Power tilt & trim vs gas assist

Oh I fully understand your reasoning for your questions. The truth is I haven't hit anything. At the lake I don't worry bout hitting anything. I run couple of different rivers and there are big boulders but I can see them. The river I run the most the shallow spots are gravel. I glad to have power trim. Did not have it on other motors I have had so when I bought this one it had it and I love it. If my new motor would not have had I still would have purchased it.


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There are times when I'd like power trim for being able to fine tune for speed when I'm running a open stretch. But the kick up of the gas assist saves my intake a lot of times when hitting logs or rocks has been unavoidable. I've switched to a rock proof intake for more insurance I like it so far it takes a hit pretty well. I've had my motor kick up on me plenty when I've slid over a log or hit something I've never had my tiller hit me. But then again I have a storage box going along the side of my boat that I sit on so I'm not in the middle.

Well a call to Mercury about the specs on their website has proved there is a misprint. The person I talked to told me the Merc 60/40 jet only comes with power tilt/trim and I double checked on their brochure online and it states power tilt/trim only.

My guess is, once you run it and get used to the power trim, you will wonder how you ever got by without it.

My boat is heavy and I have had it since August 2002. In that time I have busted 2 shoes. The first one was on the 115 running at night when I hit some chunk rock. The second time was with the 250 on the big rock on my video, it was a sideways hit. I have had numerous straight on hits over the years, rocks, stumps, and logs, several hard hits. Most times it will just scrape off paint, put a small gouge here or there, and bend the grates.

Running shallow you will take an occasional hit, but if it is set up right most times it will slide on over like it is designed to do. Those shoes are tough, mine has 500 lbs of motor weight setting on top of it.

dhoganjr said:

My guess is, once you run it and get used to the power trim, you will wonder how you ever got by without it.

My boat is heavy and I have had it since August 2002. In that time I have busted 2 shoes. The first one was on the 115 running at night when I hit some chunk rock. The second time was with the 250 on the big rock on my video, it was a sideways hit. I have had numerous straight on hits over the years, rocks, stumps, and logs, several hard hits. Most times it will just scrape off paint, put a small gouge here or there, and bend the grates.

Running shallow you will take an occasional hit, but if it is set up right most times it will slide on over like it is designed to do. Those shoes are tough, mine has 500 lbs of motor weight setting on top of it.

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Agree to all this.


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With gas assist and not having a tiller to help with pulling on a 60/40 Merc is tilting up to clean the grate a bear? Can you do it just by pulling on the cowling or is that too much work too often on some rivers where stuff gets clogged often? I like the idea of the motor kicking up but not all the way into the rear deck passenger. Does the built in impact assist on the Merc power T & T really help with hard hits without the motor coming up too far as it seems can happen on gas assist and let you get to the shoe for cleaning a lot easier plus all the fine tuning benefits? Sounds like the best compromise having never seen one but wanting this particular motor for next rig. I assume the factory set back is a lot less than an aftermarket power unit....is that accurate? On a custom boat is there an ideal transom height for this motor on a tunnel hull for getting the most out of fine tuning?

I weigh 150 lbs and have a short shaft 60/45 Mercury 2 stroke and I had to put both feet against the transom and then pull up on the cowling(hood) to tilt it up and lock it. It wasn't that big of a deal since the gas assist would help once you got started tilting. Once in a while, if I wasn't paying attention it would come up short and then go back down and tilt me up. I'm not sure how much the gas assist absorbs an impact, I have a tunnel and I've never hit anything.

Sounds like gas assist is not an option anyway oo it's power for me plus I know that four stroke outweighs your two. I'm glad riverbottom clarified that caused it struck me as opposite too till I read his reasoning. How many of you guys are using aftermarket poly shoes and can you still get one for the 60/40 Merc? Seems I read the guy making them stopped.

I have one of the rockproof UHMW intakes I bought only a few months ago you just have to call rock proof boats might have to leave a message or try again. They aren't a huge shop with someone at the phone all the time. I have a older 60/40 two stroke merc. The four strokes still use the same outboard jet as the old ones they just have a different drive shaft too fit the four strokes so my extra AG model outboard jet I have for parts I could buy a new drive shaft for it and bearing rebuild kit cause it would need to be used again put the new stuff in it and it could go on a new four stroke. So the rock proof intake should work on your four stroke. I don't know where abouts you live but if your close or ever close to me you can check mine out.