Re: How important is power Tilt / Trim?
I have a 20' or so... I have a 40 hp yamaha on it, and it did not come with power trim/tilt. I used it in the fall and it worked fine.
Where I wish I had the trim/tilt... was going in and coming out of the boat landing. It seemed to almost always drag the skeg about 2' or so from the water. So, pull up a bit, then raise the motor, and continue up the landing. Again, my pontoon was cheap, and I wasn't about to quibble over it... until I looked on E-bay for a PTT unit. Gulp. $450 was the cheapest I could find for the Yamaha, and the CRC is a GREAT setup... but I didn't want to spend $600 either.
So, fortunately, I'm parting out an 88 VIP Vision boat with a2.3L OMC... and it had a good PTT unit. I 'engineered' it to work, and have yet to put it in the water to see how it's gonna work underway... But I can't say I'm not anxious to try. It's cold and windy here today or I would be out there. It was kinda fun looking at how I could modify the setup from two cylinders to one, and play with the pump, with a relay, etc. Got to use my welder, and my melon. I suppose I could see if I can figure out how to post a picture or two....