The Kinedyne Steadymate Transom Trapper

While most of my travelling was on paved surfaces I did my share of driving on some roads – and I use the term loosely - where there were more potholes, or in some instances craters, than there was road.

Like the majority of boat trailers mine are not equipped with shock absorbers, therefore my boat and its contents really get banged around, so it’s extremely important that I have the right equipment to secure everything in place.

I have tried various types of transom tie downs over the years and was less than impressed with their overall performance. Some were fine on short runs, but for my long hauls, which are typically over 1100km at a stretch, I needed something far more reliable and durable. 

Having tie downs you can rely on is particularly important if you travel at night. It’s fairly easy to see if they have come loose in broad daylight, but at night, unless you want to keep stopping every hour to check, you need to have confidence that everything is secure and you are not in danger of loosing your boat or part of your load each time you hit a bump. You also want some level of assurance that if you have to stand on the breaks because a moose, or some other large nocturnally active creature cuts across the road in front of you, your boat is not going to slide off the trailer when you screech to a sudden stop.

As luck would have it, this past spring I received an unsolicited call from a representative of the Steadymate Company, asking if I would consider field-testing one of their products called the Transom Trapper. Needless to say I jumped at the chance, with the faint hope that my futile search for a reliable tie down system had finally come to an end.

They shipped me both the Transom Trapper 1 and Transom Trapper 11 and it was obvious that from a construction standpoint, they were far superior to anything I had come across to date. Unlike other transom tie downs I have used in the past, they have zinc coated positive locking snap hooks at both ends. They also feature a heavy-duty thumb operated cam buckle, making them very easy to cinch up or release, and an extra long, 3 inch wide gel coat protector that not only protected the finish on my boat,  but didn’t slip out of place when bouncing along the road.

The Transom Trapper 1 has a working load limit of 378kg or 835 pounds – perfect for my 14 foot Mirro Craft, and the Transom Trapper 11 has a working load limit or 650kg or 1330 pounds, which is suitable for tying down my Lund Pro Angler.

First up was the Transom Trapper 11, because I would be hauling my Lund some 720 km to and from the Lake Temagami area. Installing them was a breeze, particularly when compared to the hassle I endured when using the self-tightening buckle type of tie down. I wasted a lot of time making micro adjustments to the length of the strap before it could be locked down, but with the Transom Trapper, one pull and I was ready to go.

I made three stops along the way to check on them, and they were just as tight as when I first left home. After arriving in camp, it was a simple matter of pushing down on the cam buckle, quickly removing the straps, and I was ready to launch in a matter of minutes.

But this little jaunt to Temagami was nothing compared to what I was about to put the Transom Trapper 1 through. Hooking up my 14-foot Mirro Craft, and loading it to the gunwales with food and equipment, I embarked on one of three 2200km return trips to my camp in northwestern Ontario.

My route would take me across the top of the province, and while the highway was paved, it was anything but smooth in many sections. If I had a nickel for every sign I passed marking a bump, it would have paid for most of my gas. While some of these supposed bumps were false alarms, the majority caused my boat and trailer to do some serious bouncing when I hit them at speeds in excess of 100km per hour. 

Once I turned off the highway, it was another ten kilometres down an unmaintained logging road to the boat launch - which is a treat in and of itself. You have to back your vehicle, together with your fully loaded boat, down a very steep embankment,  and if the transom tie downs fail, you are in real danger of dumping the boat on dry land.

I stopped for food and/or fuel five or six times, and in all but one instance did not have to tighten or adjust the tie downs. One of the straps came a bit loose at about the half way point, so after re-tightening it, I tied knots on both straps and cinched them up under each cam buckle, and there were no further issues on this or any of my subsequent trips.

The Transom Trapper 1 and 11 come two to a package, and retail in Canada for approximately $31 and $40 respectively. If you make your purchase in the US, the Transom Trapper 1 sells for about $25, and the 11 for around $30.

Considering their overall quality and performance, the price is more than reasonable. You can either spend a lot more by constantly replacing the cheaper alternatives, or spend a little extra the first time around for some piece of mind, and what may be the last pair of transom tie downs you will ever have to buy.

Have a look in the image gallery below, and then tell me what transom tie downs you should be using to secure your boat.

They are available on line at www.steadymate.com, or through a number of retail outlets; in fact I saw them on display at my local Honda Power Centre. Steadymate also manufactures a variety of other tie down products for motorcycles, ATV’s, snowmobiles, tucks etc., so check out their website for a full product listing.

In summary the Transom Trapper is a quality product in all respects – and most importantly – they really do work.