Re: Lock or unlock ?
From my experience, if it's not on the lock position, if you hit something the thing has no resistance to going up and it will flop up quick--perhaps so hard that it might rip off the transom and wind up in your boat, or shear something off and continue farther up than it should. Keep in mind I said it MAY wind up in your lap and that I only run motors smaller than 35 hp so if we're talking about bigger engines, I certainly don't have any idea about this. If it's in lock position, the motor will have to hit something to overcome the spring mechanism which has to let the motor come up, but still have some resistance which is better than no lock at all. I'm thinking that in "lock" position, it's really not "locked" in forward, only in reverse. Even an engine in locked position can and should come up when in forward and it strikes an underwater object. But if you're going wide open and it's not in locked position, it'll fly up a HECK of a lot harder and in my opinion, is more dangerous, so I don't do it. I think the manufacturer also recommends it never be run WOT in the unlocked position for that reason, but am not sure.
JBJ
