Throttle cables and Trim

Hi there - read another recent report regarding issue of throttle cables being tweaked/bent by trimming motor up and contacting deck. I'm having this problem. No way however to trim up motors all the way and lock in place for towing without tweaking. I have plenty of cable "play" (4 feet or so).

Question is would it be better just to not trim up and lock the motors while towing? ie, is it any problem to tow (short distances) with motors not in locked position? How about use of a "motor toter" (aka transom saver device)

I appreciate any input.

Paul

I think opinions will vary widely on this, but here is my take.

I do not trim up my engine for trailering. Here are my reasons.

The main reason for trimming up your motor(s) for traveling is to assure that the skeg and bottom unit are not damaged. If you have enough ground clearance (say, 7" or more) then it is not necessary. I have a 10" clearance so I do not. If you have low clearance, then you need to trim up AND BRACE the motor to avoid damage.

Being extreme tight wads, most folks around here will trim up the motor a bit, stick a piece of 2X4 between the stern bracket and swivel assembly and then trim it back down until the board is firmly held in place. That raises the skeg up far enough and minimizes the pressure on the tilt trim mechanism.

A second reason often given for trailering in a tilt-up position is to prevent transom damage or fatigue. If you have enough clearance in the verticle position, then that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, unless you have a weak or very odd transom. The weight of the motor is the same, whether it is raised or not, so the vertical force on the transom remains unchanged. Raising the motor puts more shear (torque) pressure on the top of the transom. Thus, there is a market for various "transom savers" to transfer some of that shear force to the bottom of the transom, or the rear of the trailer (if you can find one long enough for that purpose and your trailer extends to or beyond the transom.) But for most boats and motors, I don't think they are necessary.

Whatever you do, do not trailer the motor in the raised position without some brace because that will potentially damage the tilt trim mechanism over the long run.

OK. That's very helpful. As a matter of fact this afternoon I tried putting a thick wood dowel in there and gently trimming down on it until snug. Seemed like it would work fine, and the skeg/prop are far enough off the ground (14" at least) to avoid grinding on speedbumps, etc.

I like the idea of keeping the motors trimmed down as much as possible when trailering. It seems to me when the motors are raised way up they're not an more stable and there isn't any less stress on the transom.

Gotta go with chawk_man here. He makes a lot of sense. If the motor is securely attached to the transom and the boat is securely attached to the trailer, given enough skeg to ground clearance, untrimmed seems like the thing to do.

The motor hangs from the transom in the water or out and, at least in my mind, the most torque and force that can be applied to the transom with the motor in the vertical position is when you juice those 225 horses to that prop getting up on plane. If the transom holds up to that twist and flex, it should trailer in that position just fine. I'm paranoid though so I would still strap it somehow to minimze any "bounce".

If you find it necessary to trim up and brace for ground clearance, I think it would be wise to NOT use wood and to NOT rely on trim force to keep it wedged in there. Wood will change shape and crack and you might one day find it in the windshield of the car behind you.

I use a transom saver on my boat. It is a piece of tubular steel that is slipped over a form fitting, solid pedestal welded to the trailer frame and then locked in place with a spring loaded lynch pin. The motor leg is then trimmed into a V shaped, rubber coated saddle at the other end and then strapped tightly into the saddle with a short cargo tie down. I used to use a very heavy rubber strap with hooks to strap it in the saddle until the day I saw a rig similar to mine go over a good little "whoop-d-doo" and watched the motor jump up about 3 inches and slam back down. The idea is to make the boat, trailer and motor as much of a solid unit as possible for towing.

JGMO - Good comments. As for losing the wood brace on a bounce, I would drill a hole in it and just rope it to one of the transom hooks.

Your solution on the brace sounds good - easy to hook up and easy to remove.