Transom savers… This topic often comes up and there are lots of options. I did this video to explain why I truly believe transom savers do nothing to save your transom from torsional load when trailering. I believe they are a placebo product that just makes you feel like spending money on a product does something to help.
Can they relieve the stress on the hydraulic system? Sure, but a block of wood does just as good of a job.
The lower unit support arms in my opinion aren’t helpful either as they truly just transfer the road shock energy through the trailer, into the arm and through the lower unit and into the hydraulic system and transom.
If you have them and one and if you think it helps, great keep using it.
The one thing I truly believe that helps to eliminate torsional loading into the transom structure is to get the powerhead in front of the transom reducing the cantilevered weight.
And yes, I do use the support arm lock outs. I have done it for almost 4 decades on dozens of boats for 10’s of thousands of miles. Never had a problem or broke one despite all the online nay-sayers.