quick trim question

[cwalsh]

Sorry for the stupidity of this question but i am very new to boating. When someone says you need to trim in and out, on my trim its up or down. When someone says start with your trim all the way in, does that mean all the way up? or all the way down? and then as you gain speed trim out, is that up or down? im lost here.

Thanks.

 

[thrasher]

Re: quick trim question

Trimmed all the way in, means in the fully down position. This helps get a quicker start, then you start to trip the outdrive up or out

Fully trimmed in = fully down
fully trimmed out = fully up

Don't ever run your engine with the drive fully trimmed up (trailer position) most outdrives have a normal operating trim range and an additional trailer position. Never use the trailer position with the engine running as you will damage the drive system.

Gary

 

[steelespike]

Re: quick trim question

Trim down when starting out then trim up to the best performance point.

 

[j_martin]

Re: quick trim question

If you look at the outboard, or outdrive, it swings outward and upward in an arc when you trim, thus out = up, and in = down.

Confusion comes when you use a hydraulic jack plate, thus you adjust height (jack) up and down, and trim out and in.

hope it (sheesh) helps
John

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: quick trim question

actually, trim is the proper adjustment of the motor to the boat, to gain optimum efficiency, and attitude of the boat in the water, for the conditions.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: quick trim question

Great. I was going to ask the same question myself! So, I should start out with it down/in (as long as the water is deep enough) then raise it up/ out? Seems kinda wrong. The 5 times I had my boat in the water is seemed kinda like I should leave it all the way down, all the time. It did always seem to make a big wake this way though. Maybe I'll try trimming up next summer. Will this make the engine give me more RPM's? I seem a little low on RPM's but, I never tried adjusting the trim up/out after getting on plane.

As far as not getting the outdrive to high out of the water my boat has a scale and there is a red part on the scale. The problem is the person who sold me the boat said to ignore this when loading unloading the boat or else I would damage the prop. I didn't listen to him and I damaged the prop! :redface: I wonder if the scale on my 34 year old boat still reads correctly? He gave me warnings to have it al the way up in water of less then 3 feet. That is about the level of most of out boat ramps. Of course you just idle out of the ramp until you get into deeper water.

 

[tntitans21399]

Re: quick trim question

You want to keep the trim down while driving like thrasher said, because mainly their is holes in down near the prop in the lower unit that sucks the water in to keep the engine cool. If you trim it up to trailer position those holes maybe out of the water and not getting any water the engine and you will over heat the engine. You only need to worry about that if you trim it up to go in shallow water.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: quick trim question

You want to keep the trim down while driving like thrasher said, because mainly their is holes in down near the prop in the lower unit that sucks the water in to keep the engine cool. If you trim it up to trailer position those holes maybe out of the water and not getting any water the engine and you will over heat the engine. You only need to worry about that if you trim it up to go in shallow water.

Yes, I know where the holes are. It just seems like even when I have the trim raised up purty high ( according the the gage on the dash) the unit is still in plenty of water to keep the intake holes in the water .

 

[cwalsh]

Re: quick trim question

thanks everyone i appreciate it!