Backed into the guard rail at Minnow bucket,POW, slightly embarrassing since there was a weigh in going on, wrecked my prop, which I had fixed the next monday. About a month later, I notice some play in my motor. When I loaded the boat, I looked at the transom, and it was a little loose at the top (about 1-1/2 of play). Call insurance, Progressive, which by the way, never had a problem with, and their conclusion was that the Talons and jack plate caused my problem with the transom. Too much weight, blah, blah, blah.They could not find evidence of a collision with the guard rail. The question here is not about my problem, but, how much weight can you put on the back(transom) of your boat? How far back can you mount something? I'm guessing there must be some kind of limits, but I've never heard of any. Definetly going to try to find out.

The boat manufacturer is probably the best place to get that info since there are various differences in materials and how they are built.

Good question. With 500+ pound outboards, hydraulic jackplates, talons, Powerpoles, etc there is a lot of weight hanging off the back of the boat.

I would be curious what the boat manufacturer would say as well.

If your motor horsepower does not exceed the boat manufacturer's rating, then jackplate & Talons or Power poles really don't add that much more weight.

Think your getting a run around.

Well actually, the further back you mount the motor and Talons adds quite a bit of stress on the transom,(fulcrum and all that)it doesn't have to be over HP, but you are correct, they are trying the run around trick. I'm semi shocked there is no stated limit on the weight you can hang and how far back you can put it. Talked with Ranger factory and Skeeter factory, and both people I spoke with had never heard of such a question. Neither one has any spec on how far back you can go or how much weight you can have. In this day and age of crazies(myself included)you would think they would have to have some kind of spec.

Some manufacturers install the jackplates and Power Poles at the factory. If they exceeded any limits you figure they would not do that.

I know there�s a limit with the Ranger tin line, long thread on BBC about a failed transom due to dual talons. Apparently it voids the warranty on those boats.

What brand of boat????

Progressive is a junk. I caught with them for 5 months to get my broken motor mounts fixed after hitting a stump. Had to call 3 times a week to even get them to do anything at all. The boat shop I took it to worked up an estimate as to what they needed fix and progressive told them what the were willing to fix. One motor mount was cracked so bad that it had a 3/4� gap between the crack. They only wanted to replace that one side. It was a mess. With that said of course when you add weight to the back of one it�s going to add stress. It would be nice to know what the max force should be.

Write the manufacturer and ask them to get it in writing. If they say that they can't support them then maybe you need to find a different company to buy from. If they say that it can then take that to the insurance company. Did the insurance company ask for pictures when you insured the boat and if so did you have the same equipment on the boat? They agreed to insure it if you did. Take it to a repair facility, would be even better if it was a boat dealer that dealt with that brand and have them look at it to determine if what you say happened could have caused the issue then submit the claim to the insurance company.

I wouldn't think that backing into a guard rail at a slow speed would have caused the issue but if it did, you may have a larger structural problem in the transom than what you can see. I'd fight the insurance company until you get it taken care of then call and change companies.

I do not know the specific weight for any of the boat manufactures but I can add a little to the Conversation.
Basscat will not warranty a their boats if the boat has anything above a 8" jack plate.
A couple of months back we worked on a 03 Ranger with transom issues. The boat had a 12" jack plate and dual Talons. Ranger denied a warranty claim because of the weight on the back. The insurance covered the repair. Once we took the jack plate off there was a sticker on the transom that said Max weight limit 600 pounds. Keep in mind that the 521 was not designed for a jack plate. The motor on this boat is around 580 pounds, jack plate is around 40 pounds and talons around 60 a side.
I have to think that with all the added weight and stress on these transoms and the addition of the motor toter type mounts that something is eventually going to give and I doubt its the aluminum parts.

BassCat used to have a stated and in print limit of 6" when I owned one. But that's been a while. I don't think it was that long ago that they bumped it up to 8".