Thread: For those new to boating. Motor tilt trim.

Chick Lake rents small jon boats with gas outboards and as I'm fishing I am watching two of the rental boats go by. The bow on one of them was riding very high. The operator was convinced that it was because he did not have enough weight in the bow and even moved an anchor up front. (It didn't help.) One day on Lake Prince I saw the same thing, although there I could hear the guy tell his buddy that he had the motor trimmed properly. (obviously he didn't) I could plainly see yesterday that the motor was not trimmed properly. Here's a page from my Evinrude 9.9 manual.



You would think that the folks renting these boats would have the motor trimmed properly. Perhaps they did and they renter changed something?

Good info for those that don't know.

Proper trim is also important for TMs. On those long runs on TMO lakes, I see a significant difference in boat speed (measured with GPS) if I'm in the back of the boat vs. the front. By moving from back to front, I can squeeze several more tenths of a mph out of my boat. That doesn't sound like much--until you look at it as a percentage. With fully charged batteries, dead calm water, and a 90% power setting, I can get 3.4 mph out of my rig. If poorly trimmed, that drops below 3 mph. That's a loss of 10% or more! TMs don't have trim settings, so the only option is to shift weight--but it's worth the effort.

ive found all the way down gives a faster holeshot, 2nd click works well all around and third click is best for 1 person only and gives best top speed but takes alil longer to get on plane. I usually just keep mine set on 2

Bought a used SeaArk with a 50 Johnson power TnT. While test driving it the prev owner told me the only problem he had with it was that it pulled hard to the right.

With PTnT, trim all the way down to pop the boat on plane, then trim up until it stops pulling(normally to the right). Up too much the boat will porpoise, too low and it pulls. On slick water a neutral pull on the wheel will be the best angle. Chop might require you to trim down just a little or you'll get too much bounce.

Good info for the new guys.