BigFish

Just moved from south florida to north florida. Now to hit the gulf, I need to go by river through some very shallow (only 24" to 36" depending on tides and wind) channels - the bottom here is all limestone and not too forgiving. I draw 22" waterline to bottom of hull and 36" to bottom of skeg with drive all the way down.

My question is this: at idle can I put my drive in "trailer position" without causing damage to gimbal, etc. I would rather wear out a gimble that hit those rocks

Perlmudder

im sure you would be fine if you were just idling through the area. some more experienced people will prolly chime in though.

Mr Gadgets

Big Fish,
You can idle with the drive up to a certain point. The higher you raise it the more severe angle on the input shaft ujoints. (The old style XR has larger ujoints and more sensitive to trim) At a point they will be stressed and can be damaged. I would raise the drive to where you think you can clear the shallow water and see how much more you have to hit the maximum lift angle. I have seen people start their boats with the drive all the way up, but they soon tilt it down to move.
If you have it up, no more than idle, and listen for rattles, you dont want rattles..
I would inspect the ujoints on a regular basis, but you should be able to get by with it. Just dont apply any torque to it in the up position, one mistake and it will surely break or damage it to a point where it will break later.. The lower the better, you be the judge.

Hope this helps..
Dick

Warlock28SXT

The gimbal is made to operate through the "trim" range. Running in the full "trailer" position is very hard on the gimbal. I have run mine into the "trailer" range, a couple bumps of the trailer switch, at idle. I would not go too far into trailer. Have you ever heard someone put their boat in the water and start the motor with the drive up in full trailer, it is a terrible noise which is caused by the gimbal spinning being at a much too aggressive angle for it to spin freely. Hope this helps.

88Fount33

how about trimming the drive up (engine not running) until angle which the bottom of drive is at the same elevation as the bottom of boat. If you have merc. trim gage I would put a little dot of white nail polish on the glass at that point where the pointer is.

Hopefully this point is also within the normal trim range without having to hit the trailer button.

In my opinion Trimming the drive above the bottom of the boat does not protect your props anymore as the hull would hit first.

Also, do you have water pickup in the drive or are they through hull type? If through hull, you need at least 12 inches clearance between the bottom of the pickup and the bottom or you will draw in debris off the bottom into the cooling system.

BigFish

Some of the locals (locos?) do blow through, but I have talked to many locals with years of experience and they all did eventually hit, doing major damage to their boat and lower unit.

Now they idle - did I mention that the channel is only about 30 feet wide and has 3 floaters (2 cans and a nun) in close proximity with a slight dogleg - get out of the channel and you have a foot and half with limestone outcroppings below AND, the floaters are often off position AND you cannot tell anything from the surface since the water is black. It is real unforgiving - even a small mistake will be a big problem (especially at speed) I just want to idle through and get my draft as small as possible