Aluminum thickness for jack plate?

Here's the deal... the sides on my boat are only 13" tall and i have a short shaft johnson 9.9 hanging off the back right now. I was looking at the TH marine mini jacker but i think i could build one for wayyy cheaper! i saw that specknreds used 1/4" thick 2x3 angle on his jack plate to hold his 40hp yamaha. Locally, i only have 1/8" thick aluminum angle... since my 9.9 is alot lighter than his 40 horse could i use this to build mine? i figure if the pieces are less than a foot long and since they double up one one side that this might work... help me out quick guys, parts for my boat are stuck somewhere in the snow in little rock and i need a weekend project!!!

I just built a jackplate for my boat and used 1/4" (20 HP). I would not build one with less. On another note, if I did it again I would just buy one. Bobs Machine Shop has a nice one for around $130 I think.

I got a new TH marine mini jacker on ebay for $42 includimg shipping.

lckstckn2smknbrls said:

I got a new TH marine mini jacker on ebay for $42 includimg shipping.

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Lucky dog, they were $75 when I was shopping!

They're even more than that now! That's why im just gonna build one lol...

IIRC Bass pro has them in the $75 range.

ive been looking at them... but how much can they actually raise a motor? i know they set it back further but im not really looking for that, i just need it to go up... wayyy up!

this is the only pic i have with the motor attached... ill try to get another today.

With the TH mini jacker you can get close to 9" of lift.

Thanks lckstckn! I was worried about raising it up too much and not having much of the mounting side (the side that bolts to the transom) against the transom and it tweaking the transom... its not as thick as the boats made nowadays. But looking at it on a boat i think i'll be ok. Im adding pods too so that will stiffen it up too!

The plan going on in my head right now is telling the girlfriend that i wanna do valentine's day stuff tonight and taking her to memphis to eat (1 hour away) on the condition that i get to go to BPS while were there! I have to work on Monday anyway so it works out nicely! 8)

well... bass pro had one and i picked it up along with some yum plastics that were on sale! Ended up spending 100 bucks even and met one of my heroes and getting his autograph...BILL DANCE!!! i bought a booyah spinnerbait just for him to autograph!

One thing I didn't realize was that with the 4" setback you can raise the motor an extra inch. I need to raise the jack plate so I can do away with the wooden spacer you see in the pictures.