Silly motor question

I have a silly newbie question. I have a 16 ft Jon and a 20 up evinrude
and was wondering when I am moving at speed should I have the outboard
locked in or free in case I happen to hit something in the water. The reason
I ask is I hit a stump or tree at a slow speed and I thought it was going
to rip the transom off. Now I run it unlocked so it can pop up but when I use
reverse it wants to climb out of the water. Thanks for your responses on advance.

Use it locked... if you hit a stump with it unlocked, you'd be wishing the transom got torn off (assuming its a tiller, your arm would probably get torn off).

Thanks for the quick response. makes sense it just scared the heck out of me when or happened.

dyeguy1212 said:

Use it locked... if you hit a stump with it unlocked, you'd be wishing the transom got torn off (assuming its a tiller, your arm would probably get torn off).

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand. I always run my 15 horse tiller unlocked unless I have to back up. I've hit my share of rocks and stumps and still have both arms attached to my shoulders. When hitting something unlocked, the motor will kick up make lots of noise as it rides up and over whatever it hit. Then you continue on your way. I've never hit anything with it locked down but I imagine lots of damage could be done.

I run mine unlocked as well.
Not sure if it helps,the motor will come flying out the water if you hit something solid.

Mine is unlocked unless I am bactrolling. The lake I was on today goes from 50 fow of water to 6 fow in a few boat lengths. With the ever changing lake levels in our resevoirs, islands and stumps and rockpiles can be above water or disappear from week to week.

I much prefer to kick my motor up than to lose a lower unit. I watched a guy on the local fishing forum take a very expensive part of his 50 hp Yamaha off 2 weeks ago on a lake he fishes quite often. :shock: I had only seen the guy the guy on the interwebthingy prior to that, great circumstances to meet someone in person.

I still have both my arms attached, although they are a little tired after all the bottom bouncing this morning, and pulling in a few 'eyes of course. :lol:

When I fish spring lake here or east point at bannor in central illinois I keep the motor unlocked for the ocassional bumping of a dead tree. These areas are loaded with dead trees and stumps. While it's unlocked if I want to use reverse I just put my hand on top of the motor to keep it from jumping up. If I'm using reverse it almost always a short slow move, so it's not worth locking it down for a few seconds.

I run with it unlocked.

That is why I like my Mercs.In forward it is unlocked,in reverse it is locked.No lever to mess with,done all automatically with shifter.In neutral it is locked also.