I want to buy a old fiberglass boat to set up for crappie , how can you test the transon to see if is sound . 1984 Skeeter , 140 Johnrude

Some say stand on the cavitation plate and jump up & down. Personally, I’d be tempted to punch someone in the face if they ever did that to my boat.

You can also tap on the transom with something solid (not sharp) and listen for a hollow sound.

Cracks, funky looking rigging, brown streaks coming from any holes are also signs of issues. I’d go ahead and just assume a boat that old probably has some rot in it.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ I use a large screwdriver handle to tap on it, solid sound is good, hollow not so good.

YouTube the make and model. You'll discover if many owners had problems with that type of boat. I bought a 2004 Lund two years ago. If I had done my research, I would have discovered that Lunds made during that time period have almost a 100% failure rate on transoms because of how they were designed and engineered. So this winter, I get to teach myself on how to replace a rotted transom.

Sounds good , i will try the screwdriver method . Thanks