Jackplate - Worth the money, or a waste on my boat?

boat is a 16' dixie fiberglass. Motor is a 1978 85 hp Johnson Javelin.
I am turning 4800 rpm WOT with a stainless 19 pitch prop, fully trimmed.
I got to test my 17 pitch for about 2 minutes. My trim went out and I could get about 48 - 4900 wot with no trim, motor on the second hole. I'm moving up to the 3rd hole, to gain some RPM. I had it down on the second hole due to the high winds of spring and I felt it being down gave me a little more bite.

I was looking into a 6" manual plate. Worth the $175, or just move the motor up? Thanks guys.

I was getting 34.5 mph without trim and the 17p, 36 - 38 with motor fully trimmed out with the 19p. All speeds were taken using a garmin GPSMAP 168 sounder.

A few pics of the rig. Its not the prettiest or the fastest, but for a 22 year old in college, its easy to tow with a 4 cylinder, and it gets me to the fishing holes. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif

http://www.hunt101.com/img/417470.JPG

http://www.hunt101.com/img/417471.JPG

I am a firm believer in a jack-plate helping performance, but my honest opinion is that I would spend that $175 on tackle, rods, reels, etc. instead of a jack-plate.

You will be putting extra stress on that transom for not a lot of performance gain.

With your boat, I'd use a manual jack plate, get it set and leave it.

I assume with a jack plate, I'd need to use a transom saver, instead of just the bracket on my outboard?

No. The bracket on the motor is fine. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

Ditto, It's all I use now.

Josh, I have a 6" Pro hijacker HP jackplate and a holeshot plate that I can sell you for 175.00 plus shiping. Its made by T&H Marine. E-mail me at jeffbass@ctvea.net and I can send you pictures.

If you are talking about a plate that goes between the mounting bolts then yes upper and lower holes. The Lower will have to be drilled out to match the lower mounting bolts holes. With your transom thickness on the Dixie you will need some type of transom plates to accomidate the added stress of the JP it needs to disperse the added leverage that the plate will add to the transom. I would not count on the 4 mounting bolts to hold the additonal stress of the plate and the motor. If what you are worried about is the trailering then I would use a motor toter to relieve some of the bouncing concerns.

I currently use a peice of 3/8" iron, 17" long to help evenly distribute the bolt stress. I was asking about the transome saver for towing the boat to and from the lake. the motor bracket has a flip down latch to keep the motor secured during towing, is this sufficient, or would a transome saver be better?

What are the "classics" behind the "A" frame in the pics. Can't make them out. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif

Really not sure. They are my grandfathers and dad's. I know the one with the tarp on top is a '27 model t pickup, theres a bmw roadster to the left of that. I think there is a 50's dodge, and I know there are a few 57 bel airs back there, plus another 7 in the garage to the right just out of the photo.