Advice on trailering - engine on inflatable?

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Has anyone had experience of trailering an engine (max 20hp) attached to the transom of an inflatable boat? The inflatable boat in question is a 4 metre air floor inflatable. The reason I ask is that the instructions suggest that it is bad to trailer with the engine in place. Has anyone had any bad experiences from trailering with the engine on the transom?
I reckon the issue is with the weight of the engine bouncing and stressing the seams and joins - but surely this would happen bouncing in rough water too?
So advice please, do I follow the guidelines and fill my car boot with engine, or can anyone back up the manufacturers concerns about trailering with the engine on the transom?
 
I've trailed a few inflatables, without problems.

Make sure you have the right trailer for the job, it needs to support in the correct places, especially under the whole of the transom. Make sure the boat is inflated to the correct pressure to minimise stress. Strap the boat tightly to the trailer to reduce bouncing and put a block of wood on the saddle of the engine to keep it fully tilted and again reduce bounce.

The trailer needs to be built for the correct weight, over speced trailers with too little weight spend more time off the road than on it, the landings cause a lot of damage over time.
 
I trailer my 4m inflatable tender when we fancy a days offshore fishing away from the parent craft, it's a 'V' hull with inflatable keel and fully boarded inside. We have two outboards, a 20hp and an 3.5hp auxilliary on the transom. We recover so that the trailer extends past the transom a couple of inches and strap down hard to keep that part of the transom solidly down on the trailer. Our biggest problem was keeping the thing on the trailer, even strapped down it tended to move off-centre and slide backwards leaving the transom overhanging and the weight carried by the keel and tubes. It never caused any damage but was not desirable so I've fitted eyes to the drawbar set back from the bow about 3ft and in front of the transom the same amount and now we also lash from the rings on the boat to these eyes which prevent sideways movement as well as the back or forwards movement. The problem seems to come from the fact that with engine weight combined with road bumping the tubes squash just enough to allow slip on the trailer. The two ropes leading back from the bow and forwards from the stern prevent that and the two ratchet straps hold it down. Now we never have any problems and the main weight is solidly supported by the trailer under the transom.
 
Clive, I've seen a support system which is essentially a length of tube (SS, alloy or painted steel, even hard wood) with two padded forked ends. One end cradles the OB near the CAV plate and the other rests on the trailing edge of the trailer. Rope pulls the prop end of the OB down towards the trailer and locks it in. Stops the bouncing around.
 
AndieMac said:
Clive, I've seen a support system which is essentially a length of tube (SS, alloy or painted steel, even hard wood) with two padded forked ends. One end cradles the OB near the CAV plate and the other rests on the trailing edge of the trailer. Rope pulls the prop end of the OB down towards the trailer and locks it in. Stops the bouncing around.
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Hi Andie, now we've sorted out the location of the boat on the trailer with the transom supported and eliminated the movement from road travel we no longer have any problems. Thanks anyway.
 
Thankyou for the advice. I was considering putting something "solid" between engine/transom and the trailer - this seems to be the acknowledged solution. Thanks.
 
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