WATER STRAINER- bracket?

Your perceived issue is due to the lack of wire reinforced hose on your boat... Get some of the proper hose on there and the weight of the strainer won't be a concern. I've seen some strainers zip tied in place but never seen that style with a bracket.

Nothing wrong with anything in the picture, including the hose type. Make a bracket if you wish or move to wire reinforced hose but neither is factory or necessary.

Looks like heater hose, probably fabric reinforced- definitely not wire reinforced, and not original unless my memory is completely failing.

I'd like to see the bracket on your 87, Dave... I've only seen the short lived early 80's style pool strainers with brackets.

They do make a bracket. I don't know how/where you would mount it, or if it's necessary considering how many boats have the hose as the support. It is basically a piece of flat steel bent in a "u" shape and a hole in each "ear" of the u.   The strainer fits up in the "u" and then the inlet and outlet nipples go thru the ears and thread into the strainer, acting as the "bolts" holding the strainer to the bracket. I wouldn't bother with it.
On a side note, I ordered some replacement hose from one of the "big box" watersports catalogs. I made my order over the phone on a Sunday, which is handled by a call service and not actual company people. When i received the order, it was correct, but they shipped my hose in 15 one foot sections! They did make it right when I called during the week.

Yes, the catalog is about half tubes now! That was about 15 years ago, and it was probably a new order picker and not the answering service like they put the blame on. Made me laugh until I started wondering if their solution was going to be 14 hose barbs with clamps!

Joel, fwiw, my 05' is factory routed pretty much like yours, all lines are wire reinforced, no bracket.

TRBenj wrote: I'd like to see the bracket on your 87, Dave... I've only seen the short lived early 80's style pool strainers with brackets.

Well , I crawled under the covers and saw whats there. I could only lift the dog house about a foot with the cover still on so I did not have enough hands to take a photo. My cooling routes from the hull intake, just over the port rear engine/tyranny mount, to the water strainer, under the engine to the tyranny cooler, then up to the fresh water pump. The "bracket" is an "L" bracket and a big hose clamp bolted to the engine cradle. Definitely not factory.

My transmission cooler sits under the front of engine up near to the bilge drain. Never questioned it till now.

Yes, a very direct cooling water path, but longer lines from the cooler to the transmission I suppose. It has always worked, should I have concerns?

One way to go would be to replace the hoses with the new wire reinforced that I got from Zach and see how much it firms it up. Although shouldn't there be anti freeze in those lines from winterizing?

I Replaced the hoses, it definitely made that set up stiffer, enough to not bothering wasting my time making some fugly bracket I guess. Would any of the "upper" hoses have coolant in them, that I could replace now?