Beaching it.

[Vixen]

Mine is an I/O.

Going into shallow waters, can you tilt the outdrive as far as it will go, and still spin the props, without harming the engine? I know you can tilt the outdrive to 10, where it stops before going any further. But can you go beyond that, into the range for trailering the boat, so you can go into even more shallow water. Some guy with an outboard says of course, but what does he know? He has an outboard.

thx,

 

[Cincy Aquaholic]

NO!!! You can only trim up and still put it in gear up to the maximum "beach" range which is MUCH lower than the trailering positioning which is the highest it will go. I don't know where that is on your boat but you will tear up your U joints and probably gimble if you do so. And remember at the appropriate range its still idle speed only.

 

[Hampton]

The outboard maintains the same relative angle between the drive and the transmission, no matter what tilt angle. Their only concern is that they don't draw air into their water intakes. I/O's, not so much. Follow Cincy's advice above. There are certain things in boating which seem like a quick, easy, harmless fix to a slight hurdle. This is one of them. The good news is that if it is shallow enough to need that much tilt, then, it's shallow enough to get out and pull the boat in.

EDIT: Especially for inboard diesels : )

 

[1stSeaRay]

The lower range of trim (1-10) is for fine tuning your running angle, and it is safe to position the drive anywhere in this range at any RPM.

The trailer range of trim (11-25) is there to get the drive up enough so that it doesn't drag going down the road on the trailer. That said, you are not going to destroy the outdrive by trimming up to 11 or 12 at idle speed. I can't tell you what the safe limit is before you start to cause damage, but if you hear a loud clunking noise, you went too far!

 

[Henry Boyd]

Above 10, you can move the boat SLOWLY, if: a) the drive remains submerged, and you go straight. The main issue is that at extreme angles the u-joint and leg lose the support needed to keep everything aligned.

I don't have the BIII manual handy, but there is a section in the operating instructions hat covers this.

Henry

 

[mistercomputerman]

Above 10, you can move the boat SLOWLY, if: a) the drive remains submerged, and you go straight. The main issue is that at extreme angles the u-joint and leg lose the support needed to keep everything aligned.

I don't have the BIII manual handy, but there is a section in the operating instructions hat covers this.

Henry

Henry is quite correct. If you stress the U-joint by turning up too many rpm's while the drive is trimmed up, the U-joint will eventually fail. If the U-joint fails at higher speeds, the resultant damage to the gimbal ring and housing and everything else in that area is VERY expensive to replace.

Don't ask me how I know.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

 

[Dave S]

What needs to be clarified here is the fact that when your engine is running your driveshaft is constantly turning even when the drive is in neutral.

So if the drive is in the trailer position there is stress on the u-joints because of the angle of the drive shaft no matter whether you are sitting still or you put the drive in gear. I see people put their boats in the water all the time with their drive in the trailer position and I cringe when they start their motor this way and just leave it idle for several minutes with the drive up while they prep the boat for departure. I guess they just don't realize the whole time the motor is idling, those u-joints are being stressed.:smt009

Now let's talk about real world situations where you are forced to put the drive up close to the trailer position. That will happen and my advice is to stay at idle and bump it in and out of gear. Never race the engine.

Dave

 

[black magic]

Here is a somewhat related question. On my 185 Sport, my trim gauge does not show a numerical range. The only thing is shows is "Up" on one end of the dial and "Down" on the other. Plus, I have no "Trailer" switch or range indicator. So for those of us who have no "10" to watch for... how far is too far?

Side question: When beaching, is it ok to lower the outdrive enough where the skeg is in the sand/mud to keep it out of the way from the kiddos jumping off of the swim platform and to keep the boat from being pushed around when wakes come rolling up?

Thanks,
Jake

 

[chuck1]

On the 185 do you have a place that when you push it up the goes up then stops, you then have to push harder on the button to make the drive go up high? If so when you are pushing harder on the button that is the trailer range.

Vixen, Cincy hit the nail on the head do not run your engine with the drive in the trailer range.

 

[black magic]

On the 185 do you have a place that when you push it up the goes up then stops, you then have to push harder on the button to make the drive go up high? If so when you are pushing harder on the button that is the trailer range.

My only trim switch is on the end of the "T" handle. Unless I'm wrong, I don't believe there are 'stages' to the button. When I push the tilt up, it will seamlessly go all the way up. Maybe I'm pushing the button to hard to begin with and bypassing the automatic stop thing that you mentioned.

 

[chuck1]

Yep mine is on the "T" handle too. When you lightly push the top of the switch the drive goes up then stops. You then have to push the top of the switch harder and it will go further up. That second harder pushing is when you are in the trailering section of the drives range. At least that is how it is on the Sundecks and bigger Bowriders/Selects.

 

[midway]

Works the same on my 185 as what Chuck has explained. Push top of switch to trim up, push harder to go to trailer position.

 

[black magic]

I can press the trim up button and in one fluid motion the trim will go all the way up without stopping and making me press a second time... is this normal or do I have an issue with the switch?

 

[chuck1]

How hard are you pressing??? From the full down press and hold lightly until the drive stops. Now Press and Hold harder? Does the drive go up???

 

[black magic]

To be honest, I couldn't tell you how hard I'm pushing on the button, but I do know I have never experienced the "stop". Next time I take her out I'll be a bit more delicate with the button to see what it does.

Talk about hijacking a thread... sorry.

 

[chuck1]

Not really hijacking since we are talking about putting your drive up. Hopefully we can save somebody from messing up because they tilted it too high while the engine was running.