Re: Motor Up - OR - Motor Down
You will not hurt your transom by trailering it up or down (unless the transom is rotten as someone said)
You will not hurt your motor by trailering up, or down if there's enough clearance.
It is not a good idea to trailer, or store, the motor up on just the trim hydraulics; the bouncing and pressure just adds wear. But you can.
One thing about ground clearance: you might have enough to drive around with the motor down but be careful backing in to a space that has a bumper; it might knock your skeg off.
The motor should be stored down to drain the water out. In freezing temps this is imperative. Short term, storing up doesn't matter.
Although on 2/3's of mine I have to trailer up, I will drop the motor most of the way for manuevering in a parking lot, etc. to reduce my length.
You never need a "transom saver" if your transom is solid; in fact, there are good arguments that transferring the "bounce" to the trailer frame is bad for a number of reasons. But it's an endless debate. However, the block-type that replaces the funciton of the tilt lock makes sense to me, since the tilt lock is not the biggest piece of metal. Yet I have never known a tilt lock to bend from trailering.
