Normal tilt function

[scfishin]

Forgive my ignorance. I’m learning as I go. I want to know if the tilt function is working like its supposed to on my boat. The motor goes up and down pretty quick except for about the last two inches that the ram is showing as it’s going down. At that point it really bogs down and sounds labored as it goes down. I was worried something was wrong, binding or something so I wasn’t going further down than that. Well the boat does not want to get on plane unless the motor goes the rest of the way down.

Today I had someone lower the motor while I watched it and realized it’s hitting two other rams and that’s the point it starts struggling. Apparently this is a design feature I just want to make sure it’s working properly. It just seems the tilt ram really struggles to draw the motor down. Maybe that’s normal maybe the compression force can be adjusted.

I’ve tried uploading pictures but every one on my phone is too big apparently. I haven’t uploaded pictures to a forum in at least ten years.

Thanks in advance.

[Buccaneer]

The two rams you refer to are your trim rams and yes, when the downward tilt hits them more resistance is encountered to fully lower the motor.

[JR19]

You have tilt and trim...with the motor ALL the way down you are in full trim down mode. The two trim arms raise and lower the motor and they are slower than tilt and make a deeper noise. When taking off (holeshot) you want the motor ALL the way down. After the boat is on plane slowly start using trim up until you get the desired bow lift for the speed you are going. When running around on the lake you will ONLY use the trim mode. If working correctly you should not be able to trim out of the trim section into the tilt mode while running under full power. Trim hydraulics have a lot of lifting power because they need enough force to raise the motor even when its pushing against the hull at wide open throttle.

Tilt mode is used primarily for two reasons. One...to raise the motor during storage so you can apply the transom saver. Two...In shallow water when you idle sometimes people will slightly raise the motor into the first part of the tilt section. Most of the time people do this on flats or when their in a stump field or around shallow rocks. If doing this MAKE SURE you keep enough motor in the water so you still supply water to the water pump inlets. Tilt hydraulics is the single cylinder in the middle. It does not have the power like the trim rams because it's not intended to be used when running down the lake. At idle it will hold the motor up but at full power it can not hold the motor up. The main purpose of tilt is to simply raise/lower the motor when not under full power..ie as I said idle shallow water and install transom saver.

Too see how this works...with the boat out of the water push your up button and notice when in the tilt mode how fast it moves and how only the center cylinder is moving. Then hit the down button. As tilt is bottomed out it hits both the the trim rams. This is when it gets slower and the noise will change. Based on what you described it sounds like yours is normal. Please feel free to ask any question...heck I was a newbie at one time many years ago. I bet if you look you could find a ton of videos on youtube where people are using trim on holeshot and running down the lake and then using tilt to install a transom saver.

[scfishin]

Thanks again to bbc and it’s members. I keep fearing I’m going to get the dreaded “use the search” response when I don’t even know enough to know what to search for.

Apparently i had a misconception of what trim was. I thought that was another crazy expensive option the elites used to raise and lower the motor vertically; basically what a hydraulic jack plate does. I’ll have to do more research on the subject. Thanks for setting me straight.

[JR19]

Thanks again to bbc and it’s members. I keep fearing I’m going to get the dreaded “use the search” response when I don’t even know enough to know what to search for.

Apparently i had a misconception of what trim was. I thought that was another crazy expensive option the elites used to raise and lower the motor vertically; basically what a hydraulic jack plate does. I’ll have to do more research on the subject. Thanks for setting me straight.

There is two types of jack-plates, hydraulic and manual. On a hydraulic jack-plate trim up will raise the motor and jack-plate together as one unit straight up vertically and trim down will lower everything down vertically. On a manual jack-plate you loosen bolts and adjust a jack screw. With a manual jack-plate you pretty much find the motor height that has best overall performance and leave it there. With a hydraulic jack-plate you can fine tune motor height instantly by raising and lowering the motor instantly with a hydraulic pump. Most people lower their motor in rough water for better bite. They also play around and find what height is best for hole-shot and top end speed. You can also raise your motor to idle over shallow water that may have stumps or rocks under the boat. Unlike tilt and trim that move a long distance a hydraulic plate only goes straight up and down a few inches.

If you have a hydraulic jack plate you have a trim button specifically for the jack-plate. Tilt and trim for the motor will have its own buttons that function separate from a jack-plate. ..as you have already figured out tilt and trim is something totally different than a hydraulic jack plate. They both have hydraulic cylinders and use hydraulic fluid but they do different jobs. Tilt and trim changes the angle of the motor and a jack-plate raises or lowers everything vertically up or down.