked right at weld-just kind of tore the original aluminum around the outside of the weld)


You can also go across the boat about 12" -15" in from back of boat and then tie in two braces to that piece.... All to a plate that runs across the back of the boat... I had one weak one that I had to do that on...

good luck

brace mine on a alumnacraft like Balloon-Knot. Like he said, brace held up, but not the boat. Had to reweld the corner gusets 3 times and the gunnal 2 times.