Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Dont I wish...

Anyway looking to put a new motor on the toon. Had it in my mind that I needed a 20inch shaft. My mechanic thought a 25 inch would be better since it would get all the hydraulic tilt equip completely out of the water. I boat in salt water.

Sounds like a good idea. However not sure I like the idea of a jack plate or completely reconfig the trasom to account for the 5 inch difference.

Any thoughts...?????

If your transom is built for a 20", It would be alot of trouble to properly modify it to accept a 25" but a 25 will definately get the motor up out of the spray better.

The jackplate will only give you about 2 1/2 to 3" realistically, because of the offset of the transom and the fact that you get 5" of travel, and the set back of the jackplate putting the motor behind the boat, farther. I love jackplates, but not for your purpose. Premier makes a 5" spacer kit for both the 30 and 36inch PTX's. That may be able to be cut to your transom width. Its on the website in the parts section. I really don't think it would be hard to fab one up, though. Make a 5" box the same width and weld it on, re-inforce it from the inside, just outside the motor mount holes and add a couple gussets. If you lived close to me, I'ld be happy to whip it out for you! I love custom work!

rbiederwolf wrote:Dont I wish...

Anyway looking to put a new motor on the toon. Had it in my mind that I needed a 20inch shaft. My mechanic thought a 25 inch would be better since it would get all the hydraulic tilt equip completely out of the water. I boat in salt water.

Sounds like a good idea. However not sure I like the idea of a jack plate or completely reconfig the trasom to account for the 5 inch difference.

Any thoughts...?????

If your happy with the performance with your 20" why not go with something that you can be sure about?

Rick: You made great improvement to your boat when you added the third factory toon.

Just go with a higher horsepower motor of the same length as what you've got on it. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the improvement in speed, as Tahoes are first class hulls.

We just seldom see jack plates on pontoons/tritoons. One major manufacturer warned a customer online about additional stress that jackplates can place on a transom--especially if a 10" setback unit. They wouldn't warranty a transom with one mounted.

Sometimes keeping things simple are the best way.

I had to install a jack-plate on our boat simply because I had the opportunity to purchase a new crate motor at a price I simply couldn't pass up. Though they call my unit a jack plate in reality the term is stretching things IMHO. It's all manually adjusted and a person wouldn't be changing anything on the water.
As you can see I probably achieved five inches in elevation with the jack plate and was able to utilize the 25" shaft motor on out boat. But if I could have had the 20 in shaft for the same bargain price I wouldn't have bothered fooling around with the jack-plate.

Avalon dealer, says he sees no reason not to run a 25 inch shaft. He does on his boat with no issues. He has it mounted in the lower mounting bracket holes to raise motor about 2-3 inches.

He maintains that for a pontoon that may be a little nose heavy with couches ( and passengers) the extra couple of inches in the water makes sure that the engine will not slip. He does admit you lose a couple of mph, but with a larger motor it does not really matter.

I think I may agree with this as a 150hp was going to be enough juice. However if I could find a used 225 that has a 25inch shaft, it may be worth it
.

BTW the only reason I am considering a 25 inch is that I can find them used. Seems in South Florida there are not a whole lot of good used higher HP motors for sale. When you narrow the search to a 20in shaft there are not any. Thus I was thinking outside the box. If I can get a great deal on a used motor, but is a 25inch shaft is it worth the extra headaches to get it to work?? New Yammy 150hp $11,500 plus rigging. Used yammy 225hp in the $8000 range plus rigging

My local Merc dealer is selling the new 150 hp Merc Four Stroke for $10,020. And no sales taxes are charged for out of state delivery. You may can use your same controls on a Merc.--saving $.

Just in passing here, both Yamaha and a couple of dealers stated that the motor hast to be mounted high enough to get the oil pan / tank clear of the water. Failure to do so will cause the oil to remain to cool and disallow the motor to run within the temperature range it was designed to perform within. As mounted my oil plug is about an inch above the water line and the reservoir is just above the plug so I'm thinking I wouldn't really want mine any lower per the advise I received from the sources above.