Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Just traded in my 2004 180 Four Winns Horizon Bowrider for a 2007 Sweetwater 2380 with a 75 Yamaha 4 stroke. Family is growing and time for something a little more family friendly.

I have had my toon out 3 times and so far I love the room and functionality but am having a bit of a time adjusting to the outboard and trying to set the trim level on the engine. Used to be able to set my I/O by ear but I'm sure I'll get the hange of the OB. But any tips to speed the learning curve would be appreciated.

I'll post pic as soon as I get them downloaded from the camera. I look forward to talking with you guys.

Welcome
Guess you are talking tilt an trim. I have a trim gauge but I seem to watch the tach since that is the way I did on my old toon. Remember when I had my bow rider hitting the trim was like an afterburner, but don't get that effect with the toon even though my hp is the same as the bow rider was. The bow rider had a trim limit switch which you set and it would go so far an stop. Not sure why they stopped making those. Anyway my last two mercs didn't have them. If you wanted to go any higher you would hit the trailer button. That was in the 80's so guess that is old tech now.
doc

Thanks for the Hello!
I have a trim guage too, but it seems to jump as soon as I touch the lever on the throttle making it tough to get a good read on where you really are. On the bottom third of the guage there is a line that I guess is used as a target it seems to run ok there but I was just wanting to make sure i'm optimising performance and fuel useage.

Lake Lanier as expected was pretty busy Memorial day weekend and the water was pretty rough. Im sure that didnt help either in trying to set the trim level. But Sunset cove was jamming as usual. So it was worth the trip from 6 Mile to the cove.

Welcome to the best group of people.

Frank

The Trim Guage for me is only reference when I am starting the boat or shallow water and such. As far as trimming the boat while running that is RPM and Speed. All the way down starting out and then trim it up and watch the RPM climb to the desired WOT RPM and haul as fast as it will go.

Just have to find the spot where your prop has bite, I couldn't tell you where my trim sets while running, its just a feel, where ever it runs at peak performance for conditions and load.

Every single boat combination will be different. weight of the boat, poeple on it, motor brand, HP, prop brand and pitch, water conditions, etc. If you have a GPS unit that tells you speed in 1/10ths, you can watch it as you tilt and if it goes faster, keep going till it starts decreasing again. no other "gauge" needed really.

And WELCOME! By the way I really dont get the Pirate qoute, can you help a brother out?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPYNL5io ... re=related

This should clear things up for ya on the pirate quote.

Scary1 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPYNL5io ... re=related

This should clear things up for ya on the pirate quote.

You must be a parrot head like my wife chillin in Margaritaville!

I have found that running the engine parallel to the bottom is about as good as I can get with my 24' boat and a 115 hp Yamaha. I'm running a 20" bass boat motor, and will still have cavitation when too many people get on the nose of the boat.

Sometimes I just have to ask some of the people to move to the back--when the boat won't go.

I don't think that moving the motor any higher will result in any improvement in performance--like you would see on a full hulled inboard outboard boat. I seldom even adjust my power trim.

Your specific boat will handle its own specific way, one reason why old sailers referred to ships and "she" since they seem to be as temperamental as females. Plus, they both need paint to keep looking pretty and you can usually tell the best ones by looking from behind...
Okay, I KNOW I'm in trouble withour feminine members, but I meant that in an admiring way.
My barge makes its best speed when I trim it down and get as much log in the water as possible. Seems strange, but it does not plane so I trim it like I did the sailing catamarans that I used to race. I can trim the boat up to raise the bow for rougher water, and it feels like it is going faster, but the GPS shows a half knot decrease.
Keep in mind, my toon is different from yours. You need to find what works for your setup.