Advice on trailing

[Alan S]

Having lost crew to University and gap year travels I have recently sold a hard boat but replaced with a RIB which can be used solo. Although I have trailed day sailers before I haven't trailed a boat with the outboard on the back. Reading the engine handbook they advise not trailing with engine supported by power trim/tilt but I am uncomfortable trimming the engine right down.
Any words of advice as to what others do?

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by Alan S

Reading the engine handbook they advise not trailing with engine supported by power trim/tilt but I am uncomfortable trimming the engine right down.
Any words of advice as to what others do?

Welcome to ribnet, Alan. Yes, they do don't they? I ignore their advice. However, on a manual lift engine, I wouldn't trail with the engine supported on the tilt pin.

[Richard B]

Trim it up and use the latch if one is fitted.

Unfortunately the writers of engine handbooks don't live in the real world.

Some people use bits of wood to wedge the engine up, I just use the latch on our Yamaha. I don't know how strong the latch on the Mercury Optimax is.

[Andy_Rs600]

We have a 150 Opti same as you. Trim up, swivel the latch in to place and trim it back down onto the latch

[Tim M]

Piece of wood all the way.

[BogMonster]

My Johnson has a latch on it same as Andy describes, for towing. According to the book there is also supposed to be a support to hold it up while moored, and you shouldn't use the tilt ram to do this. I can't find the support (the diagram in the book is as clear as mud and there is nothing obvious) so I have just left it moored with the tilt ram doing the job.

[Hugh Jardon]

on an opti the catch is as pointed to, twist it with the engine up and the catch leg comes out as described earlier

hope that helps

this is on a new opti 200 by the way so yours may be slightly different

the catch is designed to take the weight of the engine and take the strain off the hydraulic rams and act as a fail safe

chris

[ADS]

My Suzuki 40HP didn't have a catch, so I always used a substantial bit of wood.
Very helpful response Chris but if you have got that much time you should be out on it

[Hightower]

I just use the Hydraulics to keep it up at any angle I want, I figure that if the Hydraulics can be used whilst blasting along in the Sea then there should be a lot less stress when being trailered. Unless you live up some pot holed road half way up a mountain that is.

[Hugh Jardon]

yes i wish i was on the boat today, to be honest it takes me only a couple of mins to take a piccy and do the reply so is fine

my boat sits just outside my office which is coool

Originally Posted by ADS

My Suzuki 40HP didn't have a catch, so I always used a substantial bit of wood.
Very helpful response Chris but if you have got that much time you should be out on it

[Alice]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jardon

on an opti the catch is as pointed to, twist it with the engine up and the catch leg comes out as described earlier

hope that helps

this is on a new opti 200 by the way so yours may be slightly different

the catch is designed to take the weight of the engine and take the strain off the hydraulic rams and act as a fail safe

chris

My Opti is a 5yo 150hp "Shagger" and the catch is exactly the same!

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Alice

My Opti is a 5yo 150hp "Shagger" and the catch is exactly the same!

Wow, an opti and a yanmar. What sort of boat is the Opti on the back of?

[Alan S]

Thanks very much for all the replies. Chris the pictures are really helpful so I'll pop down to the boat tomorrow and check it out. What a great site for advice!

Alan

[CJL]

Piece of wood every time!!!

I'm not gonna do anything that means even the slightest chance of changing that trim motor again!!!

Chris

[Andy_Rs600]

was it fun chris?

[CJL]

Dear Mercury,

I'm writting to congratulate you on the great job you've done on designing the trim motor fittings for your new OptiMAX engine. The clever design and fittings means that a simple replacement job allows us owners to spend 13 hours of our weekend taken up by partially removing the 2.5 litre V6 off the back off our boats on our driveways.

It was a sinch to sqeeze the great big lump of a trim motor, full of water, out of the transom mounts. I was then pleased to see I could have the benefit in paying £600 for another trim motor which was gonna do the same again in 2 years.

Imagine my disapointment when I was forced to buy a cheaper better one from your American colleagues for £200?? Unfortunately the new part although identical to yours was missing a Mercury sticker but I continued undaunted at the thought of lesser standard product!!

4 hours later and a painful bump on my head I was faced with a lesser brand, cheaper and better quality trim motor on my boat.

I'm now looking forward to changing the rubber vibration bushes on the lower leg as you've put captive bolts through them .(Unless I remove the entire lower leg!) OOPPS my angle grinder slipped and I've put them in the wrong way round allowing easy removal.

I'm gutted

Chris