www.iFourWinns.com

According to the VP service manual, you're supposed to tighten the engine mount to hull bolts annually.

One of my bolts won't tighten any further. The lag bolt still has bite, but it won't tighten to 100+ ft lbs. like the other three.

I removed it and a bunch of junk that looked like wood came out. Which is strange because I thought FW used VEC 100% composite hulls in 2006.

What I did was jam some quicksteel in the bolt holes, and then reinserted the bolt. It got it to the point where it's torqued to around 80 ft lbs or so, and it's definitely not going to come out anytime soon.

It makes me wonder what type of material those bolts are screwing into...

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2006 Four Winns Horizon 200
Volvo Penta 5.0 GXi/SX

I've never checked mine. Then again I've never pulled the drive either to check the alignment which you are also supposed to do before tightening those bolts down. I might check this weekend to see if they have loosened any over 12 years.
Mine sits on a lift now, so I would have to pull it from the water to get the drive off. Changing the gear oil is also slightly tricky on a lift, but I've been able to do it thus far. '07 and above have sealed gimbal bearings, so there is not as much to go wrong.

I bet that really is wood. I would imagine those go through the fiberglass into either the stringers or at minimum a wood backer plate.

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2007 FW Horizon 200 5.0GXi/SX-A

I'm going to keep an eye on it throughout the season.

I think it was like that when I checked last year, can't remember. It still has plenty of grip, but I'm just OCD when it comes to mechanical stuff. It's nothing like my neighbors boat where you can pull the motor mount bolts out with your hand, lol.

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2006 Four Winns Horizon 200
Volvo Penta 5.0 GXi/SX

What I see is the VEC construction was the main stringers. But transom bulkheads and everything else is wood as it always was.

Despite the fact that wood rots, it is a very good boat building material because it has some flex to it. All composite boats can have issues with cracking and tabbing failing due to the lack of flex. If those engine mount pads are cored with plywood what I would have done is to mix up some thickened epoxy (with milled fiberglass fibers or saw dust to thicken it), after drying the hole out and pouring in some thinned epoxy (CPES sealer), use the thickened epoxy to fill up the hole. Then let it cure and re-drill.

The lag bolts SHOULD have been installed with sealer, but you know how production boat builders can't be bothered with such details.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

No wood in the transom on this 06. I confirmed with Four Winns, and you can even see in this video at 7:26: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLoGghzaoxA

Since this thing is a trailer queen stored under a roof, I'm not too concerned about taking things apart and re-sealing them. I'm just going to keep it dry and maintain it per VP, and fix whatever breaks, lol.

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2006 Four Winns Horizon 200
Volvo Penta 5.0 GXi/SX

I did some searching and I saw another guy on here fixed it by using a lag bolt that was like 1/2" longer than the factory one. I might do that next year, but the quicksteel seems to have fixed it for now.

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2006 Four Winns Horizon 200
Volvo Penta 5.0 GXi/SX