Jet motor trim angle?

Have a 1754 Mvx tracker grizzly with a 60/40 on it. It runs great at 27-28 topped out which is plenty for me on the river. My question is I’ve been playing with the trim angle and just moved the motor to the last trim hole. It looks to be very tucked in close to the transom. It was set to the second to the last hole before and ran great. Would this help holeshot but drag the foot a little and not get my top end speed? Would it make the boat run flatter? What would to much angle on the foot do performance wise?

Are you talking about the height the motor is mounted (2nd to last hole) or the maximum amount of trim the motor is pulled in? Does your boat porpoise if it's trimmed out too far? I had to add trim wedges to get mine tucked in as far as possible to get rid of the porpoising. If I start to trim it out, you can see the increase in the spray that comes back up over the transom of the boat. If you drop the motor too low, it can lead to too much spray and extra drag. When adjusting the height one bolt hole at a time, the only thing you can do is test it out on the water. I kept going one hole higher until I got too much spray and dropped it back down again. Can you post a picture of where your motor sits showing the foot as it hangs below the bottom of the boat.

Yes I’m talking about the trim holes And not the motor height. It’s in the last trim hole of this mercury. It’s tucked pretty good. I’ve been fishing in the lakes here lately since all the rain has blown the rivers out. I don’t recall an porpoising even coming off plane like my bass boat did. I was just curious on what others experience has told them. I’ll have to test run her being tucked in as far as it can be and see what happens. It just seems like the back of the foot will be dragging more than it was since it’s at more of an angle.

Trimmed in all the way works best for my setup when it's just me in the boat. If I add any people, it usually needs to be trimmed out a little because the extra weight helps keep the bow down usually. When the foot is tucked in farther, it seems like it can get water in easier. But the real issue will still be the spray back. My motor was manual tilt when I first put it on the boat and I still had it tucked in all the way. I'm usually running solo on the river so I never did adjust it manually. I bought a power tilt/trim setup so I can fine tune the positioning and make it easier to tilt but I run it trimmed in all the way. But I also have a tunnel jet hull so I'm mounted higher and splash back is a bigger issue for me.

Here's a picture of my motor trimmed in all the way and you can see the transom wedges as well. There is spray, but it does not come over the back of the boat.

Nice! I guess I’ll just have to run it Tuesday like this and see how she performs. Need to make a spray plate anyways. Thanks for your help!

JL8Jeff said:

Trimmed in all the way works best for my setup when it's just me in the boat. If I add any people, it usually needs to be trimmed out a little because the extra weight helps keep the bow down usually. When the foot is tucked in farther, it seems like it can get water in easier. But the real issue will still be the spray back. My motor was manual tilt when I first put it on the boat and I still had it tucked in all the way. I'm usually running solo on the river so I never did adjust it manually. I bought a power tilt/trim setup so I can fine tune the positioning and make it easier to tilt but I run it trimmed in all the way. But I also have a tunnel jet hull so I'm mounted higher and splash back is a bigger issue for me.

Here's a picture of my motor trimmed in all the way and you can see the transom wedges as well. There is spray, but it does not come over the back of the boat.

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Are you by chance on the Tacoma world forum as well?

GSPdog7 said:

Are you by chance on the Tacoma world forum as well?

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Yes, I'm on there with the same username. If being tucked in too far causes your boat to plow too much, you'll notice it. I think the Tracker is a heavier boat than the Lowe so you might be on the best pin location, but it never hurts to try the other settings. The weight distribution in the boat makes a pretty big difference as well. I moved my console forward and put my battery under it to help get the weight where I wanted it. That helped me reduce the porpoising but I still needed the wedges.

Yeah I’ve seen ya on there before with your jet boat in the boat section. I’m GSPdude7. Small world.

I’m finally starting my back deck extension to cover the splash well area and front console build now so I’ll be doing a lot of tweaking to the jet foot angle and height.

By chance do you know of the mercury controls that you can reverse the cable from forward to reverse? Like you can do either forward and reverse and change them if you rotate the controls. I’m thinking of going with the binnacle flush top mount. Think that looks good. Did you use the 3 turn to lock steering as well?

From what I was reading online, it sounds like the Mercury binnacle controls can be connected either way, push or pull. I haven't seen one in person to verify it, but I'm seeing people say that in quite a few places. I put a binnacle mount on my old Hobie Skiff center console (but that was a 40 hp Johnson motor) and the only real issue was the console was kind of small so when you pushed it forward, my knuckles would hit the windshield on the console. So if you go top mount, check how much range the lever has before deciding where to mount it. It's cleaner than the side mount which I do get snagged on once in a while. If I were to change mine to a binnacle on the Lowe center console, I would need to move the steering wheel over to fit the binnacle and it would still be a tight fit. And then I would have a hole in the console where the wheel is currently mounted. So if you're starting with a new console, you will most likely need the wheel mounted off to the side so there is room for the binnacle. Take your time and plan it out (again, checking for how far forward the throttle lever moves in case you have a windshield or plan on adding one) before you start cutting holes.

My steering is the Safe T track and it appears to be the 3 turns lock to lock. I'm itching to get the boat back in the water, but it was 30 degrees the last 2 mornings and the river is still up a bit so it will have to wait a few more days.

Here's a picture of my Hobie and you can see how the steering wheel was moved over to make room for the binnacle.

I can confirm that on my Mercury binnacle control it can be configured for either push or pull. I've hooked my up backwards more than once.