Tritioon Motor Height Adjustment Jack Plate - Pictures

[cpayne3]

Hello

Before winter I installed a manual jack plate on my tritoon. I took it out once and in my opinion the motor is a good bit to low. attached are photos and you can see the water line from my boat sitting in dock all winter. Please look at the pictures and tell me how much you think I need to come up to start with.

Thanks
Charles
Brandon, MS

 

[MaPaHa]

Re: Tritioon Motor Height Adjustment Jack Plate - Pictures

I see what looks like the end of the round toon a couple of feet forward from the end where the jack plate is and the square transom looks higher by two inches or so. Overall the motor looks to be three to three and a half feet behind the round toon and I’m guessing water will hit the motor above the cavitation plate and close to the next plate up.

Normally this would be too high on a regular boat but on a pontoon it may be helpful having it that low to keep it engaged in a turn. Also when you are front loaded it may help. I think it’s going to be a compromise any way you go. For speed in a lightly loaded situation I would think it’s too low. For a loaded boat swinging a tube around or just cruising and trying to pull the front up with trim it may not be far off. I think you will have to set it up for what you do most.

I finished installing a CMC 5.5” manual jack plate today and I’m going to try it out tomorrow and see what setting is best. My center toon is round all the way back so it’s going to be different but I’m starting out with the water line just above the cavitation plate. Mine will come out of the water and ventilate in sharp turns and it won’t trim out like it should without ventilating. About the time you think it could use a bit more trim to run on top of the water it starts ventilating. I had a 20 inch motor that was bottomed out and the motor I’m installing has a 5” Bay extension to make it a 25” X-long shaft motor. I put the jack plate on it because I was afraid it would be too deep and I like the idea of moving it back for cleaner water. I won’t be able to run the motor more than 3500 rpm or so until I get the lower unit broke in, so I won’t know how it does at full speed tomorrow but I’ve got good notes on how it ran with the old motor for comparison.

Please post back when you find the best setting and I will too.

 

[lakegeorge]

Re: Tritioon Motor Height Adjustment Jack Plate - Pictures

Hello

Before winter I installed a manual jack plate on my tritoon. I took it out once and in my opinion the motor is a good bit to low. attached are photos and you can see the water line from my boat sitting in dock all winter. Please look at the pictures and tell me how much you think I need to come up to start with.



Thanks
Charles
Brandon, MS

View attachment 195582

Mercury Marine sent me a diagram and it states that the cavitation should not be any lower than 1" from bottom of boat. I would just keep trying it out at 1" increments.

 

[MaPaHa]

Re: Tritioon Motor Height Adjustment Jack Plate - Pictures

Yea I can see that because you wouldn’t want it hitting that next plate up (what ever it’s called). I wonder what they say when the motor is back a ways from the bottom and the likely rise of the water after it leaves the bottom. It seems like most of the bass boats and others are built with this characteristic. I guess that’s where trial and error comes in. I would have loved to put a hydraulic plate on mine but just couldn’t spend that much $$.

I got a chance to run mine today and the cavitation plate is set about 1 inch deeper than the bottom of the center toon. I couldn’t play around with it much because I was trying to get some hours on the new lower unit and the river was rolling a bit and the wind was gusty but it did well in the turns and was able to trim out without ventilating. With trim down I noticed some spray on the motor but it went away when I hit the trim a little. I didn’t take it over 3,500 rpm for the break in and mostly ran it at 3,000 rpm. Hard to do for 5 hours.