Tie down rope

[susqueduck]

Changing all the tie down ropes on our rigs. Opinions on best type and size of rope? 3/16 nylon?

[DeanFHobart]

I would use at least 1/2” rope, nylon braided .... or the ratchet type nylon straps... you can get these at Harbor Freight..... comes 4 sets to a box. And always use what I call an extra strap over the top from side to side.... nick named a ‘blow over strap’. I never had a boat come lose.

[ScatCat]

Changing all the tie down ropes on our rigs. Opinions on best type and size of rope? 3/16 nylon?

Do you mean to tie down on the trailer or engine tie down during races. I had the same question on engine tiedown.

[susqueduck]

Motor tie down

[DeanFHobart]

For motor tie down.... I would still use 1/2” braided nylon.

[Dave Cofone]

Why isn't there a mechanical lockout for the engine to bracket...? The tie it down with rope seems sort of 'Rube Goldberg'. There must be something I am not aware of........asking for a friend

[susqueduck]

Wow... 1/2 is pretty big.

[mercsami]

Dave C.,the method we use to tie down our motors has been in use at least since the late 1940's.It has served racers a good,inexpensive way to secure the motor.I am sure someone has tried to come up with a better fastening system,have not seen any that survived.
I think 1/2in. nylon will be difficult to tie,3/16 or 1/4in. would be all that's required to secure the motor.

[susqueduck]

As Mercsami can attest to.... I have questioned that there has to be a better mousetrap in the way we tie motors down. I have a few ideas of a better system myself. The few times I have brought this subject up amongst racers it seems like tradition and habit rule out change...lol.

[mercguy]

"Lockouts" are used in fishing motors to keep the motor locked down when put into reverse, as the motor will kick up. Since we dont have reverse, there is no need for a permanent lockdown like that. The natural fwd thrust keeps the motor held down towards the transom....so, the added rope tie down is good enough....

[jsilvestri]

1/4 nylon is what I’ve always used. Plenty strong for 500MH on down in my opinion.

[Wakefield 2015]

Using rope as a motor tie down is a perfect race engineering solution. It is very low cost, very low weight, very easily obtainable, very easily replaceable, and it does the job. Could there be a better mousetrap out there? Sure, but 10's of thousands of racers participating in the sport over the last seventy + years and we still use rope.

[Brian10s]

I have always used 3/16 nylon. Rope is used not only to tie the engine down but to fine tune your steering and also your engine angle. If you like a really tight steering, you over tighten the rope. If too tight, loosen it some. Could there be a better way, sure. But simple is sometimes the best.

[Dave Cofone]

Steering does come to mind and being the OCD character I am I can see me fiddling with the tension for far too long to get the steering tension just right and repeatable.......I wonder if a dedicated adjustable strap would be better for repeatability........maybe someone already does this....

[pops67g]

Rope for all the reasons stated already, in 1/4" nylon, and also because it is right there handy when you take the motor off and need to tie down the steering cables for trailering.

[ZUL8TR]

Exactly what I do, simple and always there. BTW on these low drag efficient light weight race boats as speed approaches top end the thrust of the engine against the kick out reduces to just a bit greater than the drag on the boat. The rope also keeps the engine forced on the kick out to prevent slight bouncy changes in the set angle plus it prevents the engine to kick out if quick reduced speed occurs.

Bad part is if you hit a log or something under way, I have seen gear cases and parts of the tower deep 6'ed as a result of tie downs. But rare and still used.