03-31-2005, 12:38 AM
Ok, there has already been a ton of excellent info here, and I don't consider myself an expert boat mechanic (still need to pay someone to tune up and replace the water pump in my boat), but I do understand the physics and logic of these thingies. 
The previous posters are correct: that should not be perfectly lined up with your boat. Your boat will naturally pull to one side simply because of the direction the prop is spinning and the torque on the prop. You should then adjust the angle of that to compensate for this pull caused by your prop.
Adjust this slightly, balance and distribute the weight in your boat, and you should be good to go. Trim tabs can also be a big help to compensate for some lack of balance, but do also cause a little more drag in the water.
I hadn't thought of this before, but has anyone tried putting trim tabs all the way down to slow down the boat when trying to troll off the main motor? Interesting thought. Oh well, my 135 outboard will troll down to 1.5 MPH without a trolling plate or anything. Sure sucks the gas, though. Better (and less smoke) to go with a kicker motor.
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The previous posters are correct: that should not be perfectly lined up with your boat. Your boat will naturally pull to one side simply because of the direction the prop is spinning and the torque on the prop. You should then adjust the angle of that to compensate for this pull caused by your prop.
Adjust this slightly, balance and distribute the weight in your boat, and you should be good to go. Trim tabs can also be a big help to compensate for some lack of balance, but do also cause a little more drag in the water.
I hadn't thought of this before, but has anyone tried putting trim tabs all the way down to slow down the boat when trying to troll off the main motor? Interesting thought. Oh well, my 135 outboard will troll down to 1.5 MPH without a trolling plate or anything. Sure sucks the gas, though. Better (and less smoke) to go with a kicker motor.
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