Tilt position...or run position

[ronward]

I normally run my motors with the manual tilt lever in the tilt position so that if hit something under the surface the motor will tilt instead of being rigid. As far as I can tell is with the lever in the run position it just locks the motor to the tilt pin so that in reverse the motor doesn't climb out of the water. Does it matter how I run it? I usually never give it too much gas in reverse so I don't have the motor climbing up.

 

[bonz_d]

Re: Tilt position...or run position

The way it is supposed to work is if something is hit at speed in the run position the unit will break-away from the tilt pin and raise. Unfortunately it doesn't alway work so well. I do run mine in the Run position, I know others don't so I doubt there is a right or wrong answer. Whatever you feel more comfortable with I guess.

 

[F_R]

Re: Tilt position...or run position

If you don't believe it will work, hunker down behind the motor (locked down), and grab hold of the lower unit. Now, give a mighty yank toward the rear. It will give an awful bang like you broke something and come on up. Don't worry, you didn't break it. That's just the sound of the spring loaded locking mechanism releasing.

You are supposed to run with it locked down, not only for reverse, but also braking. The exception of course would be if running slowly in shallow water where you know darn well you are going to touch bottom.

 

[ronward]

Re: Tilt position...or run position

If you don't believe it will work, hunker down behind the motor (locked down), and grab hold of the lower unit. Now, give a mighty yank toward the rear. It will give an awful bang like you broke something and come on up. Don't worry, you didn't break it. That's just the sound of the spring loaded locking mechanism releasing.

You are supposed to run with it locked down, not only for reverse, but also braking. The exception of course would be if running slowly in shallow water where you know darn well you are going to touch bottom.

That's funny F-R. That's exactly what I did with my 50 to test it out... I ain't no little guy and I couldn't get it to cut loose.

 

[dazk14]

Re: Tilt position...or run position

That's funny F-R. That's exactly what I did with my 50 to test it out... I ain't no little guy and I couldn't get it to cut loose.

Wuss...I can get them to pop out very easily, left and right shoulder socket - no problem.LOL

What F_R isn't telling us... is he's built like "ARRnold".

If you have adequate reverse power and not in a high traffic area, sure, leave it on tilt.

 

[ronward]

Re: Tilt position...or run position

Here's my thinking... If it takes that much force to break it loose then I would rather leave it on tilt so that the lower unit and transom don't take violent jolts. I had a 35 merc once that had a linkage that would lock the pin when in reverse and unlock in forward. That was my first motor. Now I have all Johnson and Evinrude and haven't seen that feature on any of them. So I have always run them in tilt position because there are submerged logs in the rivers around here just waiting for an unsuspecting lower unit to come along at WOT. As long as I don't suddenly feel the need to go as fast in reverse as I do in forward, I think I'll be fine. Thanks for all the replies

 

[F_R]

Re: Tilt position...or run position

Arnold???? Yeah, right. I wish. But I DID regularly demonstrate the feature to new motor purchasers. Even high horsepower ones. The amount of pull required to unlock it usually is specified in the factory service manuals.

What they don't tell you is if you hit a solid underwater obstruction at 40 MPH, you probably will bust something----locked down or not. Take a motor (Arnold) and throw it at a rock at 40 MPH and see if it breaks, doesn't even have to be on a boat.