Forward gear before Full Up Position?

[Tonus]

Hi all,


I'm new to outboards and am finding my way around a new 20HP Mercury.


To lift the outboard to Full Up position the manual says 1. Stop the engine 2. Shift the outboard to Forward gear position 3. position the lever to unlocked 4. Fully lift.


My question is why do I need to shift to Forward to tilt when the enigine is not running? Seems odd - do I need to do this every time on dry land too? Can I be damaging my engine if not?!



Similar instructions when lifting to Shallow Water Operation... 1. Reduce speed to Idle 2. Shift to Forward gear 3. Unlocked position 4. Lift


If someone could let me know why this process thaen I'd be grateful!

[NeilJ]

There is a mechanical interlock which locks the tilt lever when in N or R. It is free in F so that you can tilt or if the engine skeg hits the bottom allowing the engine to tilt. If there was no lock when in R the engine would flip up when going astern. Interlock on N so that when you pull the starter cord the engine does not flip up.

[chipko]

Gear position in neutral whether motor running or not.

To lift. Tilt lever in down position (unlocked). Lift motor to required position.

To lower. Tilt lever in up position (locked). Lift motor slightly and lower gently.

Always run with lever down (unlocked) to allow motor to kick up if striking underwater object.

If reversing with some welly (not recommended), lever in up position (locked) to stop leg lifting. In practice if low revs reversing then won’t need to do this.

[Fenlander]

If the lever has total control over tilting why does the manual say to put in forward gear to enable tilt?

I wonder if is an accidentally left in hangover from the previous variant of the tilt system whereby the gearshift had total control of the ability to tilt and the tilt lock knob was just to lock it in the fully tilted posn once up??

[Tonus]

Thanks all for the replies...

The tilt seems to work the same regardless of gear position TBH - I wouldn't be suprised if Fenlander was right. Still as I'm so new to this who am I to presume!


Thanks Neil and Chipko... I've used Reverse gear so infrequently - should I get into the habit of perhaps shifting to R and lifting the lever up every time? Or only when I give it some in shallows or a river?

[Fenlander]

I think the older system was better whereby the gearshift locked it into reverse without you having to think of it. There are only a handful of occasions in many years I've needed a hard reverse but if doing so it is annoying if the prop climbs out of the water with loads of noise and no stopping power..

[chipko]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

I think the older system was better whereby the gearshift locked it into reverse without you having to think of it...

Agree. That’s progress for you.

Certainly my Suzuki DF20 had a manual tilt lock lever and like my current Mariner the Merc/Tohatsu are the same motors, so all manual. Also pretty sure the Honda and Yamaha 20’s employ similar systems.

Whilst arguably a retrograde step, in reality not a huge problem personally. Only really use reverse at tick over...a quick shift to kill forward momentum or to pull stern into jetty. No need for tilt locks at those speeds.