Motor for a Tracker 1542 and jackplate??

[Kylez106]

Hey all, this is my first post here! So my dad and I have a tracker 1542, it currently only has a 55lb thrust rear mount trolling motor because most of the lakes around us are electric motors only or less than 10horse.

Our boat has a 17ish inch transom and I'm looking at some used 9.9 hp motors. I'm basically assuming at this point I need a short shaft for this boat? But here is my other question.. I live in NEPA and would love to fish and hunt waterfowl on the Susquehanna river here. To do that I figure I'd need a jackplate like the TH Marine Mini Jacker to bring the motor up a few inches. What I'm not sure of is how far is too far.. I'm not trying to run the boat in 3 inches of water and would still like good performance on lakes. But I also don't want to bust a lower unit off on something.. I'm just getting a tad overwhelmed with all the variables to take into consideration with this and these concepts are new to me.

In a perfect world I'd love to get a 25 or 15 jet on it but finding a used one is near impossible...

Please if anyone has first hand experience or ideas please let me know!

~Kyle

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[turbotodd]

Basically, you set up the jack plate initially on the low side, then head to the lake. You're going to run the boat around and then head back to the ramp, observe (feel, hear, see?) how it operates with the motor at whatever height. Adjust the jackplate, raising it a little each time, then re-test. At some point, you'll find that making a turn under throttle is going to "blow out" (or ventilate), and that's about as high as you're going to be able to run.

Ideally you'd "tune" with a water pressure gauge but in my years of messing around, I've never seen anyone actually do it. The higher you move the motor, you get to a point where cooling system water pressure drops off.

I'm building a jack plate as we speak for mine. Unfortunately I also have to remove some cabinets from the garage in order for the boat to fit with the plate, so it's turned into more of a project than I wanted; but the cabinets are junk anyway and need to come out.

One thing about jackplates and motor height. You may find yourself needing a higher pitch prop. Why? Because a standard no cupping 3 blade prop will only run so high before it ventilates. Then you're done. A lot of times adding cup to the blades will help run slightly higher before blowout. Then the RPM starts coming up, so you may need to move to a higher pitch (or add cup). If you're not in any hurry, you can run a 4 blade prop which runs a little higher without blowing out. It also runs smoother, gets on plane quicker, and stays on plane at a lower RPM. I like them for running shallow with a jack plate, even on the little 9.9 that I used to run on a 1430 flat bottom.

 

[wmk0002]

Basically, you set up the jack plate initially on the low side, then head to the lake. You're going to run the boat around and then head back to the ramp, observe (feel, hear, see?) how it operates with the motor at whatever height. Adjust the jackplate, raising it a little each time, then re-test. At some point, you'll find that making a turn under throttle is going to "blow out" (or ventilate), and that's about as high as you're going to be able to run.

Ideally you'd "tune" with a water pressure gauge but in my years of messing around, I've never seen anyone actually do it. The higher you move the motor, you get to a point where cooling system water pressure drops off.

I'm building a jack plate as we speak for mine. Unfortunately I also have to remove some cabinets from the garage in order for the boat to fit with the plate, so it's turned into more of a project than I wanted; but the cabinets are junk anyway and need to come out.

One thing about jackplates and motor height. You may find yourself needing a higher pitch prop. Why? Because a standard no cupping 3 blade prop will only run so high before it ventilates. Then you're done. A lot of times adding cup to the blades will help run slightly higher before blowout. Then the RPM starts coming up, so you may need to move to a higher pitch (or add cup). If you're not in any hurry, you can run a 4 blade prop which runs a little higher without blowing out. It also runs smoother, gets on plane quicker, and stays on plane at a lower RPM. I like them for running shallow with a jack plate, even on the little 9.9 that I used to run on a 1430 flat bottom.

I was actually doing some web searching last week to see if anyone with a tiller setup had a water pressure gauge. Didn't find any surprisingly.