Fish-Hawk.Net

I was just reading a posting on another forum discussing how to best trim out an outboard equipped with power tilt/trim and it got me thinking...

My tiller outboard's trim can be manually adjusted via an adjustment 'pin' (not sure if this is the correct term - but I'll stick with it for the time being)

I bought the boat and motor second hand and just stuck with the 'pin' setting the way it is. For the most part, it works OK. I can get the boat to plane out fairly quickly. If I am alone in the boat, planing take about 5 seconds. With a partner - 5 to 10 seconds. With my wife and 2 kids - 10 to 15 seconds (in relatively calm water).

However, if the water is moderately wavey and/or I am driving into a moderate head wind - the boat strugges to plane out . I have to get my wife and kids to move forward in the boat to get it to plane.

The 'pin' is currently in the second position - meaning that I can snug it up to the boat's butt 1 more setting - or - go the other direction about 3 or 4 more settings.

Any advise?

The owner's manual will likely state that the pin should be set to the position where it is parallel to the transom and adjust from there.

5 seconds seems to be a long time to get on plane. How big is the boat and motor? What is the boat's HP rating? Is there a lot of stuff in the back of the boat?

14 ft Aluminum - 25 HP 2 Stroke.
No - there is not alot of stuff in the back of the boat.

On my last boat (14' aluminum w/ 25 -2 stroke) I added a Doelfin to the cavitation plate to help with planing. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! The boat planed almost instantly unless it was fully loaded but an added bonus was how stable it was in rougher water and it would turn on a dime with out tilting over much. It would also STAY on plane at much lower speeds. As soon as the warranty is up on the new one...it will have a fin added. I got the last one for $25.
If you don't want to "fin" it by all means trial the pin in different positions until you find out what works for you.

FT

Zipper

if you drop the trim into the most vertical position, you will plane quicker. However, you'll get more top end with it trimmed up. A bit of a balancing act for sure, something you can experiment with depending on how much weight you have in the boat and where it is displaced.

Mick