motor position while towing

[motorvator]

Just purchased a used 15 ft Smokercraft with 60 hp Johnson. How should the motor be positioned while towing? Motor doesn't have TNT so I can either put it all the way up or all the way down. Looks like most of the weight is over the transom when in the up position.

 

[bubbakat]

Re: motor position while towing

Go an invest in you a transom saver and raise that bad boy up. This will keep you from shattering the skeg or bursting the whole lower unit.<br /><br />

 

[motorvator]

Re: motor position while towing

I don't of a transom saver long enough. It's 31" from the lower unit to the rear crossmember with the motor down, I'll check some catalogs and see what I can find.

 

[bubbakat]

Re: motor position while towing

It is long enough because it slides in and out in the center. With a little lock pin or bolt can't remember which.<br />The v fits right above your anticoagulation plate and the lower end has a U shaped wish bone that fits over the middle of the roller on the trailer. It has a small cable that wraps around the roller and hooks back into the wishbone.<br />You let the weight down on the transom saver and it transfers the bounce to the trailer.<br />I hook a bungee Cord around my lower to the saver and hook to insure it not to fall off.<br />You can buy these from 19 to 40 bucks. I caught mine on sale for 20 <br />Yo

 

[umblecumbuz]

Re: motor position while towing

Or make one from plywood, that spreads the load from the lower unit to the base of the transom.<br /><br />One or two of the guys on this forum have done just that.

 

[Holdimhook]

Re: motor position while towing

What Bubbakat said. Years ago, I learned a $900.00 lesson by not having one. It cost me a lower unit on a 125 Merc.

 

[rayjay]

Re: motor position while towing

Once a neighbor needed me to use my truck to back his boat onto his inclined drive. His reverse failed on the way home. As I'm backing the boat up the driveway the skeg grounds out ! I stop and we go back and I ask what he's doing towing with the motor down. Turns out on the way home he had stopped at some store to pickup something and some dirt bag stole his transom saver and he didn't notice it until - graunch !<br /><br />Let this be a lesson to everyone. Check your TS if you have to park your boat and leave it for even a few minutes.