Tilt or no tilt?

[mnvikingsfreak]

I have heard two different option's when towing your boat do you all have the motor tilted? or have it upright?any pros cons?

[PerchJerker]

You want it as upright as possible, and should use a transom saver (especially if it's a big motor). If you trailer with the motor tilted all the way up and don't have a transom saver you put a lot of stress on your transom. There's a reason they're called transom savers.

[TSCTSC]

I have mine tilted up about 45 degrees with a transom saver on. The reason why I have it up is so that I have my prop elevated so as to reduce the chance of me dinging my prop or lower unit when I am trying to back it up my driveway which is sloping.

[Fisher Dave]

tilting the motor balances out the weight some on your transom.. puts some of the weight in front of it.. It greatly reduces flex on the transom when trailering.. tilt it and use the transom saver.. it will save on your boat.

[not_nuf_time]

Dave, your the answer man today. Another question about trailering, I,ve heard you should put motor in gear so the prop doesn't spin, thus moving the pistons up and down without oil injecting into the cylinders. Yes? or no?

[Pat K]

If the motor is not in gear the crank shaft and pistons are not moving. When you put it in gear the compression in the cylinders stops the prop from turning. Pat K

[Fisher Dave]

If your motor is in gear and you are motoring down the highway... unless you have a prop the size of an airplane propellar.. there is no way the wind resistence on the prop is going to turn your motor over.. too much compression.

If you leave your motor in neutral and trailer.. your prop will spin. I dont see how this could possibly hurt anything unless you had a bunch of fishing line on the shaft and it was scraping up your seals.. in which case your lower unit is going to be in trouble anyway when you hit the water.

There was another thread on this subject recently that had some very good insight from knowledgable people.. Valv and Surface Tension will give you about the best advice you can get on outboards.. I would search around different threads and see what exactly they said... or they may chime in.. never know. Kevin Turner is the 1st person who comes to mind on here on the structure of your boat.. transoms, etc included.

I know enough about many things.. but the combination of these guys just about know it all.

[Surface Tension]

Thanks for the words Dave.

Every boat and trailer situation is different. You don't want to risk the motor dragging when you pull up on and incline and you don't want it to hit anything when backing up. Its possible that your skeg is higher then the trailers axle but that point is a fulcrum and your motor is on the end of that lever. I'd tilt it up and do so on all my rigs. How you support the lower unit is another story. If your going to use a transom saver on a tilt & trim motor that anchors to the trailer that boat better not bounce on the trailer at all or you'll do more damage then not using one. I prefer a support that goes into the boats drain hole in that case. You can buy them or make your own. I follow up with a section of inner tube to make a large, heavy duty rubber band tied to the trailer and then stretch and slip it over the skeg.

Most outboard with tilt and trim have a leg you can tilt the motor down on but the manufacturer don't recommend trailering that way. Outboards without t&t have a bracket you use to hold the motor up with but you don't want to trailer using that bracket. Use any transom saver with that setup.

A spinning prop going down the highway pprobably isn't any big deal but you have to think about temps. If its 90 degrees out and then factor that temp rising with the sun hitting metal. Will that heat and a spinning propt hurt the prop seal? Who knows. If you can put your outboard in gear without it locking the tilt then go ahead. If you have a portable gas tank then you should remove the fuel line or vent the tank so your not dumping gas thats overflowing from the carbs bowl when its tilted or worse yet an outboard that isn't tilted and the pressure that builds up in the tank bends the floats tang and or distorts the inlet needle.