Re: jackplate/hydrolic
Dave's explanation is good. There are jack plates (vertical movement) and there are trim/tilts (adjust angle). As he said, usually the jack plate is an add on device resembling the photo. Some are electric/hydraulic and some are manual (the screw mechanism is operated with a ratchet wrench), but they essentially look the same. There are also jack plates - usually on smaller shallow water jon boats with tiller steering - that are raised and lowered by a long lever arm. The driver stands and operates the motor tiller with the left hand and the jack lever with the right hand. I also think that most add-on auxillary kicker brackets could be called jack plates because they allow adjustment of the depth of the motor up and down - in addition to the motor's normal trim (angle) djustment.<br /><br />Electric trim/tilts are usually hydraulic cylinders more or less "hidden" as part of the engine's own design. There are T/Ts on tiller motors, but more commonly associated with remote steering/control set ups. <br /><br />There are, however, trim/tilts that are add-ons very similar to the pictured jack plate, except they are hinged at the top and tilt out when activated rather than sliding up and down. The same companies that sell the jack plates often sell that sort of aftermarket T/T.<br /><br />There are also "scissors" type hydraulic jack plates - the Quicksilver Paralift is an example. They serve the same purpose - vertical movement - but do it with a scissors mechanism rather than sliding plates. There's quite a bit more of a set-back with this type.
