Proper trim?

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Bad Wolf

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I finally put the boat in the water for the first time, mainly to check for leaks before I put the foam and floor back in.
I had to test out the motor though. Now its been 40+ years since I used a small boat so bear with me. On a 14 ft sylvan with a '84 15 hp Johnson, a 80lb battery, 4 gallons of fuel and my fat *** (200 lbs) the bow is way up in the air. I'll try to redistribute the load a little but good part of the time its going to be just me. Which way do I want to adjust the outboard? Do I tilt the prop toward the front or the back? It seems I'd want to move it all the way to the transom and that would force the bow down.

With the bow so high I was afraid to open it up.

Thanks
 
All the way down...to keep the bow down a bit.
If you would have opened it up,it might off flattened out for you.
Small boats like ours,weight distribution is really important,might need more weight in the bow.
 
The question is 'did it get on plane?' You have to push the boat on top of the hill of water you are displacing so you feel like you are going up hill at first.

At rest the front of my hull is about 1" lower than the rear. At speed I have about 3' of the rear of the boat in the water.
 
get it up on plane then trim the boat level- trim in is bow down -- trim out is bow up- - trim in untill it starts to porpus -- then trim out just a little -- make it run flat-

but you need to get up on top of the water first- as you start out the bow will rise - give it more gas lots of gas - it will climb untill the bow drops over flat - them trim your motor for best ride--
 
i just reread you first post - only a 15 horse motor - thats a lot of weight for that small a motor to push to plane -

i have a 16 lowe with a 50 horse Honda - it gets on top right now -
 
I was just thinking that I may want to get a small lawn tractor battery for starting and move the big deep discharge up front. That should help with leveling things out. I'm going to be getting a trolling motor from a friend at work. Do most folks mount the TM up front?
 
I moved my tolling motor and battery to the bow and it helped but I still had to play with the trim to get the bow down where I wanted. Moving the prop toward the boat will help but other users comments, it might hurt your performance and put more stress on the engine. I finally found that the second to the last hole actually moved the prop further toward the boat than the last hole and gave me what I wanted. I have a 10' with a 2.5 hp so performance was not an issue and getting the bow down was my priority.
 
I'd like to sort of hijack this thread and ask if anyone has trim tabs on their tins as previous poster mentioned that our tins usually don't have any powered tilt and trim?

I installed some trim tabs on my glass boat this year and it made a tremendous difference in the hole shot and getting on plane. There is also less water in the boat due to splashing of the bow.

As for my tin, I really don't "speed" in it so I have my battery at mid ship and my GF rides up front with the anchor. It's going to be interesting on our next outing as she has lost a considerable amount of weight recently (points). =D>
 
I have a 14 footer with a 15hp motor I weigh 300 pounds. I have a battery in back and up front, but I have a whale tail on the motor and I come right up on plane and the bow goes right down immediately. Boat goes 17 mph on the gps.
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=321895#p321895 said:
babills » 10 Jul 2013, 21:02[/url]"] I have a whale tail on the motor and I come right up on plane and the bow goes right down immediately. Boat goes 17 mph on the gps.

I was going to suggest this, you beat me to it. On my Starcraft I have the fins and it makes a massive difference. Boat gets on plane almost instantly and steers so smooth and solid. I will be using those on all my boats from now on. Can't actually see a disadvantage to them.

IMG_4700-M.jpg
 
I was going to suggest this said:
The disadvantage is a slight (as in hardly measurable) drag, although not much of an issue as long as the outboard is mounted high enough on the boat to begin with. I have fins like that on both of my boats, and would recommend them for any boat that is back-heavy (mine are slightly overmotorized, ie a bit heavy at the back) or if your boat is slow to plane out for some other reason. Both boats have powertilt/-trim, but the fins make a big difference anyway.

As for the reduced splash, that can go both ways. A splashguard can be real handy if the boat rides a bit wet at the back.
 

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