Hitting rocks with a power tilt motor

[openorice]

Do any of the power tilt devices kick out and realeas the motor so it can tilt up when you hit a rock?

[goblueM]

you know at work we use a power trim motor while boating in small-medium rivers. I absolutely hate it

It's a Merc, and when you hit a rock it doesn't budge. Not to mention if i want to zoom over a log or shallow spot, i can't get up to speed then pop the motor out of water, float over, then resume motoring

I can't speak to all motors but my experience with 2 different power trim motors is that they do not release and tilt up when you hit an object

[boatfixer]

Most power trim and tilt systems have a under water impact release. However it will only work at higher speeds. It is not intended to lift up when you bump into something. Basically they release when you strike something that may be hard enough to do serious damage to the boat, such as tear the engine off the back of the boat or break the transom. You can still do serious damage to props, skegs and gear housings.

[knoppers]

I hit a rock in canada with a merc, and it did not pop up, it put a good dent in the skeg. I was only going about 5mph at the time. I had to trim it up to inspect for any major damage, but all was fine, less the dent.

[marine_man]

Everyone is correct here. They reason they don't lower the setting for a slow speed impact is reverse - if you gun it in reverse the motor would come out of the water.

marine_man

[CAMAN]

Everyone is correct here. They reason they don't lower the setting for a slow speed impact is reverse - if you gun it in reverse the motor would come out of the water.

marine_man

Why does my late 80's 25hp Merc have a rod that, when the motor is flipped into reverse, pulls up a latch that unlocks the tilt and prevents me from gunning the reverse because the motor flops up. I hate it. And seen many other motors of different brands like this also. It seems as it should be opposite, unlocking when going in forward incase of impact and locking when in reverse.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Sometimes I wonder if the guys that design stuff actually use them.

[marine_man]

That's a good question... it seems like it's defeating the purpose the way it is right now... I think part of it was it was merc's way of saving a little cost instead of providing a separate latch on the side of the midsection like OMC had at the time for the same function (locking the motor down vs releasing it to tilt it).

marine_man

[marine_man]

Now that I think about this a little more... I thought that you had to have it in Forward to tip the motor up... and that it was locked in Neutral and in Reverse.

marine_man

[Ralph Wiggum]

Now that I think about this a little more... I thought that you had to have it in Forward to tip the motor up... and that it was locked in Neutral and in Reverse.

marine_man

That's the way my dad's old Merc is.

[boatfixer]

Thats the way they are suppose to be, release in forward. There is a collar on the shift shaft on his motor that, when properly adjusted, will unlock the reverse lock. The other issue of limiting the throttle in reverse would be to prevent the back of the boat from potentially "digging" at full throttle and swamping the back of the boat. This is more of a concern on smaller engine/smaller boat packages.