Traxstech and downrigger

[troutman10]

I've got this setup on a new to me boat. Should this be strong enough for a 2.5" pedestal, cannon swivel bases and downriggers? Any help is appreciated. 

[ifishy]

Depends on how is the gunnel made looks like sawdust in the one pic so is it a wood backed aluminum? Or just hollow I like a bigger washer or a backing plate but if it's good stainless bolts the track will hold anything the side of the boat will hold

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[troutman10]

The "sawdust" is leftover leaf and acorn litter. Glad to see it's bolted and has washers. Feels pretty solid. Not much experience with downriggers.

[ifishy]

I used fender washers on my last boat on everything the mountings always did fine even ran a rod holder into the dock snapped the holder and dented the piling but the mount was solid

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[mr 580]

For downriggers I’ve always used backer material and fender washers.  Without knowing the thickness of the material on your boat it is hard to say for sure but backer material never hurts.  Some aluminum boats have pretty thin gunnel material.  Looks like your boat has rails for mounting t brackets- it might not hurt to tie into that as well.  A downrigger with riser, swivel base, long arm and heavy weight in rough water can put a lot of stress on mounting.  Might consider longer track section too as that would spread load.

[troutman10]

Thanks for the input. I'm currently waiting to hear back from Cisco on availability and custom ordering for my lowe. Just weighing my options. Materials still hard to get from what I hear.

[sherman brown]

i forgot my riggers at home one trip and borrowed 2 big jon riggers with track mounts. i just have my tracks screwed on with screws and nothing else. we only used the riggers for 5 days with no effect on the tracks. these riggers only had 3' booms with 12# weights. in my opinion your fine with the bolts and fender washers. but it wouldn't hurt to add a piece of 1/4 backing just for piece of mind.

[Ltuccini]

3 years of  using Traxtech tracks plus brackets on an aluminum Tracker with "Versatrack" groove engineered into boats at factory. 

No issues whatsover and had manual Cannon 2' and then Big Jon electric 2' downriggers. Tossed around hard in Lake Michigan, sometimes 13# cannonballs bumping bottom, with 200' - 400' coppers, and triple rods trees, all mounted into the tracks, and tracks are still solid as a rock.

Please you may want to consider:

1) Use all the holes available in the track that you can, not just how much hardware they give you. Tracks are pre-threaded but I still bought longer stainless screws, fender washers, and stop nuts wherever I could. Also consider heavy duty marine adhesive, or if you're experienced, Crestliner uses heavy duty aircraft rivets and the adhesive. 

2) Use as long of a single track as will fit on your boat, in order to spread out huge force. Its a real thing. 

3) If you can fit stainless or aluminum backing, that also lowers your risk of all that money going overboard.

4) Go back and retighten a few times a year, to learn if anything is getting loose.

4) Most important of all, have some fun out there.