Over Sensitive Trim on 185 Sports

[Aussie 185 sports]

Has anyone else had the problem of an over-sensitive trim on their 185 Sports. Mine has a swim platform and tower which might impact the balance of the weight. The boat has the 4.3L 190HP merc and I am running a 19P Laser II prop. I am used to an outboard (where I had a lot of play with the trim before anything serious happened) but the I basically can't trim the motor up at all without experiencing a lot of bounce in the bow. Consequently I am using fuel at a rate of knots and not achieving peek performance. Note: the same thing happened with the 23P black max prop that I was previously using.

 

[Aussie 185 sports]

Have I done something wrong ? This was posted 5 years ago and has had over 800 views yet no one has responded. Thought I would respond myself as a test to see if something was wrong with my account.

Has anyone else had the problem of an over-sensitive trim on their 185 Sports. Mine has a swim platform and tower which might impact the balance of the weight. The boat has the 4.3L 190HP merc and I am running a 19P Laser II prop. I am used to an outboard (where I had a lot of play with the trim before anything serious happened) but the I basically can't trim the motor up at all without experiencing a lot of bounce in the bow. Consequently I am using fuel at a rate of knots and not achieving peek performance. Note: the same thing happened with the 23P black max prop that I was previously using.

 

[blaster]

The laser 2 is a bow lifting outboard prop commonly used on bass boats. Get a stern lifting propeller and maybe smart tabs.

 

[BillK2632]

I haven't run an outboard boat in years, so can't really comment their. I have had two stern drive boats over the last 10yrs, and on both boats, it didn't take much trim. On my 185 (a 1999, but basically same boat you have). I rarely trim the drive much more than "neutral" - I have checked so I know what the trim gauge reads when the drive is neutral (cavitation plate on drive is even with bottom of boat). The only time I really give more trim is at higher speeds, but even then the boat will overtrim and start to porpoise or cavitate. Usually I am in rough water running @25mph and want the bow down to smooth out the ride, so I give it very little trim. From an efficiency standpoint, assuming fairly smooth water, trim the drive out until the rpms increase slightly or you boat starts to porpoise, then back the trim down slightly - you will start to feel the boats sweet spot for trim/rpms and best speed. So to answer your original question, I don't think anything is wrong with your boat, but yes especially smaller stern drives respond very quickly to trim