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motor up vs motor down, run dry or leave gas

bbudesa

bbudesa

Member
Reading a few recent posts leaves me with more questions than answers. Being new to motors (I rowed drift boats for years), I'm always questioning and prodding other boat (and motor) owners for answers.

It would be interesting to see if there was 'clinical data' as to why it's best to run the carb dry or not, or trailer boats with motors up or down. I trailer with motor down, as there is more contact with the transom, and seems to be sturdier instead of dangling up in the air on a single pin.

There might be a few other issues to which there are conflicting solutions that would be interesting to discuss. yes?
 
go to ----------google -------------punch in -----" yamaha winterization checklist " ---------------------This appears to be direct from Yamaha , I would say they would know.-----------------------------Run the fuel out of the carburetors and store with the motor down.I do this on all my motors for the last 40 + years.------The reason this is done is because some fuel today attracts water and fuel does not " store " like it used to.
 
you trailer with it down off the lock

it wears out the tilt pins

as for the carbs you never run a carb dry before trailering, you will wear out the rubber needle and change the float height

as for gas if you use a stabilizer it its good for around -3 months, if not 3 weeks and your gas is garbage
 
justintime - your leading statements are somewhat vague. Are you saying IF you trailer the motor in the down position, it will eventually wear out the tilt pins, or you should trailer it in the down position or it will wear out the pins?

As for the gas/carb example, I guess the recommendation is to trailer your motor WITH gas, but if you're storing it for a while, run the motor out of fuel (two separate issues). If you have fuel to store for a while, add a stabilizer (which I've done - stabil and seafoam).
 
You can trailer it down if there is no danger of the motor hitting the road at any time. If there is, use a transom saver. Never run the carbs dry. Actually you can't, there is always a little bit left, however, you are running the cylinders dry and that is not good. Also you don't need stabil and sea foam. Sea Foam does it all. I use it in all my motors and have never had a problem.
 
trailer will the motor down if you can

if not trailer with a transom savor

put the motor up on the tilt lock, now shake the motor
now put it all the way down, shake the motor

notice the difference
 
I'll try that 'shaking' thing to see what difference there is.

BTW, I've always trailered with the motor down because I always thought it was more stable. The transom has been beefed up quite a bit to deal with the stress of vibration, etc.

thanks
 
With the motor up or down, there was no side-to-side movement at all, except for the pivot that one would expect. The motor is clamped tightly to the transom, and there's no movement whatsoever.

The up and down movement was different.

When in the up position, the motor could move further up, but not down (gravity, you know). So, I would expect if I hit a bump while the motor was in the up position, it could jump even further up, then come down hard on the pin.

When locked in the down position, the motor could only move about 3/16 up and down (or more correctly - in and out). Very little play, and therefore I would imagine very little impact if a bump were hit while towing.

That leads me to expect less damage to the mounting apparatus (clamps, tilt pins, lock pin, etc).
 
yep trailer down if you can or use a transom saver

you should try it on the bigger motors

its unreal how much they move on the tilt pins

i have seen motors fall off because the used the tilt lock and not use a transom saver
 
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